THE BORE
General => Video Game Bored => Topic started by: Great Rumbler on July 23, 2010, 05:33:47 PM
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NPD Group claimed Wednesday that full-game PC digital download purchases reached 21.3 million in the U.S. during 2009, nearly even with 23.5 million physical unit buys, signifying an important shift in purchasing habits.
The tracking firm said that, according to its estimates, PC digital downloads represented 48 percent of unit sales for PC last year, and accounted for 36 percent of dollar sales.
Retail sales of PC games declined 23 percent in the U.S. to $538 million in 2009, NPD reported in January this year. As online sales from downloadable content, full game downloads, subscriptions, microtransactions and mobile continue to increase, NPD is looking at ways to measure the impact of those emerging models on a regular basis.
Social gaming on networks such as Facebook also are bringing in new gamers who are willing to spend big money on virtual items. FarmVille developer Zynga alone is on track to bring in a projected $1 billion for 2010, according to recent reports -- and those revenues are going under NPD's monthly sales radar.
A recent Gamasutra analysis estimated that NPD's monthly U.S. retail sales reports may have overlooked $2 billion in non-retail revenues in 2009, or about 20 percent of the total reported industry sales for the year.
"The popularity of social network gaming increased from Q3'09 to Q4'09 as 4.8 million more people played games on a social network in the U.S.," said NPD game analyst Anita Frazier. "This demonstrates how consumers can now experience casual types of games through myriad vehicles, broadening the competitive landscape."
NPD also cited a 30 percent increase in iPhone and iPod Touch usage as gaming devices from Q2 2009 to Q4 2009. The firm said 97 percent of people who downloaded a game app last year also downloaded a free version of a game.
Additionally, NPD estimated ranks for the top digital retailers in the areas of frontline (retailers with a focus on games also offered at physical retail) and casual (focus on smaller games with a try-and-buy or ad revenue model).
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
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29528/NPD_FullGame_PC_Downloads_Reaching_Parity_With_Physical_Purchases.php (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29528/NPD_FullGame_PC_Downloads_Reaching_Parity_With_Physical_Purchases.php)
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NPD's methodology is bunk fyi. They used surveys and shit instead of getting direct numbers from the online stories.
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It's not bunk, but yes it's less accurate than real numbers. But in terms of how they do it it's statistically significant.
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I don't think digital distributors even give out that kind of sales information, Steam certainly doesn't.
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Digital sales would be a lot bigger if not for super-massive casual titles [The Sims and so on] and Blizzard.
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That's pretty bad, hmm.
Everybody, even the PC haters like Stoney were thinking Steam is the saviour of PC market with sales reaching millions and millions of copies. It seems NOT and it kinda just slugs along there.
Pretty bad.
Personally I was thinking it overtook brick & mortar sales a long time ago and it's like 3x or 4x times bigger, ant it's just the exact same volume.
:gloomy PC gaming :gloomy
21.3 million copies sold digitally in 2009 on Steam...that certainly sounds like 'millions and millions of copies' to me?
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If this didn't happen a long time ago then PC gaming is more fucked than I thought :lol
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If this didn't happen a long time ago then PC gaming is more fucked than I thought :lol
A recent Gamasutra analysis estimated that NPD's monthly U.S. retail sales reports may have overlooked $2 billion in non-retail revenues in 2009, or about 20 percent of the total reported industry sales for the year
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How is not including non-retail revenues in a retail sales report being overlooked? NPD doesn't report industry sales, they report retail sales.