In its new report, JPR estimates that 20 million PC gamers could “defect” to TV gaming platforms between 2019 and 2022. Most of the people moving from PC gaming to TV gaming platforms (consoles as well as TV-compatible streaming services) will be those on low-end gaming PCs. However, “improvements in TV displays and console semiconductors” as well as console exclusive games means that some mid-range and high-end PC gamers may jump ship, too.
This isn’t the only thing that could cause people to leave PC gaming, however. JPR’s definition of TV gaming platforms is for local platforms (such as games consoles) as well as cloud-based services like the Google Stadia or Apple Arcade, which does work with Apple TV. “In the next five years, we will see potential customers with access to TV gaming swell by hundreds of millions,” writes Ted Pollak, JPR’s senior analyst of the gaming industry.
There are an estimated 1.22 billion PC gamers in the world, which means that it would take many years for PC gaming to properly “die”. JPR’s analysis says that this many customers will have “access” to TV gaming, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will sign-up and leave their gaming computers behind.
Better Internet speeds would provide access to streaming services, but those who fear that games will be removed from game libraries (and become unavailable to stream) will likely still want to download and play. Those who don’t want to pay a monthly subscription and would prefer to pay for and keep the games they want have the potential to also avoid signing up.
Sometimes analysts get it wrong. Games industry analyst Michael Pachter once said that console gaming will be dead by 2020, though Sony has confirmed that it is working on the PS5, destroying that theory. Analysts have also said that the PS5 will launch in 2019 and analysts once said that mobile gaming would kill both PC gaming and console gaming.
However, it would naive to think that game streaming services and exclusive games won’t have some sort of effect on how people buy and access games. If it wasn’t expected to make a difference, then companies wouldn’t be putting billions of dollars into their development. That said, though, we will have to wait and see what the future holds for PC gaming.
Source: Jon Peddie Research
