14 DAY TRIAL // An upcoming report from the Entertainment Retailers Association will show that digital games sales on the United Kingdom market have risen by 8 percent over 2012, reaching an overall value of 500 million British pounds, which is about 812 million dollars (615 million Euro).
The figure represents about half of the overall amount of money that was spent on digital content sales in the UK during the past year, according to MCV.
Overall digital sales are reported to have increased by 11.4% during the past year and now represent more than one quarter of the overall entertainment market, just as physical sales have reported a decrease of about 17.6 percent.
Kim Bayley, the director general working at the Entertainment Retailers Association, states, “This reflects their huge investment in new and innovative services – which means you can buy music, video and games literally at any time of the day and wherever you are. At the same time I suspect that many people will be surprised to learn just how resilient the physical business still is, with three-quarters of entertainment sales still on disc.”
He adds, “Downloads offer convenience and portability, but people still seem to value the quality and tangibility of a physical product.”
The report does not break down sales according to platforms, but most of the digital game sales are linked to the PC, which had a banner year when it comes to enhancements to digital distribution.
At the same time, console creators like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have taken steps to open up their own devices and rumors suggest that the next generation of devices will also include more options for those who want to ditch physical copies completely.
Gamers who want to increase their digital video game collection in the first few days of 2013 can head to Steam for a new round of price cuts.