EMEA PC Gaming Will Not Be Adversely Impacted by Cloud Gaming

The Europe, Middle East, and Africa market for gaming desktops and notebooks grew in the third quarter of 2019, increasing 2.0% YoY and totaling 2.2 million units, according to IDC. By the end of 2023 the market is expected to increase to 9.8 million units with a four-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8%.

"In the mid- and long-term forecast, the market will benefit from increasing consumer awareness and growth in the gaming community. Gaming systems are of major interest to vendors because of their higher costs and margins, as well as their more frequent replacement cycles," said Nikolina Jurisic, program manager, IDC CEMA. "End users are therefore benefitting from a broad gaming range, new product launches, and more attractive pricing due to fiercer competition. Cloud gaming is still in the early stages of acceptance in CEMA and is not expected to negatively affect the gaming market in the mid- or short-term forecast.

"Beyond early adopters, it is unlikely we will see a sizeable migration of gamers away from traditional hardware in favor of the cloud any time soon," said Liam Hall, senior research analyst, IDC Western Europe. "Conversely, by providing a lower barrier of entry for new gamers, cloud gaming could actually act as a gateway into console and PC gaming for those who otherwise wouldn't have discovered their passion for gaming and now want to take it to the next level.