The downward spiral continues for the US video game market as sales of software, hardware and accessories were down for the ninth consecutive month. Research firm NPD Group reports that overall sales dropped 20 percent in August to $515.6 million, down from $647.2 million last year – a seemingly accurate estimate seeing as the number of gamers dropped by nearly 12 millionsince the same time last year.
The hardware sector suffered the most, dropping 39 percent year over year to just $150.6 million. The long lifecycles of today’s consoles and the number of gamers opting to play on tablets, smartphones and social networking sites are the primary factors that led to declining sales, according to NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier.
so here is the official Black op's Q&A regarding the PC version
What are the Minimum System Requirements?
OS: Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHz or AMD Phenom X3 8750
2.4 GHz
Memory: 2GB for 32-bit OS or 4GB for 64-bit OS
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512 MB or ATI Radeon HD
3870 512 MB
Can I run the game on Windows XP?
No, sorry. Since we upgraded the engine to use DirectX11,
Windows XP is no longer supported. It requires Windows Vista or later.
Will the game actually be playable on my minimum spec
machine?
Absolutely. We have tested extensively on a variety of
hardware and we are very confident in the performance even at the minimum
specs.
What engine is used for Black Ops II?
The Black Ops II engine builds upon the Black Ops engine
with a number of improvements including performance optimizations, enhanced
graphics, and proprietary anti-cheat technology.
What performance optimizations have you introduced for Black
Ops II?
Performance has been a top priority for Black Ops II PC from
day one and we have achieved significant improvements. We’ve improved the way
the engine handles multiple threads. Additionally, we moved the engine from DX9
to DX11. The DX11 API is leaner than DX9 and requires less CPU time to do the
same amount of work. It is important to point out that this benefits the entire
range of supported GPUs, not just DX11 hardware. We have also added more
“quality vs performance” options than ever before so you can customize your
experience to either run faster or to satisfy your taste in eye candy.
You mentioned enhanced graphics for the PC version. Can you
tell us more about that?
Black Ops II PC features enhanced lighting, shadows,
antialiasing, bloom, depth of field, ambient occlusion, and other enhanced
effects that are still in the works. And the game can run at higher resolutions
and higher framerates on the PC.
Will there be a framerate cap?
No. Unless you want one. We have included an adjustable FPS
cap slider in the game options. The minimum setting is OFF (no cap).
Theyarch is the
studio behind call of duty black ops 2 and they recently announce the highly
expected Hardened edition and in this
video below the show us all the goodies included in the “care package and
hardened edition” versions of the game
