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2014 German statistics: 9% of console and 58% of PC games sold digitally €1277M total

S

ScepticMatt

Member
Also 5% of console revenue digital, 52% of PC revenue digital

Edit: Should say €2668M in the title

Combined (consoles+PC) digital unit count percentage:
biu_absatzanteil_down5rq7u.jpg


Combined ditital revenue percentage:
biu_umsatzanteil_downl9rbr.jpg


Total digital market revenue breakdown:
biu-gesamtmarkt-digith4rq3.jpg

Wachstum Gesamtmarkt = total market growth
Einmaliger Kauf = 'boxed' sales
Mikrotransaktionen = microtransactions
Hardare = Hardware
Abonnemonts = subscriptions


More info (German):
http://www.biu-online.de/de/presse/...den-immer-haeufiger-als-download-gekauft.html
 
H

Hans.Gruber

Banned
Nintendo, MS and Sony need to adjust prices, if they want to sell more licenses I think.
I am all digital through the US store on X1 because I love the convenience of digital games plus online infrastructure in Germany is good enough. Paying 59$ works for me + with game sharing that is cut in half.
But if you look at the German online store it's just stupid pricing.
Games are still €59,99 digital, even though amazon DE has them for €40-50 (that also means you can get them price matched at Saturn etc.).
 
T

TomShoe

Banned
Hans.Gruber said:
Nintendo, MS and Sony need to adjust prices, if they want to sell more licenses I think.
I am all digital through the US store on X1 because I love the convenience of digital games plus online infrastructure in Germany is good enough. Paying 59$ works for me + with game sharing that is cut in half.
But if you look at the German online store it's just stupid pricing.
Games are still €59,99 digital, even though amazon DE has them for €40-50 (that also means you can get them price matched at Saturn etc.).
Click to expand...

If they could they would. The only reason they don't is to avoid upsetting retailers, who they rely on to sell their hardware.
 
H

Hans.Gruber

Banned
TomShoe said:
If they could they would. The only reason they don't is to avoid upsetting retailers, who they rely on to sell their hardware.
Click to expand...

Yeah you are right. If MediaMarkt would remove one console from their sortiment, that would kill hardware sales.
I mean, at least MS has left open some back doors for me to get my licenses cheap.
The first year you could buy an US X1 game with your german credit card and a fake US address added. But if your X1 was set to german, the game was still fully localized.
Then MS blocked foreign CC's, but just days later accepted Bitcoin, which I use now to add $$ to my MS account. Cashcards from amazon US still work.
On PS4 I wouldn't do it though, because you need to make a separate US account, and since games aren't made region free by Sony it just feels weird.
 
C

Chezzymann

Member
Only 58%? Even that seems low considering how universal digital is these days on PC. Didn't know almost half of people still buy physically.
 
O

oti

Banned
Chezzymann said:
Only 58%? Even that seems low considering how universal digital is these days on PC. Didn't know almost half of people still buy physically.
Click to expand...

"I need to buy a cable oh hey look there's a new Roller Coaster Tycoon out?" - At every Mediamarkt/Saturn/MediMax etc.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
I haven't bought a physical game in a long, long time. But the market for it is still strong here, surprisingly enough, particularly on PC.
 
R

Regurgitated

Banned
I feel safe downloading games on Steam, I know if I upgrade my PC it will still be playable, I know I'll have tons of room on my hard drive when I download huge games, and I know I'll always get a great, cheap sale on lots of games.

I can't say I feel the same way about consoles at all. I will always buy physical console games.
 
K

Koren

Member
Chezzymann said:
Only 58%? Even that seems low considering how universal digital is these days on PC. Didn't know almost half of people still buy physically.
Click to expand...
It's in revenue, though, and I wouldn't be surprised that with Steam sales, many people buy digitally at an heavy discount.
 
B

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Hans.Gruber said:
http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/PS4-Support/PS4-is-region-locked/td-p/21205401

Unfortunately yes. Not 100%, but these issues are enought for me to stay away.
If you start with a new PSN account and do all your shopping in the US region this might not be a problem though (in some cases you also may need a VPN).
Click to expand...
What a weird thing to be complaining about.

The DLC you have to buy needs to be compatible with the version you buy. That's all there is to it.

There is no need for a VPN nor is there a need to do anything beyond buying DLC from the same region as the game.
Phrasing it as "Not 100% makes it seem like it's some huge issue instead of the very minor thing it is in a real world scenario.
 
H

Hans.Gruber

Banned
benny_a said:
What a weird thing to be complaining about.

The DLC you have to buy needs to be compatible with the version you buy. That's all there is to it.

There is no need for a VPN nor is there a need to do anything beyond buying DLC from the same region as the game.
Phrasing it as "Not 100% makes it seem like it's some huge issue instead of the very minor thing it is in a real world scenario.
Click to expand...

