Digital Sales Beat Retail Sales

[CeeKay]

!#@#!@ Steam (and other platforms)!    for the first half of 2010 the NPD is suggesting that digital sales beat out retail sales by about 3 million units.  let's hear it for digital distribution!

[EngineNo9]

And they apparently determined that without getting sales data from Steam, GamersGate, Blizzard, etc.  I'm sure those numbers are totally accurate.  They also mention Big Fish alongside Steam, and frankly I don't know anybody who has ever bought anything from Big Fish.

[MaxSteele]

And they apparently determined that without getting sales data from Steam, GamersGate, Blizzard, etc.  I'm sure those numbers are totally accurate.  They also mention Big Fish alongside Steam, and frankly I don't know anybody who has ever bought anything from Big Fish.

Now you know someone.

[Hrothgar]

And they apparently determined that without getting sales data from Steam, GamersGate, Blizzard, etc.  I'm sure those numbers are totally accurate.  They also mention Big Fish alongside Steam, and frankly I don't know anybody who has ever bought anything from Big Fish.

Now you know someone.

Make that two.  I think it was the only place you could get Fairway Solitaire for a while.

[Gratch]

And they apparently determined that without getting sales data from Steam, GamersGate, Blizzard, etc.  I'm sure those numbers are totally accurate.  They also mention Big Fish alongside Steam, and frankly I don't know anybody who has ever bought anything from Big Fish.

Now you know someone.

Make that two.  I think it was the only place you could get Fairway Solitaire for a while.

Me three.  Fairway Solitaire and Fate, I think.

[Azhag]

I think I got Plantsvs Zombies and a few others in addition to Fairway/Fairie solitaire there.

[godhugh]

Now you know 5.

[morlac]

Now you know 5.

Let's call it 6, my wife loves their games.

[CeeKay]

Now you know 5.

Let's call it 6, my wife loves their games.

possibly 7.  I may have bought stuff through one of their sales, I'll have to check.

[Freezer-TPF-]

+2 for Big Fish in my household

[Caine]

here's a reason to buy from them.  puzzle quest 2 for less than Steam.

other than that, i don't know what else i would get from them though. 

[Crawley]

Another + for BigFish. My wife buys a ton of these games where you try and find specific items in an image. I don't quite get the lure of those but she loves them. Big Fish seems to get several new games daily which she'll gobble up.

For me I've basically moved away from purchasing physical copies of games. Digital copies tend to run cheaper, are more convenient and save space. Given that most physical copies of games come with a mediocre manual or just a slip of paper it seems almost pointless to purchase them.

The only physical copy games I can see myself purchasing in the future are ones that are not on Steam and MMOs as the installs for those tend to be huge.

[Harkonis]

I've bought 3 things from Big Fish

[CeeKay]

dang Engine, you just kicked over the ant hill and all the Big Fishies came out 

[kronovan]

So...this is sounding like Digital big fish ate Retail small fish. 

[CeeKay]

Digital to overtake Retail this year?

[jersoc]

pfft, you can't even find pc games in stores anyways. good riddance if they die in retail. it's either steam or amazon for me. sometimes impulse or d2d.

[Tals]

pfft, you can't even find pc games in stores anyways. good riddance if they die in retail. it's either steam or amazon for me. sometimes impulse or d2d.

Very true - certainly retail isn't really trying and when they have it the game is a good percentage more expensive than a game you can get to arrive the next day...mad

[Ridah]

This doesn't surprise me with PC games, I can't remember the last time I bought the boxed version of a game. Actually I can, two years ago with the last WoW expansion cause that was the only way to get it. Now Blizzard sells it digitally.

I have to admit though, when it happens to consoles I'll be playing less games most likely. The way I manage to play as many as I do is by selling my copy when I'm done with it which won't be an option any longer.

[CeeKay]

Riccitiello clarifies that he doesn't mean physical media will go away.  he starts talking about streaming games though, and not actual downloads.

[Blackjack]

pfft, you can't even find pc games in stores anyways. good riddance if they die in retail. it's either steam or amazon for me. sometimes impulse or d2d.

You can find plenty of PC games in stores (Target actually has my favorite PC games section in stores now, even if I'm the only person on Earth who ever looks for them there), they just tend to gather 2 inches of dust unless they have "Blizzard Entertainment" on the box.  

I still ask for boxed PC games as gifts (my family just can't wrap their brain around giving me "virtual" gifts).

[Shkspr]

Keep in mind that if digital is just now overtaking retail boxes, that means that with almost everyone we all know using digital distribution, boxes were still almost half the PC market.

Having said that, I checked my Big Fish account and have almost 80 purchases.   I think between Big Fish, Impulse, Steam, D2D, and GOG, I've got over 200 purchases in the last three years.

[Appollo]

The EB Games store closest to me is such a huge ripoff I have very little choice but to go digital

[CeeKay]

nice, Steam did $970 million in sales last year. 

Here are the top selling games on Steam for 2010. 
   1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision) - $98.2 Million USD
   2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision) - $39.4 Million USD
   3. Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve) - $36.0 Million USD
   4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Electronic Arts) - $25.4 Million USD
   5. Sid Meier's Civilization V (2K Games) - $21.9 Million USD
   6. Portal (Valve) - $20.0 Million USD
   7. Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda Softworks) - $17.0 Million USD
   8. Metro 2033 (THQ) - $13.4 Million USD
   9. Mafia II (2K Games) - $11.9 Million USD
  10. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising (THQ) - $10.8 Million USD

[Gratch]

I have to admit though, when it happens to consoles I'll be playing less games most likely. The way I manage to play as many as I do is by selling my copy when I'm done with it which won't be an option any longer.

Same here.  Unless consoles start copying the "Steam Holiday Sale" model of digital distribution, I doubt I'll be buying nearly as much.