News Downloads account for 48 percent of PC game sales

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/07/22/downloads-account-for-48-percent-of-pc-game/1

 

So, does this mean that piracy estimates are actually now (even more) completely inaccurate?

 

Nah, It means piracy is at 90% instead of 95%.

 

Allegedly.

 

based on one study

 

I prefer getting download versions of games through Steam. Means I don't have to arse around with the CD/DVD or a no-CD/DVD crack.

 

Steam is the new Google... It will become evil

 

Blizzard and world of warcraft, its basically the same game they sell, blizzard may sell some others though, wow steam has the market here

 

Not surprised, nor am I worred. In terms of customer satisfaction my experience with Steam has been for the most part entirely happy and I have every confidence it will continue that way.

Anybody who has experienced EAs systems over the years will know that it's a wonder that they're even at number 4.

 

With the deals Steam offer if you're willing to hold off on games for a few months it's no wonder digital downloads are doing so well. Didn't think GTA4 or Burnout Paradise were worth £30-50 on release? Wait a year and they're £4.99 on Steam

..and at the end of the day you can always sell your Steam account if you get bored of your games

 

I've always thought about that but the trouble is if you've got around 30-50 games on it you probably don't want to get rid of them all! You could always create a new account for every game, although I'm pretty sure there's something in the Steam EULA that says you can't sell an account on..

 

Steam is God, love your God, play daily.

 

There's not many players is there, so, where's the Windows Games on demand service? I am entirely happy with the service Steam offers. I don't have to worry about finding Lost Disks or CD Keys that have gone missing. All is there and all can be downloaded overnight in most cases.

 

So blizzard and wow are in the top 5, and all those sales at blizzard.com are probably wow related too (do they sell anything else digitally yet?)

 

2 Companies cannot monopolize the same market. The digital download market is a Differentiated oligopoly.

Furthermore, Valve wanted to create Steam with others (EA, MS i think); none were interested, so the companies really only have themselves to blame for valves success.

 

That's what I've been lead to believe.

 

There's no way they could have counted every single digital distribution outlet. So, I'd say it's likely to be well over half. I've bought dozens of games in the last year, and I've only bought one physical CD, and that's only because the price differential was 2 to 1.

 

Dont like Steam, I like physical copies. I like the redundancy and security they provide.

 

I love steam, never have to worry about a scrathed or lost CD again. loginto my account and download the full game, on up to 5 differetn computers i believe.

 

I love Steam, but I'm worried that eventually their monopoly of the market is going to start negatively affecting their prices...