Traditional PC game sales plummet in the USA
Down 14% on 2007
2008 totals have this week been unleashed by sales monitors NPD stateside, and while the statistics make good reading for Nintendo - the PC platform endured a 12 months to forget... maybe.
According to NPD's data, PC game sales dropped 14% during the year, and for traditional retailers like Gamestop, Amazon and EB this would have been keenly felt, but as NPD point out, this isn't the full story.
NPD's numbers don't account for game sales through services like Steam, the EA Store, or Direct2Drive, and given the rapid surge in the popularity of these sales platforms, it is plausible that the PC platform isn't dying in the manner some have suggested.
Sales of games through Steam have rocketed in the last year particularly, and while the impact of piracy can't be discounted, a 14% fall certainly isn't indicative of the real situation, even if the format does have something of an image problem, especially in the eyes of some publishers.
What are your thoughts on the PC as a games machine?

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