I feel that we are entering a sad era in the life of video games. Although Iwata stated that we are not yet ready for cloud based gaming, sales figures are showing that we might be heading towards the demise of physical copies of our favorite games.
The latest NPD figures (2012 sales in the US) show us that downloads have become more convenient and popular that buying a physical copy of the game. Mr. Iwata has confirmed that downloads are becoming increasingly more important to Nintendo.
In 2012, consumers spent approximately $14.8 billion on physical software, used games, rentals and digital sales. That is approximately a 9% drop for the gaming industry from 2011 figures. Used games accounted for $1.79 billion, physical games brought in $7.09 billion, and digital content streamed in $5.92 billion. The digital sales increased by 16% from 2011, while physical sales (new retail) dropped by 21%!
Nintendo’s 2012 financial results have shown that they are not exempt from the new trend. To ensure they take advantage of the trend, Nintendo has striven to provide more games in a downloadable format. In fact, some games are available to download and purchase physically.
Personally, I prefer the physical copies. Maybe I am getting old, but I love looking through my collection, browsing the artwork, the manuals, and who doesn’t like the smell of an old NES cartridge?
However, an untapped market would be the releases that never see their way to America, or other countries. I would pay to download versions of those games, just to be able to play them here. The need to localize could be forgotten, if gamers are willing to fork over the cash just to play it here. I would imagine it would be a big business.
What are your thoughts?
It sort of reminds me of this song…
There is going to be physical games available for a long time. Especially when they go on sale and digital ones don't. Not to mention the people that like to trade in games, they won't be going digital. I can't see it going much past a 50/50 split. I just hope NPD starts including digital sales in their monthly figures. Things are so thrown off because they don't.
I assume "digital sales" include iOS and Android games. So… yeah, of course digital is gaining on physical media, and will probably soon overtake it.
I'd like to do more digital to clear up the clutter and chance of my kids scratching game discs. Sales on physical copies make it hard to do that though. Toys R Us is always having Buy 2, Get 1 Free or whatever sales. Even with the 10% rebate I get for buying a Deluxe Wii U, it just makes more sense to get the physical game.