The Numbers Underlying The Numbers

The PC Gaming Alliance has come out swinging saying that PC gaming is doing far better than anyone expected. In some ways, they are right, but it's all in the interpretation.

Industry total for the PC is $10.7 billion, which by itself looks astounding, but let's break it down.
$4.8 billion is online gaming/MMO revenue, which leaves $5.9 billion.

$800 million is advertising sales, which leave $5.1 billion.

$2 billion is digital distribution, which leaves $3.1 billion for retail sales worldwide.

For that same period at retail in the United States alone, the Xbox 360 sold $4.8 billion in software only, the Wii sold $3.5 billion worth, and the PS3 sold $2.2 billion.

So there is some positive news...the global PC game market is healthier than the U.S. PS3 game market...at least at retail.

Just remember that this is worldwide sales, not U.S. only sales. Back in 2006, PC retail in the U.S. was only $970 million...only a 1% increase over the year prior. For 2007, it dropped to $910 million.

Remember, it always pays to check the numbers when people make claims.

DBML Not Backwards Compatible

If you are planning on upgrading to Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and you are using LINQ, make sure your entire team upgrades to SP1 at the same time.

While DBML is forward-compatible from 2008 to 2008 SP1, they are not backwards-compatible, meaning if you make a change to a DBML file in a project, that project will not build in 2008.

The compile will fail with this error:

Build failed due to validation errors in [path]\[file].dbml. Open the file and resolve the issues in the Error List, then try rebuilding the project.

When you look at the output, it will tell you that O/R Validation failed with an unknown error.

Real-Life Bugs: Proofread Your EULA!

Axialis really needs to proofread the EULA's that they attach to their products.

Update 7:45pm: I just heard back from Axialis and this has been fixed.

I Have Nothing To Say

Really. I've got nothing to say.

I'm out of industry anecdotes. Dental surgery isn't worth discussing.

My wife has commandeered the Xbox 360 so those of you who have been seeing several hundred hours of "Viva Piñata" on my Xbox Live account haven't been seeing me.

I can't think of advice for testers which is why I haven't written any more over at Game QA Blog.

I want to get to Vegas sometime before September 1 so that I can get to The Star Trek Experience one last time before it closes, but it isn't going to happen. The money that could have gone towards paying for my trip went towards my teeth instead.

Hell, I turn 34 this Saturday and all I can think to say is "meh."

I've got plenty of energy for work, but not so much for me. I've got 13 days of vacation time right now at work. I guess I'll try to take some time later this year to recharge my personal batteries.