This is a repost from my Desura blogs published on Feb 4th, 2014
14th Blog:
The number of active Steam users since October 2013, has increased by a whopping 10 million users, reaching 75 million total active users and eclipsing Microsoft's Xbox Live total of near 50 million active users.
More information can be found here:
Joystiq.com
and news for the month of October 2013:
Theverge.com
In 2013 the total number of active users on Steam had increased by a massive 30 percent.
Currently, the Playstation Network has over 110 million active users and far in the lead.
But what does this mean for Steam? It is tells us that more and more people are showing a greater interest in PC gaming. This is a very big and promising change. The library of PC games is overtaking the number of console games. Gamers like variety and new ideas which is why Steam and Desura are so important because they help to introduce and bring us fresh ideas from Indie developers and games.
We are also seeing more popular Publishers bringing popular games to PC: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Ducktales, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst and other great games that could have only been found on consoles before. And also with the next gen consoles now practically running full PC hardware, you can see better game port overs to PC as well. :)
Also, PC games are more affordable. and if the price is not right, you can just wait for a sale which happens quite often on Steam (total wallet killing sale events), Desura, GamersGate, GreenManGaming, GoG and other sites. And lets not forget about bundle sites like Humble, Indie Royale, Bundle Stars, etc. that sell games practically dirt cheap. Now try going to GameStop and see if they have deals like that. Even their used games are still expensive and chances are you will not even be able to register their used games for online play because it most likely is registered to its previous owner. And speaking of online play, you can still play games online like COD, DOTA2, etc, without paying a premium monthly cost on PC unlike Xbox Live Gold and PSN+.
PC gaming also has a big community of gamers who help contribute to create patches, upgrades and great mods for games that you just can't find on console games. A perfect example is Oblivion and Skyrim with the amazing realistic mods. I personally, also find the PC gaming community more friendly and helpful than on console gaming communities. :)
I see 2014 being a very good year for PC gaming.
On a side note: Anyone else looking forward to the release of South Park: The Stick of Truth? :D
