How many computer game are there?

[Tom Gilleland]

I'm curious how many single games have been made for PCs. I estimate that myself and my company has made about 700 games since about the time of Windows 95. Statistics are kind of hard to get since many game products have multiple games in them. For example our "Vegas Jackpot Gold" is one title that contains about 250 different games. Or "Pretty Good Solitare" has 660 games in it.

I'm sure most of the developers here would have made hundreds of games. I poked around on the web and couldn't find any cumulative count. It seems like the total number would be in hundreds of thousands to millions. Any estimates?

Tom

[PoV]

How many computer game are there?
Six. No more... no less.

Mobygames (http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/windows/) says over 5000 on Windows, but your example makes the number tougher to gage. Does every minigame ever made in a game count as a separate game? Does ever piece of freeware? Every playable flash banner?

[Sol_HSA]

Does every minigame ever made in a game count as a separate game? Does ever piece of freeware? Every playable flash banner?

Different game modes? Procedurally generated stuff? Mods? Easter eggs? Expansion packs?

Even if the definition would be "separate executables that include game(s)" with some strict definition of 'game', the answer would be "a lot".

Consoder the 8-bit revolution with tons and tons of hobbyists making small games for spectrums and commodores, published by the wide variety of computer magazines worldwide, or sold on C-cassettes in grocery stores. Vast majority of those have never been preserved anywhere (that I know of, anyway).

PC is nicer from developer point of view in that the market is huge. Lots of games are sold through less-normal retail route - some games are sold in ice-cream vans, in "budget cd":s on grocery stores, and large amount on web sites pretty much nobody ever visits. As such, real accurate information is hard to tell.

[Tom Gilleland]

Six. No more... no less. ???

I thought that was the bullet count from Tombstone gunslinger Lester Moore.
"Here lies Lester Moore, 6 shots from a 44, No Less No More!"

Or is "six" that Big Fish Multiple thing? Or is this just one of those "Lost" Dharma number correlations?

Tom

[Christian]

I would say billions and billions and billions, have in mind that computer exist like for 50 years i think, have in mind all the world, have in mind consoles, gmaes for watches, handhelds, arcades, and other inventions.
I have to confess that i have been making a "research" testing games from the past for arcade, pc and consoles (abandonware and emulators) from any part of the world, and the number is breathtaking, so many clones, so many crazy ideas... interesting questions but i guess an estimate is impossible to estimate :D

[electronicStar]

For example our "Vegas Jackpot Gold" is one title that contains about 250 different games. Or "Pretty Good Solitare" has 660 games in it.

Personally I would count these as one game, if we start counting mini games and game modes the number would approach infinity.

The real number on PC should be in the thousands or tens of thousands.

[PoV]

I thought that was the bullet count from Tombstone gunslinger Lester Moore.
"Here lies Lester Moore, 6 shots from a 44, No Less No More!"

Or is "six" that Big Fish Multiple thing? Or is this just one of those "Lost" Dharma number correlations?
I'm afraid you give me more credit of culture than I deserve. I know it from the episode of The Simpsons, where Homer enter's a bunker capable of withstanding a 5 megaton nuke, no more, no less. Six is just a number I pulled out of my head, 'cause it was clearly ridiculous.

[Klaim]

Forty-two.

[Sparks]

And You took how many million years to come to that conclusion ?

Personally, I think there is only one game: Outcast.
The rest is all crap.
Okay, maybe with the exception of Monkey Island.
Or Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
Hm, Battlehawks 1942 was great, too.
And so was "Wings".

Oh, PoV was right: six is the true number.

[Pyabo]

My total guesstimate would be in the neighborhood of 30,000 - 60,000, if we're including everything that runs on a PC from 1981 to present day.

You're looking at at least four or five thousand titles from AAA publishers alone, probably, if you go back that far. Then throw in all the shareware, freeware, etc.

I think the question of how many *GOOD* games have been produced is much more interesting. And that number would probably be closer to 100.

[Uhfgood]

Why do you need that kind of information anyhow? I mean there are thousands upon thousands of pc games, and more elsewhere. Unless you're talking about how many title has everyone been officially involved in. I find it hard to believe you have 700 titles under yourbelt, however... unless you're talking about stuff like affiliate sales and extra game modes.

The question you should be asking is how many titles has everyone (that reads this message) shipped or released?

for me, my total is 3 over my 14 year programming period (sad I know).

Anyone else?

[badjim]

I'd say even just the 'GOOD' games number in the thousands. And I'm just counting games that have/had a huge obsessive fan following.

I'll admit that I have actually done any games worth selling. But I do have a number of self programmed arcade classics on my hard drive. They are lame and derivative, but nonetheless they are games. How are you going to account for stuff like that?

[Escapist Games]

Personally, I think there is only one game: Outcast.
The rest is all crap.
Okay, maybe with the exception of Monkey Island.
Or Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
Hm, Battlehawks 1942 was great, too.
And so was "Wings".

