14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD Group, which is set to publish the sales charts for hardware and software for December 2009, took a look at how prevalent digital distribution of gaming content was in the third quarter of last year and found that while there was an increase in digital sales, physical disks were still the main channel for getting videogames to customers.
Purchases of physical copies of videogames, both in their new packaging and used, are said by the NPD Group to represent about 90% of the total of videogames that were bought for gaming consoles during the third quarter of 2009. When the picture shifts to portable consoles, the PC, the Mac, mobiles and smartphones, 79% of the purchases made in the same period were of physical objects.
Anita Frazier, who is an analyst working for the NPD Group, stated that “While physical retail product remains the driving force behind industry sales, the role of digital distribution in the games ecosystem continues to climb. Publishers and retailers must keep an eye on the current state of the marketplace and must map ahead for future strategies.”
70% of those who buy videogames through services like Steam, Impulse, Direct 2 Drive on the PC or through the PSN or Xbox Live console marketplaces and as physical disks are under 35 years old. Meanwhile, 46% of those who only get content through digital distribution are in the same age bracket. Also, those who get games in both formats tend to spend more on their hobby than those who are only interested in physical products.
NPD is also saying that videogames are less affected by piracy than the music industry. Its survey has determined that only 4% of gamers admitted to downloading games from peer-to-peer networks, with 72% of them then playing them on the PC or the Mac.