I don't know about you, but sometimes all this talk about PC gaming gets me down. There's the developers who say piracy is killing their sales and PC gaming in general, and/or they're not doing PC exclusives or even ports anymore. It's not 100% unfounded, as piracy rates can be huge sometimes, but there are several things inaccurate with this theory, not the least of them being pirating doesn't necessarily mean a given person isn't also buying the game. But that's a whole thing in itself, and if you're keen on it, you can read more here.

My point is with all this is sometimes it's easy to wonder why anything gets ported and/or made exclusively for the PC. Well, some new statistics from Jon Peddie Research (JPR), "the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia," take that perception and turn it on its head -- they're downright uplifting. To start off:

• The Enthusiast segment has a worldwide compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9%
• The Performance segment will have a CAGR of 19%
• The Mainstream segment CAGR is 21%
Gaming PCs touch all segments of the market, with the most expensive at the high-end, known as the Enthusiast segment where the utilization for gaming is highest, down to the mainstream where the purchase motivation for gaming is about 6 percent.

Indeed, it's not all good news, but it's certainly in a helluva lot better shape than I'd been led to believe. The report goes on to say the total value for PC gaming hardware this year has been just over $20 billion (!!!), and will grow to over $34bn by 2012. These systems, they say, pull in an additional $6bn in software and services sales.

And of course, this all has a relationship with the economic recession and console gaming. It seems the "assumed growth" of console gaming may be negatively affected, and all because of HDTVs. "The cost of an HDTV for the console is a serious investment," the report reads, "Particularly when a console is limited in what it can do, unlike a personal computer." I can attest myself to this, as I've recently said "Phwew, glad I'm saving money by not buying an HDTV/console." Sure it'd all be very nice, but console gaming is more expensive than it's ever been.

Now, it's not all rainbows and sunshine -- naturally different countries have different habits when it comes to PC gaming, and the research company advises hardware suppliers, having studied thirty-seven countries in seven regions: "Don't get caught sending the wrong stuff to the wrong place." This is the report with the "highest granularity" on PC gaming hardware ever, so it's not to be taken lightly.

In terms of gaming PCs, notebooks showed strong gains. The "DIY and aftermarket" sector, meanwhile, was found to be "robust", with lots of folk who upgrade their systems with high-performance gaming graphics boards.

"Don't let the retail numbers fool you," said Ted Pollak, co-author of the report series. "Enthusiast PC gamers often latch onto one or two games that offer multiplayer options and stick to these titles for years. Hardware is where they spend the big bucks. The retail numbers don't capture the casual and digitally distributed games either. Retail software figures are not an accurate barometer for the health of the PC gaming industry."

Perhaps then developers should make less games for the PC, and focus more on quality (and less on DRM)? Myself, I like to play quite a few PC games, but I could certainly see his theory being accurate (see: Diablo, StarCraft, Unreal, etc) for the general population.

"The PC Gaming Hardware industry is a worldwide growth phenomenon and there are striking changes to the environment on the horizon," said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie research. "Don't get caught surprised - our PC gaming hardware reports will provide virtual binoculars for companies involved in the space so that they are prepared for the approaching shifts. Now, more than ever, suppliers can't afford to make any missteps in their marketing and sales strategies."

Update: GamePolitics notes by way of caution, "this data comes from a press release issued by JPR as a means of attracting companies to purchase their reports."