PC Game Digital Downloads Dramatically Outpace Retail Sales

From PC World: More from 'the writing's on the wall' department, it seems digital download versions of PC games have roared past sales of physical retail units during the first six months of 2010.

We're not talking a couple hundred thousand gap, either. According to U.S. retail (and more recently, digital) sales tracker The NPD Group, PC full-game digital downloads topped a record 11.2 million, compared with 8.2. million physical units purchased at retail during the Jan-June 2010 sales period.

It's the first time that's happened says NPD Group, though there's an important wrinkle: Physical retail games still command the lion's share of dollar revenue, holding 57 percent, versus 43 percent for digital downloads. NPD says that's because retail games have a higher average selling price (probably referring to all those ridiculously expensive knickknack-crammed limited editions).

If you're in retail, that's tough enough news. Here's worse: Digital and physical PC game revenue combined was off 21% for the first half of 2010, while unit sales were down 14% for the same period, year-on-year. Tough news for PC gaming, especially considering year-on-year video game software sales were only down 8% for the same six-month period.

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