90% of Beth's customers are NOT console players. Were this true, Beth would be focusing on the PC and selling the game hard on PC to grow their install base. I say that as a business minor, knowing a fair deal about marketing and running a company. You do not grow a company by catering to your largest install base. You more or less disregard them and give them the bare minimum they will cope with. Why? So you can focus on smaller markets where sales are not as strong, such as consoles. http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2010/04/19/hear-that-knocking-sound-its-pc-gaming/ and including mmos and free-to-play dwarfs both combined, since the Wii is the most successful console console by a fair margin.

Secondly, various companies in the industry have repeatedly stated that the vast majority of their revenue comes from consoles. This is partly true. Console gaming represents 57% of gaming revenue globally. Wait, what? 57%? Split three ways? Yeah, no. PC Gaming takes up the entire other 43%. It is the absolute strongest platform. "PC gaming is limping." is a popular lie spread by the console companies and their partners, such as Epic, Bungie, etc. It is not too far of a throw to say that BGS is in on this, since they do give 360 exclusive DLC for a while.

Essentially, Intel's study shows that Todd's "90%" is patently untrue. Some games do sell poorly on PC compared to console, but BGS games have so many reasons to buy the PC versions that this cannot be the case. Pete backing him up on it is pretty much just as bad, because the actual numbers probably put total console sales ahead by a little, but with PC having a much larger share than either console alone. This post is essentially a demand for Todd to redact this statement or back his "90%" up with actual sale figures from Oblivion and Fallout 3, because that figure has done a lot of damage on these boards and is most likely very far from any kind of truth.

Also, before saying "Intel's making it up, they want PC gaming up," remember that Intel manufactures the CPU used in the Xbox 360, and most likely the next-gen Xbox as well.

Actually, it's apparently an IBM chip. Shows me not to double check. That said, only marketing would know the real figures, and Pete said, "I wouldn't be surprised if they were close to that." meaning that this statement did not come from actual figures, but is probably more from general assumptions about the industry. If Pete / Todd were speaking from real figures, Pete would have said something like, "Actually, they are close to that, console sales accounted for 8more than 80% of Fallout 3's sales."

tl:dr: Beth's sales on PC probably outweigh 360 & PS3 individually, or come very close. If this needs to be moved elsewhere that's okay. It's only here because the original "90%" comment was in relation to Skyrim.

Looks like someone's feelings were hurt.

Shouldn't be in the Skyrim section.

ummmmmmmm.....good for you? :mellow:

I find it interesting you belive you know about the Bethesda sales better than those who work there.

No, they don't. Xbox 360 is powered by an IBM CPU, not an Intel CPU. That's at least one thing you wrote that is wrong.

Agree. I've also sourced this same study posted on the intel site. Link is in my signature. I'll also continue to source it every-time someone says there are more console gamers then pc gamers.

Something you left out though, was that PC games are projected to reach over 50% market share within 4-5 years.

Its not 90% but its still a fairly high number. Some people don't have the extra thousand bucks to spend on a PC so they opt for the cheaper consoles. Since more people go for consoles, it makes sense for Beth to cater more to their larger fanbase. Plus PC users have mods so they have a distinct advantage over console gamers.

Lock this,

besides this is gonna be a flame war imo

Corrected.

EDIT: Why would a business "focus on smaller markets where sales are not as strong"? Isn't it more profitable to put effort where the money is?

I honestly dont see what this has to do with skyrim

Nits! They must be picked!

You already have them. You'll get their money anyways, unless you screw up. So you go after the weaker markets in an effort to bring them in, thus increasing your overall profitability.

Its called PR and marketing talk, don't let it get to you <3 just smile and nod. buy the game and you will potentially NOT be the less joyful in playing the game.
a more notable comment from Todd was him giving reasoning for not waiting for the next line of Consoles, saying the only benefit is graphics and that walled cities aren't that big a deal, that "walking in seamless through a gate is no different from watching a loadingscreen after activating the gate."

P.S your thread whipped up a ****storm, brace yourself.

