PC Games Market Much Stronger Than Consoles Say Industry Analysts

The brains over at DFC Intelligence have produced forecasts pointing towards the continued, if not completely exponential growth of the video games industry.

The reports say that the industry can be expected to grow from $67 billion this year to $82 billion in 2017. The forecast includes everything from dedicated console games and hardware as well as PC games, tablets and mobile platforms like the iPhone and the Android.

The forecast comes in spite of the flatlining sales of the console market in recent months, with systems that have since begun to show their age. The report points out that the next generation of consoles will be help these markets to regain their momentum.

“New console systems from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony are expected to help the console segment regain some momentum in the 2014 to 2015 timeframe,” said DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole. “However, the steadiest area of growth is on the PC and mobile side.”

Despite the popularity of consoles over the PC in the US market, Cole says that the PC gaming market is in fact much stronger due to its popularity elsewhere.

“The U.S. is actually relatively weak for PC and mobile devices, but in many global markets PC and mobile devices are the only platform,” said Cole.