Less PC gamers online this October because of Halo 3?

Less gamers are clocking in hours to spend time playing PC games online, according to Xfire‘s latest report. Numbers began to drop since August. Xfire senior director of marketing Frederic Descamps believes there’s a very apparent reason behind this – many tried to finish the fight, while others continue to play Bungie Studios‘ Halo 3 on the Microsoft Xbox 360 instead of their PC gaming rigs.

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Xfire, the online PC gaming companion that can track hours spent playing online, saw a noticeable drop in numbers for the month of October. Popular titles like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty 2, and Counter Strike: Source always experienced increasing figures year on year, but the total hours spent on these three dipped last month. Xfire senior director of marketing Frederic Descamps blames it on Bungie Studios‘ Halo 3 for the Microsoft Xbox 360 console.

For a quick comparison, here are some numbers:

August 2006: 618,587
September 2006: 546,601
October 2006: 598,441

August 2007: 775,368
September 2007: 648,715
October 2007: 585,260

As you can see, the online gaming scene was much more active in August earlier this year than back in 2006. Hours seem to have racked up at a decent pace, but all that started to drop. “We think that the most reasonable explanation is the release of major console titles – Halo 3 came out September 25th – which shows that a lot of Xfire users are console gamers too,” said Descamps.

Descamps expects the numbers to increase now that Infinity Ward‘s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Flagship Studios‘ Hellgate: London are in the picture. “We have seen a 10 per cent increase in daily gameplay for November as compared to October,” said Descamps, giving credit to the mentioned titles.

Via Games Industry