Makes sense to me now, assuming that the money from a console majority market is assured. However I don't think "focusing on the PC and selling the game hard on PC" would be the way to go. Maybe it's just the OP's wording :confused:

Well you have to accept the fact times are changing. Games are shorting and more focus on graphics. Then story and game play. Take Morrowind which was heavy with game play and story. While Oblivion was more graphic and focus on ragdolls physics. You saw how boring the story was in oblivion and how everything was dumbed down.

This is because games companies are tring to increase their market not only to hard core gamers but to casual games. Even non gamers. Like old people and stay at home parents.

This is what console are there for. People sending more money on life then games. So they belive the console is the cheap way to go or lazy people that do not bother researching the info on what to buy. When people say PC gaming is dieing that show that they are ether miss infromed. Want their friends to join them/Increase the community for said console. They could just be in Denial.

Oblivion was made for lazy casual players that do not have 100 hours to complete a game. While morrowind was made for the hardcoe fans.

Beth is just tring to svcker as many people that have never even heard of Elder Scrolls to come on and play it.

Bethesda already has a lock on the PC market with the most extensive modding capability in gaming history. No amount of PC exclusive tech is going to bring more people to the trough than that.

What he said. Agreed.

They can lie if they want. I`m happy as long as the game is on the PC. There was, however, some guy asking Bethesda Softworks to not bring out Skyrim on the PC because then the console variant gets less bugfixes. I don`t think he realised that the consoles are the ones who are making the game worse. We get walled cities and possibly no levitation because of the limitations on the consoles. Also if you`re worrying about bugs, then why are you playing on a console in the first place? There are great unofficial patches made by fans that can be used on the PC.

Do you really think adding the full capabilities of DX11 will bring in more PC users? I bet you that there will be more PC sales for Skyrim than Oblivion. You're still going to buy the game regardless if it doesn't have your perfect graphics. So there's no point in wasting your mental and physical energy spawning threads like these, Bethesda won't change a thing, you'll buy the game and you'll still be able to mod...

Be happy!

I'd also like to point out that I think Devs know the "general sales of their games, and if Todd says that 90% sold on console, then it's more than likely 75%-90%, he just rounded to the biggest number to emphasize how little money they get compared to consoles. And don't tell me that "They should focus on the PC more cuz they get mo money lulz." They already did. DX11 capabilities... And the....CK...What more do you want? It's multiplatform, if you want the PC version to be perfect, then that means denying the game for console users.

You should be grateful that they're at least giving you the CK and you'll have DX11 capabities so modders can add the features in.....

I could go on for a long time, but I'm tired, and I sense a lock. Night.

Presume that, statistics (and potentially false ones at that) notwithstanding, it's the PC players who are Beth's most dependable market, simply because of mods (hardly a day goes by on the Oblivion forums without at least one post from somebody who mentions how he used to play the game on a console, but then got the PC version and discovered how wonderful mods are).

Presume that Beth is counting on PC players to buy the game anyway, since PC players know that even if it's garbage, it can be modded into playability (an assertion that's regularly made about Oblivion - "If it wasn't for mods.....").

Further, presume that they're thus focusing their attention on the potentially weaker console market, since console players are actually the ones more likely to decide not to buy the game after all if it turns out to be a disappointment.

And suddenly, all of their seemingly pro-console/anti-PC rhetoric all makes sense.

What? :unsure:

If we assume that the 10% figure is even in the realm of being close to true that is a fairly horrible showing in PC sales for a GotY title, speaking to Oblivion. They barely scratched the surface of the PC market, how exactly do they have a lock on it?

I agree with the OP though. If their PC numbers were really that bad, we'd be seeing a large push in their marketing talking up how "much improved" the PC experience would be this time around. Since we aren't seeing that (quite the opposite in fact) I have to assume one of two things: Either that number isn't close to accurate or no one at Beth has any business sense. Since I'd rather not assume they are incompetent, I'll go with the number not being accurate.

I have a very hard time believing both Todd and Pete said that for no good reason.

I'd rather assume that and be wrong, doubtful as that may be, than assume the alternative and be right. :thumbsup:

Isn't that a third hand quote? I don't believe that can be officially quoted any where on the web can it?

U mad OP? Did someone hurt your feelings?