Germany PC gaming is tops

[tom]

Went through various big multi stores yesterday, eg 'Media Markt', 'Saturn', 'Klein'....etc the German equivalents of USA 'Sears' perhaps.
Asked around about console gaming, and in most shops the Wii sells very little (everyone's expecting more gimmicks, nothing available), PS3 sells even less (expensive), with only the 360 selling best in the console department.

The sales assistants mentioned that in Germany the PC comes out tops again, with PC hardware sales at an all-time high, and PC games selling by the bucketload.

I have to admit, during the 80s was C64/FDD the absolute German gaming leader, late 80s/early 90s it was Amiga, since then nothing can topple the mighty PC.

[smork]

Well, for me in the US in the late 80s early 90s gaming was all about PC gaming for me. Now, not so much, considerign the costs of getting a nice gaming rig, etc.

I suspect one reason there might be more PC games sold in Europe than console games is the ridiculous prices they expect PAL gamers to pay for hardware and software. If I was expected to pay 425 pounds for a PS3 then 50 pounds for a game I'd probably go the PC route as well.

I'm in Australia for work now -- I see many new 360 games go for over A$100 -- to me, that's just shocking. I can't see paying that amount for a new game, especially not when you can get a PC game for much cheaper.

Fortunately I have an Asian 360 and games are super cheap new :)

[Willem]

well the Wii sells badly in Europe because the stores get a little amount of consoles every two weeks or something. the Dutch Media Markt stores, more compared to Wallmart, get around 5-6 Wii consoles every two weeks, so yeah it's sells badly, because the demand is much higher than the offer. everywhere you find lots of PS3's and Xbox 360's on the shelves. Wii is miuch harder to find.

[Cryomancer]

Odd, I thought Germany censored the hell out of anything that had you shooting at people.

[tom]

Odd, I thought Germany censored the hell out of anything that had you shooting at people.

You're right, in Germany many PC (and console) games get censored, or what they call: put on the index (games can be sold, but not advertised, not to be sold under 18s, not to be reviewed in the gaming press; up to this day approx 400 games are on 'the index'):

http://www.highgames.com/?set=indexlist&view=all&read=done

but PC (or even console) gamers in Germany wouldn't even know if they are censored in the first place.

[kedawa]

I would imagine the censorship actually gives PC gaming an edge over consoles, since a PC is a PC is a PC, regardless of whether it's in germany or not. There's nothing stopping germans from installing uncensored american games on their PC, and there's a certain appeal to playing something that your overbearing government doesn't want you to have.

[Chris]

but PC (or even console) gamers in Germany wouldn't even know if they are censored in the first place.

Why wouldn't they?
And if a game is cencored, it's easy to get ahold of uncensored versions from UK or Austria.