Maybe you can explain how you have set it up and what your ecperiences are?

And I am not even complaining, it is simply my choice (I wrote "for me" in my post) not to deal with US digital PSN content.
Region-free to me means 100% region free and all in one account (to me).
 
B

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Hans.Gruber said:
MAnd I am not even complaining, it is simply my choice (I wrote "for me" in my post) not to deal with US digital PSN content.
Click to expand...
That's fine.

I'm just pointing out that the game content is region free. The only catch is that you need to buy DLC that is compatible with the game version you got.

Hans.Gruber said:
Region-free to me means 100% region free and all in one account (to me).
Click to expand...
You're free to use it that way. But region-lock is usually when you are unable to play something because your geographical location or the device is not from the same region as the content you try to play.

Using your definition means you're going to have to explain your definition every single time you want to talk about region locks.
I have so many different account across so many devices or websites to get the cheapest price which allows me to play them on my locally purchased hardware and main accounts, so to think that what I've been doing on PC and PlayStation somehow doesn't qualify as region free is silly.

It's silly because there are actual region locks (using the conventional definition) that exist on for example the 3DS.
Or when I was unable to buy Grand Theft Auto San Andreas on 360 because of marketplace region locks.
 
P

PetriP-TNT

Member
58% seems quite low for PC. Haven't seen anybody buying any physical PC games outside of special editions and price mistakes in years.

Oh well, maybe the shovelware and casual stuff deflate that number.
 
D

Delusibeta

Banned
Hans.Gruber said:
Maybe you can explain how you have set it up and what your ecperiences are?

And I am not even complaining, it is simply my choice (I wrote "for me" in my post) not to deal with US digital PSN content.
Region-free to me means 100% region free and all in one account (to me).
Click to expand...

On PSN, any DLC has to match the base region of the game, so a EU game is incompatible with US DLC. With that said, if you're planning on buying everything from the US PSN store, this is a non-issue since you're getting everything from the same place.

For PS3 and PS4, there is no limits to the number of accounts that can be registered to a console. Therefore, you can have an EU account and an US account, download all of the games on the US account and play them all with your EU account. Indeed, I understand that the PS4 allows for you to download stuff from the US account without logging out of your EU account via the webstore.

Do note that this is not true with the Vita or the PSP (strict one account per console).
 
X

Xando

Member
PetriP-TNT said:
58% seems quite low for PC. Haven't seen anybody buying any physical PC games outside of special editions and price mistakes in years.

Oh well, maybe the shovelware and casual stuff deflate that number.
Click to expand...

You should go into a german Media Markt or Saturn. PC retail most of the time has more space than Nintendo and Xbox combined.
 
Z

Zukuu

Banned
It's been years since I bought a NEW physical copy. Not that I'm an advocate of all-online, but it's just cheaper and more convenient.
 
O

Occam

Member
It's nice to see that most consumers still value the concept of private property (as opposed to leased, corporate-owned property).
 
X

Xando

Member
Game Guru said:
You know... Doesn't this line up with what GameStop said some time ago in that digital downloads of AAA games only made up a percentage that was in the single digits?
Click to expand...

AAA console digital (especially in europe) is disgustingly expensive. There is no reason to buy digital unless you buy from the US store (which doesn't really matter anymore because the euro lost too much value).
 
G

Game Guru

Member
Xando said:
AAA console digital (especially in europe) is disgustingly expensive. There is no reason to buy digital unless you buy from the US store (which doesn't really matter anymore because the euro lost too much value).
Click to expand...

This really just goes to show just how far the all-digital future actually is in regards to console gaming... The US doesn't have the excellent infrastructure to support it given download speeds, bandwidth caps, and regional monopolies, and Europe has digital games immensely more expensive than physical games, but people expect the all-digital future to happen within the next five years without at least both issues being sorted out first? I'm not going to say the all-digital future won't happen, but these are issues that need to be solved for it to happen.
 
H

Hans.Gruber

Banned
benny_a said:
That's fine.

I'm just pointing out that the game content is region free. The only catch is that you need to buy DLC that is compatible with the game version you got.

It's silly because there are actual region locks (using the conventional definition) that exist on for example the 3DS.
Or when I was unable to buy Grand Theft Auto San Andreas on 360 because of marketplace region locks.
Click to expand...

I still remember how I bought CoD DLC and got locked out of it because I had the US version LOL
You are right the PS4 restrictions aren't bad and can be overcome with paying attention.
In my case it's just easier to get the disc, because I only have Infamous SS on there and next game I will buy is UC4 (if Sony doesn't announce anything at E3).
 
S

ScepticMatt

Member
To clarify:

* "consoles" here include dedicated handhelds
* Digital revenue includes micro-transactions while unit sales obviously do not.
 
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