14 DAY TRIAL // The PC has been condemned by quite a lot of developers and analysts to a slow and painful death at the hands of piracy and low sales. But the PC Gaming Alliance has proven to us that companies which bring their titles onto this platform can make a decent profit.
The PC sales charts of this week showcase some of the companies that are making quite a lot of money from PC games, with old favorites Blizzard and Maxis, creators of World of Warcraft, and the Spore and Sims franchises, still managing to move those titles like the proverbial hot cakes.
Sega is going strong with the its latest strategy game, Empire: Total War, while Relic Entertainment is still present with its Dawn of War II title on the number four spot in both the NPD retail chart and the Steam one.
Speaking of Valve's Steam, you can clearly see a predilection of gamers to buy titles from the company as it has not one, not two, but five titles in the top ten, with the latest title, Left 4 Dead, spearheading the chart.
Direct2Drive on the other hand, is dominated by EA's recently released card-based RTS, BattleForge. Strategy games are also present here, as Red Alert 3: Uprising, Empire: Total War and even the older Rome: Total War occupy decent positions and still manage to make a profit for the companies responsible for them.
NPD Sales Charts March 15-21
1. Empire: Total War 2. Wrath of the Lich King 3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe 4. Dawn of War II 5. WoW Battle Chest 6. World Of Warcraft 7. The Sims 2 Apartment Life 8. Spore 9. Civilization IV 10. Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst
Steam Sales Charts as of April 2
1. Left 4 Dead 2. Empire: Total War 3. Counter-Strike Source 4. Dawn of War II 5. The Orange Box 6. Call of Duty 4 7. Team Fortress 2 8. Fallout 3 9. Counter-Strike 10. Grand Theft Auto IV
Direct2Drive Charts March 22-28
1. BattleForge 2. Defense Grid: The Awakening 3. Final Fantasy XI Vana'diel Collection 4. Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising 5. Men of War 6. Empire: Total War 7. Fallout 3 8. Rome: Total War 9. HAWX 10. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe.
All in all, things are going very well for the PC platform and hopefully will remain like this for quite some time, forcing developers that only bring their games to consoles to take a look at the PC in the future.