PC GAME DIGITAL DOWNLOADS REACH PARITY w/BOXED GAMES

apoppin · Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 7:09 pm

http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_100721.html

Well, 48 % of all PC games were d/l'ed according to this company's survey.

Quote:

ACCORDING TO THE NPD GROUP, IN 2009, 21.3 MILLION PC GAMES WERE DOWNLOADED IN THE U.S. VERSUS 23.5 MILLION PURCHASED AT RETAIL

PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, July 21, 2010 - According to the PC Games Digital Downloads: Analyst Report, from leading market research company, The NPD Group, in 2009, 21.3 million PC Game full-game digital downloads were purchased online in the U.S. compared to 23.5 million physical units purchased at retail during the same period.

While NPD’s point-of-sale research shows that PC physical retail sales experienced a year-over-year revenue decline in 2009, it was still slightly larger than PC digital download sales on a unit basis. PC digital downloads represented close to half of unit sales across digital and retail at 48 percent in 2009, and accounted for 36 percent of dollar sales.

PC Games Digital Downloads: Analyst Report segments the PC full-game digital download landscape into two Web-based ‘retailer’ segments (offers games for download, and with no physical storefront): Casual Digital Retailers, which often focus on smaller, easily accessible games that typically utilize try-and-buy or advertising revenue models; and Frontline Digital Retailers, which often focus on titles that are also offered in retail stores as physical purchases.

Top 5 Frontline Digital Retailers – 2009 (based on unit % share)

1. Steampowered.com
2. Direct2drive.com
3. Blizzard.com
4. EA.com
5. Worldofwarcraft.com

Top 5 Casual Digital Retailers – 2009 (based on unit % share)

1. Bigfishgames.com
2. Pogo.com
3. Gamehouse.com
4. iWin.com
5. Realarcade.com

Frontline Digital Retailers increased their share of the PC full-game digital download market in the second half of 2009, at the expense of the Casual Digital Retailers.

SickBeast · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:57 pm **Posts:** 3975

This makes me even more excited to see Steam ported to Linux.

born2tech · **Joined:** Wed May 18, 2011 4:23 am **Posts:** 11

My only concern with digitally downloaded games is what happens if your hard drive dies, can you redownload the game to the repaired pc (for example a new hard drive) or even another PC? With a retail box CD you can at least do another install, even if some games like EA ones limit you to 3 installs. I know on Amazon.com you can always redownload a purchased game but I am not sure about other companies, including Steam.

apoppin · Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 9:23 am

With Steam, you can back up your games to another remote HDD or to DVD. Or you can just re-D/L the game at any time. Same with D2D and EA (although the EA D/L manager is tough to defeat, it can be done)

JerTech · **Joined:** Tue Nov 16, 2010 11:10 am **Posts:** 198

Steam is finally being ported to Linux??

I know there was some hint of it when Linux logic was found in a launcher script or something, and I also know that it and many of its games work with Wine, but I haven't heard of any official port yet.

I'm on board with the whole download thing. It's fun to buy a physical box sometimes, especially a collector's edition for a game I really like, but the download option combined with a "cloud library" does make life easier sometimes. It's a useful form of DRM that I don't mind supporting.

Besides that, Steam has some CRAZY sales on games sometimes. In the past year or two, I've gotten several popular titles for cheap or free and now I own more games than I have time to play. (Portal: Free, Napoleon Total War: Free, HAWX 2: Free, World of Goo: $1, Torchlight: $10, Company of Heroes Gold: $12.50)

My DVD drive is getting bored.

LeonHyman · Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 1:21 pm

I fully support digital downloads as well. The deals are what got me on board in the first place and I just think its more convenient. I live in Jamaica and if I ordered a game, it would take 1-2 weeks to get to me via my courier service. However, digitally, I can get the game is a very short time; just a couple hours with my 12Mbps connection.

moshpit · **Joined:** Sun Mar 27, 2011 12:11 pm **Posts:** 92

My entire games collection is on Steam. I love it.

Zenphic · Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 11:00 pm

Digital downloads are superb. They're usually cheaper than their equivalent boxed version thanks to frequent online discounts.

When I love a game though, I still prefer having a boxed version. Nothing beats having a product in your hands! It looks nice on a bookshelf as well.

JerTech · **Joined:** Tue Nov 16, 2010 11:10 am **Posts:** 198

One thing I forgot to mention: automatic updates.

Seriously. Anyone who has tried to patch a boxed copy of Company of Heroes knows what I'm talking about. The more I use Steam, the more I like it.

Here's to hoping Battle.net becomes just as cool!

Zenphic · Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 10:20 pm

JerTech wrote:

One thing I forgot to mention: automatic updates.

Seriously. Anyone who has tried to patch a boxed copy of Company of Heroes knows what I'm talking about. The more I use Steam, the more I like it.

Here's to hoping Battle.net becomes just as cool!

Company of Heroes? Yeah, tell me about it. There's like >10 patches to install from the retail version!

I hear that Steam, because of the way that it installs and manages games, doesn't always work well with user mods of games. I can't think of any examples though.

PC GAME DIGITAL DOWNLOADS REACH PARITY w/BOXED GAMES

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