48% of PC Games Bought in 2009 Were Digital Downloads

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Continuing today's trend of “digital downloads are killing physical media” stories, I bring you this article that claims almost 50% of all PC games were digital downloads.

21.3 million "PC Game full-game digital downloads" were purchased in the USA in 2009 while 23.5 million physical units were bought at retail during the year, according to NPD's figures. DD raked in 48% of unit sales and 36% of dollar sales.
Click to expand...
 
All my games a are digital unless there's a cost or other concern to buy a physical. And I buy a LOT of games. No less that $500 a year for the last I have no idea and since Steam 95% that is digital.
 
Funny thing is that I purposefully went out trying to buy the boxed version of Assassin's Creed II a couple of months ago (well after release date). After checking 4 stores in my town of ~50K people, including a Gamestop (which was good for PC games once upon a time), I finally gave up. Instead of making the 1.5 hour round trip to the nearest Best Buy, I just came home and downloaded it from Steam.

So the order is kind of backwards for me. I went with the digital download because I couldn't find a nearby store that was selling the game I wanted. I sure could buy lots of console games if I wanted though.
 
Steam brings out the OCD in people. It's not difficult to find a gamer with anything from 10-99+ unfinished, maybe untouched games in his or her Steam library.

And I'm all for it.
 
I still end up purchasing the boxed editions for new games as they are normally 30-40% cheaper than getting the digital download from Steam/EA.

I got the boxed version of BFBC2 for £20 on launch day, on EA's download service it was £37. I pre-ordered the boxed version for the latest AvP from amazon as it was £15 cheaper than on steam.......luckily i got to play the demo and cancel the pre-order though :)
 
Long Live digital downloads. I think the best part about them is they have resurrected older games that are no longer on store shelves or are simply incompatible with Vista/Win7. Granted this is the work of the creators, not Steam, but digital downloads gives these companies an incentive to re-publish these older titles. Many of these titles could only be found via lots of painful searching, or pirating. Digital downloads gives a cheap, legal, and painless way to play old classics.

Steam has been a great way to do this, as well as goodoldgames.com.
 
Last I heard Steam did not share their numbers with anyone. Has that changed?
 
MrLonghair said:
Steam brings out the OCD in people. It's not difficult to find a gamer with anything from 10-99+ unfinished, maybe untouched games in his or her Steam library.

And I'm all for it.
Click to expand...

300+ untouched and growing here! W00t!!!
 
Parmenides said:
Why are people choosing to download from ea.com?
Click to expand...
I think a fair number of people (unfamiliar with Steam) are getting comfortable with the convenience of downloading but might be leery of having to install software for the privilege of then purchasing something from a third-party.
 
Toytown said:
I still end up purchasing the boxed editions for new games as they are normally 30-40% cheaper than getting the digital download from Steam/EA.

I got the boxed version of BFBC2 for £20 on launch day, on EA's download service it was £37. I pre-ordered the boxed version for the latest AvP from amazon as it was £15 cheaper than on steam.......luckily i got to play the demo and cancel the pre-order though :)
Click to expand...
This is true if you are too impatient (I don't mean that in a bad way--you like your games) to wait a couple of months for a Steam sale.
 
I am still about 50/50 myself. But leaning more and more into all DD now. Its just easier, faster, and usually cheaper if you hit the weekend sales through Steam, Impulse, etc...
 
I was about 90% digital. Only 2 physicals were X-Plane 9 and MS Flight Sim X cuz i couldnt find them digitally.
 
MrLonghair said:
Steam brings out the OCD in people. It's not difficult to find a gamer with anything from 10-99+ unfinished, maybe untouched games in his or her Steam library.

And I'm all for it.
Click to expand...

You should see my wall of untouched physical media games. The collector in me is not satisfied by digital downloads. Unless the game is ONLY available by download. That's totally ok. OCD rules are very specific.
 
Bgrngod said:
You should see my wall of untouched physical media games. The collector in me is not satisfied by digital downloads. Unless the game is ONLY available by download. That's totally ok. OCD rules are very specific.
Click to expand...

My Steam account still beats my wall of physical media, and it's quite a wall...
 
