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EA: PS4/XB1 retail games have 10-15% digital sales

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
This is slightly above Ubisoft's "approximately 10%" rate.

EA said:
Peter Moore - Chief Operating Officer
As Frank mentioned in his remarks, we saw about $71 million in full game downloads, which excludes mobile. And that was split about 50-50 PC versus console. And I had mentioned on the last call that we were seeing somewhere in excess of 10% now for full game downloads on the Xbox Live and Playstation network.

We’re seeing that continue to grow. Now it’s between 10% and 15% of the initial sales that is going digitally full game downloads on those platforms. And if we take UFC as an example, which only shipped with two weeks of the quarter left, we saw at the high range of that 10% to 15% band.

So we’re continuing to see a progressive move toward gamers being able to download, because they can now on the next-gen consoles, full games on day one and week one of the ship. I will also add that the transition, though, is working well with our retail partners. Progressive retailers such as GameStop are preselling well our sports titles that are the ultimate edition SKUs, which give $40 of digital content for only an incremental $10.

So our retail partners are able to play in that digital space as well, so I think we’re balancing out this transformation between physical packaged goods and digital well, and our retailers are able to play in that space.
Click to expand...
Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/233...-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single
 
F

Footos22

Member
Bet if they did the percentage of uk retail to digital it wouldnt be anywhewre near that figure.
Not with the insane prices they put up over here.
 
Aces&Eights

Aces&Eights

Member
After the debacle that was the Destiny download speed, the fact that digital costs the same as physical and there is no way to sell off a digital copy, I will not be part of that 10-15%.
 
P

Percy

Banned
Speaking from a UK based perspective here, I have nothing but contempt for those who value their earnings so little they'll happily pay those insulting console digital-retail prices for these games. The message they send on behalf of us all is a damaging one.
 
K

kahi

Member
Aces&Eights said:
After the debacle that was the Destiny download speed, the fact that digital costs the same as physical and there is no way to sell off a digital copy, I will not be part of that 10-15%.
Click to expand...

PS4 at least lets you pre-load games though, so on Destiny's launch for PS4 if you go digital no worries, as long as you buy it a few days before, game will be ready to play at midnight 9/9.
 
McHuj

McHuj

Member
I wish I could just buy download codes at retail. I know Amazon is doing this for PS4 but we need more stores doing this.
 
B

BigDug13

Member
Radec said:
Imagine how retailers will react if they do that.
Click to expand...

I always hear this argument and I have yet to hear about any pissed off retailers if digital becomes cheaper. I don't see Walmart complaining about Steam sales when they have half an aisle filled with physical PC games for sale. And how does price parity with retail sale prices mean they're screwing retailers? Retailers still hold the advantage of selling you the version of the game that you can resell when you're done with it.
 
E

erawsd

Member
So, does that mean when the NPD reports software sales are down 5%, as they did this month, its actually up 5-10% since they arent tracking digital?
 
G

genbatzu

Member
ofc I can't speak for everyone, but the reasons I buy more digital games (for ps3,4,vita, WiiU and 3DS) than physical are, despite them having the same price tag:

  1. convenience; no disc swapping, no game cards carrying around <- those two are a major point for me
  2. availability; I'm living in a tiny village and the next shop selling videogames is ~25km away. And I work rather long, so I can't go there after work. Amazon.at is handled by amazon.de, which means shipped friday releases (which seems to be normal now) arrive on monday...so digital is earlier available for me
  3. digital sales and pricing errors (although rare)
  4. us digital prices vs. EU retail - us digital wins every time (20-30% cheaper)
 
Alec

Alec

Member
Is this 10-15% of EA games, or all games?

Because I flat-out don't buy EA games. But if I did, it would be digital.

I'll cave for Mirror's Edge.
 
M

matrix-cat

Member
I'd love to see what these numbers are like outside the US. Here in Australia you can typically get a game on a shelf, day one, for $68, maybe $78 at most, while buying the same game digitally will be more like $100 to $110. I know it's the same sort of thing in Europe, so I find it hard to imagine companies like EA and Ubisoft seeing any digital sales from these regions.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Alec2DaBreen said:
Is this 10-15% of EA games, or all games?

Because I flat-out don't buy EA games. But if I did, it would be digital.

I'll cave for Mirror's Edge.
Click to expand...

Presumably EA games. Ubisoft reported similar though slightly lower results (they centered around 10% instead of 10-15%).
 
