[uk_john]

@Hivetyrant, it's very difficult to separate console sales from PC sales when it's a multiformat release. I believe the 4.7 million you mention is what Fallout 3 sold on console AND pc in the first month of it's release.

CD Red Projekt have stated that STALKER has sold 4 million copies on PC, and I am inclined to believe them more than a Bethesda.

In general, if a game gets a lot of hype in the North American gaming media, it is assumed by many, not just in North America, that that title sold very very well. But North American media is very nationalistic. Major North American publishers like Blizzard, Bethesda and Valve seldom get any review score under 9.0. Equally games from major European publishers seldom get review scores of 9.0. This North American media has no idea what unit sales games get in Western Europe, let alone Eastern Europe or the far East.

If that 4.7 million for Fallout 3 is that first month's sales figures for all formats, I believe Bethesda did state that around 1 million of those were on PC.

Generally, as a rough figure, if you know a game came out on PC, PS3 and 360 and sold 5 million copies all together, you can assume PC sales are going to account for around 20% of that. 5 years ago, at the start of the multiformat market, it was closer to 30%, but this was in the days when PC versions came out 6 months later having been rewritten for PC, rather than the simultaneous release we get now where the pc version is exactly the same.

As to stats. No. In the gaming business there is no webpage I can send you to with all the numbers. The gaming business is loathe to put any figures out and the only one's that are released is to show how well a game has sold. They want to put the best spin on that, so they seldom break the figures down into formats. So you get Bethesda crowing about 4.7 million sales on 3 formats of Fallout 3, and we have CD Red Projekt crowing about 4 million PC sales of STALKER. Even when NPD release figures, people say it's wrong because thy don't put enough emphasis on downloads and others say they don't take account of how fewer retailers carry PC titles, etc.

Whether quality, price or number of PC releases, PC gaming has been in a downward spiral for 3 years now. European and Indie publishers have somewhat filled the hole left by the big publishers that now have more interest in console. With DOSBox now having over 5 million downloads, more PC gamers are going back to their older games as well. It all shows major change in the market for PC gaming.