News 'Digital accounts for 70 per cent of our sales'

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/01/21/digital-accounts-for-70-percent-of-our-sal/1

 

So they get $48 for the retail version, but have to subtract manufacturing costs of the discs and packaging, storage & distribution costs etc. I suspect that most publishers will take the $30 per game, without the associated costs.

Although I would also be surprised that if a $60 game is sold on steam that someone like Activision would only see $30 of it. If Valve and other digital distributors are really taking a 50% cut, then they are onto a winner!

 

No way they get 50%, something in the sub 20% range at most.

 

Does seem Dan DeMatteo was a little bit unwise saying that, as all the tools for digital distribution of software were already there. He obviously overestimated the passion of people to have a physical product.

 

I know that Valve get 50% of Gmod sales revenue while Gary gets the other half, but that is a special case. Definitely not par for the course.

 

No, he's got to say that publicly. If he said otherwise, he'd be sending customers to digital distribution sites who would previously have gone to his stores.

 

Digital accounts for 100% of my Game Purchases, if that helps the CEO of Game Stop become aware of how wrong his quote was, and have done since about 2008.

 

Physical media is for the Console suckers, real gamers download their games via Steam (or other DD venues).
I live in the EU and US, and Steam has saved my bacon several times, I either keep my games on one easily transportable hard drive or just re-download the games.
This is going to become even more important in a world where we game on our iPads, iPhones and other various devices as time progresses.

Then there is the environmental aspect, physical media should be strongly discouraged in this world of climate change. Gamers can do their part to prevent the apocalypses that we play in fantasy.

Yours in PC Gaming will save the world Plasma,
Star*Dagger

 

That DeMatteo guy is full of ****, but he does have a point if you take off the marketing twist - digital distribution won't take over as long as there are places with generally sub-par internet like the UK and australia. Sure it exists and became immensely popular but it can't take over just yet.

And of course there's console gaming.

 

I'm not sure I would class UK as having sub par internet except in comparison with Korea or Japan. Given even BT offers 40mbps in my area, meaning I have a choice of 3-4 different backhauls above 16mbps (actual) rather than simply people rebadging the same wholesale service.

Anyway I have reached the turning point for digital. I currently want a copy of Mass Effect 2 as everyone raved about it in Christmas roundups, now I can go get it at retail for £15 but I don't want the hastle of physical media. I love buying older games cheap on Steam as a I can never find enough time to play them when new. I don't want DRM, I don't want to keep the DVD in the drive, I want to take the casual games along with me on my laptop when I am away on a trip, all possible with steam and non-existent on physical.

As for De Matteo, the problem he faces is that publishers charge say $48, but if De Matteo sells that copy 3-4 times, apart from the first time, the publisher gets squat. That means De Matteo will make his margin back 2-3 times the 50% retail markup. So if a publisher uses an online system, he can afford to charge less per copy because he saves on production, distribution, inventory and gets a profit from every copy sold, not just the once as per the physical copy.

Rajiv