All of my game purchases are on Tuesday and Friday, during the respective Mid-Week and Weekend madness on Steam, with some GOG goodness sprinkled in.
 
I used to prefer physical media for the nostalgia factor - the days of giant, glorious, colorful boxes and thick, helpful manuals. But all that is history now anyway. What's the point of buying a slim CD-sized box with nothing but a 2-page manual and 3 advertisements in it?

And discs inevitably get scratched or go bad after a few years. This happened to me with my UT3 CE disc. I also don't like the hassle of discs and obtaining no-CD cracks.

Steam REALLY needs to develop some damned gift cards so I don't have to get boxed copies of games as presents (ME2, DAO).
 
Kelv said:
Wouldn't they at least have to share information with publishers/developers?
Click to expand...

I worded that poorly, I meant, last I heard they did not share their numbers with the likes of NPD. Which, in addition to NPD not tracking the majority of etailers' game sales, made their numbers nearly meaningless to some people.
 
Matrices said:
Steam REALLY needs to develop some damned gift cards so I don't have to get boxed copies of games as presents (ME2, DAO).
Click to expand...

When you buy a game on Steam you can opt to purchase it as a gift for someone else. Of course, that requires the person giving you the gift to be familiar with Steam.
 
I haven't bought a physical copy of a PC game in several years. God I love steam and all of their sales and such. It went from a big turd in the beginning to the best way to purchase games at a nice discount (so long as you're willing to wait a month or two after release).
 
If Steam had every game I wanted, I'd never touch retail again. Though, I still have to use Amazon if I want Planescape:Torment etc.
 
Matrices said:
Steam REALLY needs to develop some damned gift cards so I don't have to get boxed copies of games as presents (ME2, DAO).
Click to expand...

This +100. My fiancee really wanted to get me a new game as a birthday present/end of first semester of law school present, and I hate that my copy of DA:O isn't linked to steam.

The only thing missing from the digital download game is another service that is as good as steam and competes with them on sales and prices. Steam has amazing deals and prices now, but I worry that once they up their member numbers, the sales won't stay so hot.

As far as physical media goes, I'd trade every disc I have for a steam copy in a heartbeat.
 
kllrnohj said:
When you buy a game on Steam you can opt to purchase it as a gift for someone else. Of course, that requires the person giving you the gift to be familiar with Steam.
Click to expand...

They need iTunes equivalent that are available at BestBuy/Target/Walmart/etc.
 
when l4d first came out, i got a steam account and have never looked back. I will never ever buy another physical game again. Mind you, the last cd game i bought was Diablo 2, and before that Urban Assault. Its just easier to have it backed up online.

<3 steam SO much.
 
I myself use Steam most of the time. But occasionally Amazon has better deals.
 
This doesn't surprise me. Ever since I've discovered just how awesome Steam is, I haven't purchased a single game using any other method that I can recall. If I did it was purely because the game I wanted wasn't available on Steam.
 
Dan_D said:
This doesn't surprise me. Ever since I've discovered just how awesome Steam is, I haven't purchased a single game using any other method that I can recall. If I did it was purely because the game I wanted wasn't available on Steam.
Click to expand...
Yeah, and for the ones I bought before Steam, I'm now going through the trouble of registering them on Steam... even the ones I don't necessarily plan on playing again.

The option of possibly installing some old game on a work machine in a fit of nostalgia while travelling is too compelling to pass up.
 
Steam has a neat utility but they started that service under the false pretense that they needed to do it to cut down on piracy. It was actually an invasive - if ultimately useful - marketing too.

Downloads usually save time. Makes sense they're becoming more prevalent. I still prefer to have a hard copy with all the neat codes and implied warranties.

EA sucks ass in any form, may they die slowly.
 
ummm dont they mean virtual downloads?

CDs are digital...
 
I'm actually surprised that number wasn't a lot higher. I really would've expected it to be something like 70/30 by now. The last retail PC game I bought was Crysis, which I later repurchased digitally along with Warhead due to a killer deal for the pack.

I own about 120 games on Steam, another 10 or so on D2D, and a handful on other distribution services. I've played maybe 80% of them, with the other 20% still being on my evergrowing queue of games I need to get around to playing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top