E

erawsd

Member
BigDug13 said:
I always hear this argument and I have yet to hear about any pissed off retailers if digital becomes cheaper. I don't see Walmart complaining about Steam sales when they have half an aisle filled with physical PC games for sale. And how does price parity with retail sale prices mean they're screwing retailers? Retailers still hold the advantage of selling you the version of the game that you can resell when you're done with it.
Click to expand...

Well, there is a difference between a 3rd party storefront having a special sale price a couple times a year and a first party storefront permanently undercutting all retail sales all the time.
 
B

bigbaldwolf86

Banned
Footos22 said:
Bet if they did the percentage of uk retail to digital it wouldnt be anywhewre near that figure.
Not with the insane prices they put up over here.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was thinking. I'd bet UK digital is closer to 5%. I think 10-15% is really low and shows just how much physical media is still in demand.
 
A

Aquamarine

Member
bigbaldwolf86 said:
Exactly what I was thinking. I'd bet UK digital is closer to 5%. I think 10-15% is really low and shows just how much physical media is still in demand.
Click to expand...

It also demonstrates the continued relevance of retail trackers like GfK and NPD for blockbuster titles. A good 85-90% is still actively realised through physical retail despite Sony's + Microsoft's continued pushes towards digital.
 
B

bigbaldwolf86

Banned
Aquamarine said:
It also demonstrates the continued relevance of retail trackers like GfK and NPD for blockbuster titles. A good 85-90% is still actively realised through physical retail despite Sony's + Microsoft's continued pushes towards digital.
Click to expand...

Very true. I'm sure there were people who said NPD is no longer relevant (or something to that effect) because they don't track digital sales but if that digital slice is only 10% then NPD is still extremely relevant until the market shifts heavily the other way.
 
B

bigkrev

Member
ShinUltramanJ said:
How will they react?
Click to expand...

They would either die, or would find some way to make their version superior to the digital version with meaningful exclusives. Sort of like how Gamestop has the Alien: Isolation original cast missions as a pre-order bonus.

You would probably see every game have a meaningful part of it exclusive to various stores.
 
quickwhips

quickwhips

Member
acm2000 said:
its worth paying up to £15 more just to not have to change the disc? these people have issues

dont let your kids touch your games lol
Click to expand...

If you have money it is. Its my hobby I can spend money how I want. Sucks some people freak out over 15 dollars. Plus I split the cost of each game with my brother in another state so games usually only cost 30 dollars digitally each. 2 copies for 60 dollars isn't bad. But I guess its cool you can trade it back in for 25 dollars.
 
B

BigDug13

Member
erawsd said:
Well, there is a difference between a 3rd party storefront having a special sale price a couple times a year and a first party storefront permanently undercutting all retail sales all the time.
Click to expand...

See I thought the first post was talking about digital keeping up with retail, not undercutting it. My problem with digital is that it fails to keep up with retail at all. We will have a retail price drop of a game at ALL outlets to something like $40 while the game continues to sit at $60 digitally.

Especially in other countries where digital regularly is way more expensive than retail.
 
Alx

Alx

Member
acm2000 said:
its worth paying up to £15 more just to not have to change the disc?
Click to expand...

Yup. Having access to your whole library on a whim is very enjoyable, and for people for whom £15 isn't that much money, it can be worth it. Of course everybody prefer paying less than more, but if you can afford a bit of luxury, why not ? Why else would we want to earn more money ?
 
Fnord

Fnord

Member
Bandwidth caps kill any notion that I might have had to go digital. Even the PS+ stuff is starting to push my cap limit. Unfortunately, I don't see that problem getting any better. Between more, higher bandwidth hungry services and the utter lack of real ISP competition, the future is looking bleak.
 
F

failgubbe

Member
Im so far pretty much digital only on Xbox One and i figure others are too, mostly because the dollar is cheap so new games don't cost me that much tho
 
E

erawsd

Member
BigDug13 said:
See I thought the first post was talking about digital keeping up with retail, not undercutting it. My problem with digital is that it fails to keep up with retail at all. We will have a retail price drop of a game at ALL outlets to something like $40 while the game continues to sit at $60 digitally.

Especially in other countries where digital regularly is way more expensive than retail.
Click to expand...

Ahhh... yeah, I would agree that that is ridiculous.
 
V

VisceralBowl

Member
Imagine how much higher that percentage could be if NA didn't have shitty monthly bandwidth and speed caps!
Console digital prices are also a joke.

I would go all digital, but I can't with my PC already all digital. Too many GBs.
 
