A Gamer Plays 'Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare' On An Xbox One Console During The Xbox Play Day 2014, Before The Gamescom 2014 Fair In Cologne
IN PHOTO: A gamer plays "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" on an Xbox One console during the Xbox Play Day 2014, before the Gamescom 2014 fair in Cologne August 12, 2014. The Gamescom convention, Europe's largest video games trade fair, is open to the public from August 14 to 17. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

The gaming industry could very soon witness a plunge in the demand for video game consoles. Data procured by market research firm, Price Water House Cooper (PwC) reveals, sales generated by PC games are all set to surpass the sales of video game consoles, according to reports.

Sales of PC games are likely to reach $29 billion around the world by the end of 2016, compared with console market sales that will reach $28 billion, globally and over the coming years, the gap will broaden considering the growing popularity of PC based games in countries like India and China, reports CNET.

The video game industry is undergoing rapid changes with tablets, smartphones and set top boxes changing the way video games are played and how users pay for them. "You could have said 10 years ago that there were three major platforms: Console, PC and Web," the CNET report quoted  Brian Blau, an analyst with research firm Gartner, as saying. "Now you have TV streamers, mobile devices -- you even have watches today. There's so many more types of devices to play games,” Blau explained.

According to a report on Shack News, PCs are best suited for massive sized role-playing and action games. The PC game line up displayed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) offers a lot of diversity.

The Reason Behind The Change

Most of the games for the PCs are sold through an app and website named ‘Steam’, as per the CNET report. The service that is partly a social network and partly an online store is offered by Game maker ‘Valve’. Steam is quite popular for its features like the capability to synchronize game files across different PCs, semiregular discount and sales bundles. Steam service lures a lot of game developers who can test their ideas or crowdfund new projects, reports CNET.

Another reason that is favouring PCs is ‘e-sports’, which is a competitive gaming between highly trained professional gamers. According to market research firm IDC, consumers purchased about 30 million units of the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Wii U, whereas, more than 308 million PCs were sold worldwide last year. As per PwC, the PC market will garner $21.8 billion in such sales, while the console market will generate only $2.4 billion by the end of 2015, reports CNET.

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