New data from market research firm EEDAR [PDF] shows that 55 percent of Xbox 360 owners in North America purchased at least one downloadable game as of the end of last year, up from about 43 percent in 2009.
Xbox 360 had the largest percentage of downloadable game buyers, compared to user bases for PlayStation 3 and Wii, but all three consoles saw rises in downloadable game purchases year-on-year.
About 50 percent of North American PS3 owners purchased at least one downloadable game through last year, EEDAR said, up from around 42 percent in 2009. Downloadable game purchases on Nintendo's Wii climbed to around 43 percent in 2010, up from around 37 percent the year prior.
EEDAR said the average price of downloadable games on the three major consoles last year was $10, with an average gross profit of $7. That's compared to the $48 average price tag for a physically-distributed game with a $22 gross profit.
The firm also outlined how publisher revenue for a $60 physical game amounts to just $30 after subtracting the retail margin, first-party royalties, packaging and shipping, price protection and co-op costs.
Digital game sales have much fewer hands in the "cookie jar," EEDAR said. A $20 digitally distributed game sees publisher revenues of $14 after 30 percent in network royalties is taken out.
Price points for downloadable games are also "slowly increasing," the firm said. For example, Xbox 360 downloadable games averaged just under $8 in 2006 -- last year average prices were over $11, the highest average among all three consoles in 2010.
EEDAR added that it expects revenue from downloadable games and downloadable content to grow 35 percent in 2011, and make up 26 percent of console software sales by 2014.
man, I really wish they had data for how many titles on average that person purchased...because these stats make WiiWare look like a very viable marketplace, but developer sales stats indicate otherwise.
The title is misleading -- based off of the graph shown it's supposed to say "55% Of Xbox 360 Owners Purchased A Downloadable Game between launch and 2010", not within the year 2010.
The samples of 1,000 people for each survey also trouble me. Were they taken at a Gamestop counter while people were pre-ordering their games? At first I thought he meant DLC+DLG combined, but then I realized that the slides were showing that DLG is as popular as DLC. Really?
What DLG has sold as much as the Call of Duty Map Packs? And what evidence is there to show that people who buy Call of Duty Map Packs also buy DLGs?
I suspect that the lower price point (vs. retail) and lower discretionary income during recession also contributed to those increases.
But it is still great to see those increases towards digital distribution and I am ready for the whole industry to cut the retailers out of the equation right now (especially the content-censoring types like Wallmart).
The samples of 1,000 people for each survey also trouble me. Were they taken at a Gamestop counter while people were pre-ordering their games? At first I thought he meant DLC+DLG combined, but then I realized that the slides were showing that DLG is as popular as DLC. Really?
What DLG has sold as much as the Call of Duty Map Packs? And what evidence is there to show that people who buy Call of Duty Map Packs also buy DLGs?
But it is still great to see those increases towards digital distribution and I am ready for the whole industry to cut the retailers out of the equation right now (especially the content-censoring types like Wallmart).