Ever seen someone in real life do a movie style "double take"? That was me about five seconds ago. I designed "Wings" (the original Amiga game, anyway), but I never expected to see it mentioned in the same sentence as "Outcast", "Battlehawks 1942", and "Monkey Island". Weird.

[Fost]

Go here:

http://www.mobygames.com/moby_stats

add up DOS, Win3.x, windows...

[Emmanuel]

Ever seen someone in real life do a movie style "double take"? That was me about five seconds ago. I designed "Wings" (the original Amiga game, anyway), but I never expected to see it mentioned in the same sentence as "Outcast", "Battlehawks 1942", and "Monkey Island". Weird.

We all loved Defender of the Crown, Wings and Rocket Ranger when we were in 3rd grade.. :)

Just kidding, John. Wings is one of the best games of all time, which I've spent hundreds of hours on, created by one of the best game designers of all time. I'm repeating myself, but we're honored that you've helped us design Mystic Inn and Atlantis Sky Patrol.

Plus I've crossed one item of my "things to do in life" list (having lunch with you) :)

Best regards,
Emmanuel

[Sparks]

Ever seen someone in real life do a movie style "double take"? That was me about five seconds ago. I designed "Wings" (the original Amiga game, anyway), but I never expected to see it mentioned in the same sentence as "Outcast", "Battlehawks 1942", and "Monkey Island". Weird.

Gimme a break, You designed "Wings" ????
Oh my god :)
That was one of the best action sims I played in my whole life.
And its right up there in my personal hall of fame as one of the best
games ever.
The story, the atmosphere, the graphics, it was truly WW1-feeling.
Awesome.
Colonell Farrah ROCKS.
"And so I went home to face the music".
Priceless.
Thank You for that game.

[arcadetown]

If you take the blinders off and include web games made in Flash, Shockwave, Java, etc, include all exe PC games from the start of the PC, include freeware, and include all launguages then I'd bet there's easily hundreds of thousands.

[Rainer Deyke]

Go here:

http://www.mobygames.com/moby_stats

add up DOS, Win3.x, windows...

I expect that Moby Games lists no more than 1% of all PC games. Maybe even as few as 0.01%. Even well known and successful indie games like Aveyond are not listed.

[PoV]

Mobygames is a user contributed community. If a game *should* be there, then it needs to be submitted.

It's the closest thing we have to an IMDB of games. And hey, why not beef your name up a bit by adding all the titles you've worked on to it. I'm about half done mine.

[kevryan]

Betrayal at Krondor (another game designed by John) is one on my favorite games. One of those longer games that I actually found the time to play through all the way to the end.

And if I'm remembering a company Christmas party correctly - John does a pretty good stand-up comedy routine.

[Fost]

Even well known and successful indie games like Aveyond are not listed.

Then someone should submit it - developers are welcome to do so.

we're on there (http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/starscape), and we aren't as famous as Aveyond!

[destron]

I quick guess by me would suggest over 100,000 games if you were talking about every game, minigame, flash banner, freeware, etc games are out there. If you were talking about games that appeared in stores, that would drastically cut the number to somewhere around 5000, probably. Just an estimate by me, don't pay any attention... xD

[Triple_Fox]

I would make estimates based on two statistics:

1. Number of personal computers ever sold
2. Number of trained programmers that have ever lived

and then take some arbitrary percentage. Some of the people with computers will make games with them; likewise some(perhaps even most) programmers will make at least one game in their lifetime.

I don't have exact figures for either, but they're both in the multiple millions...so I would guess that there are at least several hundred thousand games, and perhaps over a million. If you wanted to cut down to only games with some originality of gameplay or technical execution, it would still probably be in the thousands or tens of thousands to get from Spacewar to today's genres.

[Anthony Flack]

There were over two thousand games released for the SNES, for example.

[Grey Alien]

what kind of crazy ass question is that (the thread topic) :-) haha. Let's just got for lots ... and lots.

[PoV]

After further analysis over the past couple weeks, using advanced super computer technologies, satellite uplinks, fractal theory, and an easy bake oven, the jury and I have come to the conclusion that 6 really is answer. The proof is here (http://www.timecube.com).

[Tom Gilleland]

easy bake oven,
Few people realize that the Easy Bake oven has a easter egg secret game in the circuitry of the light bulb socket. I could go into detail, but for reasons of national security I will just have to leave it at that. ;)

Tom

[PoV]

I'd like to say we took advantage of the socket hack to enhance the computer power of the grid, but truthfully, all we really wanted were individually baked cupcakes.

[Hiro_Antagonist]

I thought that was the bullet count from Tombstone gunslinger Lester Moore.
"Here lies Lester Moore, 6 shots from a 44, No Less No More!"

Actually, it was "No Les No More", because Lester was no more... =)

You'll have to pardon my geekiness, but I've seen that movie over 50 times...