B

Banderdash

Member
bigkrev said:
They would either die, or would find some way to make their version superior to the digital version with meaningful exclusives. Sort of like how Gamestop has the Alien: Isolation original cast missions as a pre-order bonus.

You would probably see every game have a meaningful part of it exclusive to various stores.
Click to expand...

Or as happened in Australia with the PSP-go, they'll just refuse to stock the product that does them out of business.
 
SMOK3Y

SMOK3Y

Generous Member
Aces&Eights said:
After the debacle that was the Destiny download speed, the fact that digital costs the same as physical and there is no way to sell off a digital copy, I will not be part of that 10-15%.
Click to expand...
Ya that Beta dl must of been off their own servers as the Alpha flew off PSN and all PSN d/ls pretty well max my 115mbps
 
B

bigbaldwolf86

Banned
VisceralBowl said:
Imagine how much higher that percentage could be if NA didn't have shitty monthly bandwidth and speed caps!
Console digital prices are also a joke.

I would go all digital, but I can't with my PC already all digital. Too many GBs.
Click to expand...

Not just NA's silly caps. In the UK a new release on PS4 will cost more digitally than at retail. It would probably come close to $100 when coverted. It's probably worse in the rest of Europe.
 
X

Xater

Member
I get the convenience but I can never see myself paying extra for getting less.

bigbaldwolf86 said:
Not just NA's silly caps. In the UK a new release on PS4 will cost more digitally than at retail. It would probably come close to $100 when coverted. It's probably worse in the rest of Europe.
Click to expand...

69,99&#8364; which is $94,63.

I can at least save 10&#8364; not buying digital and that is on day 1.
 
S

Syf

Banned
VisceralBowl said:
Imagine how much higher that percentage could be if NA didn't have shitty monthly bandwidth and speed caps!
Console digital prices are also a joke.

I would go all digital, but I can't with my PC already all digital. Too many GBs.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this is a big factor. I'm sure NA telecom companies would love to see gaming go all digital lol.
 
E

erawsd

Member
Fnord said:
Bandwidth caps kill any notion that I might have had to go digital. Even the PS+ stuff is starting to push my cap limit. Unfortunately, I don't see that problem getting any better. Between more, higher bandwidth hungry services and the utter lack of real ISP competition, the future is looking bleak.
Click to expand...

I think bandwidth caps are going to be a huge issue for digital adoption. Most ISPs are moving toward 250-300GB caps in America. With game sizes reaching 50GB each, with additional gigs of patch data.
 
D

Domcorleone

Member
I wanna go all digital but when I can get retail games for cheaper like a month later its hard to stick with that desire. I just bough Wolfenstein for 39.99 on XBL since it was on sale. Ideally Id like digital to be 10-15 bucks less since I can't return it. You would think they'd reward people for going digital since they don't have to content with the whole used games "issue"
 
SmokedMeat

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
bigkrev said:
They would either die, or would find some way to make their version superior to the digital version with meaningful exclusives. Sort of like how Gamestop has the Alien: Isolation original cast missions as a pre-order bonus.

You would probably see every game have a meaningful part of it exclusive to various stores.
Click to expand...

Or it's like how Best Buy offers $10 gift cards for preordering certain new releases from them. Give me incentives to buy my games from you.

Whatever the case, there's this notion among some that retailers are keeping digital prices high. As if they have any sort of sway in regards to how much Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo wants to sell digital games for.
 
P

Palette Swap

Member
genbatzu said:
ofc I can't speak for everyone, but the reasons I buy more digital games (for ps3,4,vita, WiiU and 3DS) than physical are, despite them having the same price tag:

  1. convenience; no disc swapping, no game cards carrying around <- those two are a major point for me
  2. availability; I'm living in a tiny village and the next shop selling videogames is ~25km away. And I work rather long, so I can't go there after work. Amazon.at is handled by amazon.de, which means shipped friday releases (which seems to be normal now) arrive on monday...so digital is earlier available for me
  3. digital sales and pricing errors (although rare)
  4. us digital prices vs. EU retail - us digital wins every time (20-30% cheaper)
Click to expand...
Yeah, as a European, I'm going full digital with PS3/4 titles by getting them on the US PSN. The only titles I don't buy this way are the crossbuy ones and the ones prices accordingly (that happens).

But for a full game on release? RRP is 70€ here, game prices can drop to 60€ in some physical and online stores.

Meanwhile, US PSN games are $60, that's 45€, 35% less than our RRP.
 
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