Valve has revealed that year on year Steam has enjoyed sales growth figures of 97%. This in the midst of what NPD, a market research firm, has branded the fourth consecutive month of declined retail video game sales.
In addition to this IGN reported that Valve’s direct competitor, Direct2Drive, reported a year on year growth of 56%.Xbox Live also experienced growth with year on year paid downloads up 73%, an example of this was Battlefield 1943 which sold over 600 000 copies online in itsfirst week.
In contrast June saw the largest decline in retail video game sales since 2001.
“By offering AAA titles on the day and date of release, catalogue selection customer’s can’t find on the shelves at retail, fast and reliable digital delivery and D2D’s Purchase Protection (insuring our customer has access to their purchase wherever and whenever they want) we have outpaced the retail PC games market showing significant increases when NPD retail statistics indicate that PC games sold through bricks ‘n mortar retailers are on the decline. We are bullish on the future and continue to invest heavily in this space.” Said Direct2Drive VP for Digital Distribution, Jeff Steele.
This trend shows that gamers internationally are increasingly opting to download titles rather than purchase them in stores. Although it may be a while away, it is possible that in time the market will see digital downloads overtaking retail sales.
Unfortunately South African’s are somewhat behind the times in this regard due to a number of limiting factors.
Limitations such as slow and expensive international internet access are likely to keep the SA gaming market firmly entrenched in retail and online physical purchasesmethod of delivery.
This however may be slowly changing, with signs of cheaper international bandwidth to come already being shown following the launch of Seacom, as well as a number of other large undersea cables in the works.
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