With Microsoft Flight Simulator being around a week old now, while there are clearly still a few little bugs and glitches to work out, the game/simulator has widely been praised for its amazing visuals and stunning levels of accuracy. It does, however, bare note that to get the best graphically out of this game, you do need a pretty hefty PC. I mean, my system is no slouch, but to get a happy 1440p experience, even I’ve had to make a few compromises here and there.
Following a report via research company Jon Peddie Research (JPR), however, they have suggested that the popularity of the ‘game’, combined with its pretty hefty requirements, may individually spark a billion-dollar boom in hardware upgrades!
Microsoft Flight Simulator to Generate Billions in Hardware Sales!
Now, although I know that this stands to be corrected, there have been very few PC gaming releases in the past that have had a notably significant effect on hardware sales. In fact, one of the few examples I can draw is the release of ‘The 7th Guest’ back in 1993 which sparked a 400% rise in CD-ROM drive sales. Adjusting for inflation, this was a circa $450 piece of technology to play a $30 game.
It seems, however, that JPR is pretty confident that Microsoft Flight Simulator may have a similar (and potentially massively greater) impact on people buying hardware upgrades simply to get the best experience out of it.
“JPR analyzed the three levels of Economically Active PC gamers and simulation fans: Entry-Level, Mid-Range, and High-End. Economically Active PC gamers are a subset of the global PC gaming populace who rebuild, buy, and upgrade components and accessories with a higher frequency or “refresh rate.” The amount they spend differs and the probability they are flight sim fans differs by level. The higher the level, the more sim fans there are as a percentage, and the more they spend.
Based on the assumption of a sale of 2.27 million units of Flight Simulator 2020 selling over the next three years, JPR estimates that in that time frame $2.6 billion will be spent on hardware with the specific intent of improving the game’s experience. Much more will be spent over the title’s complete sales cycle.”
What Do We Think?
Admittedly, $2.6BN in hardware (while seemingly a huge number) is a relative drop in the ocean compared to overall annual sales. The main key point of interest here is that JPR believes that this one singular game may generate that amount all by itself! That, if proven correct, would be staggeringly remarkable!
Will it happen though? Well, even I’ll admit that I doubled up on my RAM simply in anticipation of this release so I’ve already added a small amount to that figure.
What about you though? Did you buy any hardware to play Microsoft Flight Simulator? If not, are you planning on it now? – Let us know in the comments!
I guess a game like this is likely to be popular with an older demographic that is likely to have more spare cash to spend on upgrades when they deem them absolutely necessary, even though they might otherwise keep a piece of hardware running for a long time otherwise.