77 per cent of online gamers use PCs

Posted at: 4:29am 30th August 2007 by Ben Hardwidge

We all know that you can’t play a first person shooter with a gamepad, but now it’s official – PCs are the preferred machines for online gaming

Any serious online gamer will tell you that you can’t beat a PC with a keyboard and mouse if you want a night of wasting noobs, but that hasn’t stopped the mainstream media from concentrating most of its efforts on the console market. However, in a recent survey it turns out that over three quarters of online gamers use the PC as their games machine of choice.

ISP PlusNet conducted a survey of its high-use broadband customers, and found that 77 per cent of them preferred playing games on their PC online, compared with just 23 per cent who preferred a console. On top of this, a massive 64 per cent of those questioned claimed they never used a console for online gaming at all. Predictably, the most popular console was Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which has a similar games catalogue to the PC.

PlusNet’s products director, Neil Armstrong (yes, we’re sure he’s heard all the moon landing jokes already), challenged the perception in the media that consoles are the dominant force in gaming. ‘The console market is dominated by high-profile companies, backed by huge marketing budgets,’ said Armstrong, ‘so it’s easy to think that this is the way most of us like to game online. However, our research shows that most serious gamers prefer a PC and broadband connection as their entry point. The fact that nearly two-thirds of people questioned don’t even own a console shows how strong and diverse dominant PC gaming this group is.’

According to PlusNet, the respondents in the survey cited a number of reasons for the PC being their preferred games machine, which included ‘the breadth and diversity of PC gaming communities,’ and ‘the quality of the graphics.’

PlusNet clearly has a soft spot for online gamers, and Armstrong claimed that ‘like sports cars require specialist oils and equipment, a high quality gaming experience demands good traffic prioritisation and a high quality of service – both of which we’ve dedicated significant time to throughout our history.’ PlusNet has a policy of prioritising traffic for games on its network, as well as prioritising VoIP traffic for TeamSpeak and Ventrillo.