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Xbox enjoying a digital download boom

Massive growth in online connections benefiting retail as people look to make the most out of their games

Home entertainment consoles continue to thrive in the consumer space, with both Nintendo and Microsoft racking up impressive results.

The number of consoles connected to Xbox LIVE, the online service, has jumped by 73 per cent in the 2008-09 financial year, meaning 400,000 Australian and New Zealand gamers are now connected.

Xbox LIVE downloads also increased by 39 per cent in the past 12 months as overall console sales grew for the Xbox 360 platform.

Senior product marketing manager for Microsoft’s entertainment devices division, Jeremy Hinton, said the growth in online distribution was also having a flow on effect to the vendor’s retail partners.

“People are buying subscriptions and download points cards through retail outlets, and while people are looking to spend less money overall, downloads are going towards getting more out of existing purchases – such as additional music for Guitar Hero – which they are purchasing at retail.

“The ability to download free demos of games is also enticing customers to purchase the full version of the game at retail – people will buy more products by being switched in,” he added.

Nintendo is also performing well in the market, announcing recently that it has received a 136 per cent raise in revenue in the 12 months to March 31. Not to be outdone, Sony’s Playstation 3 is enjoying a good week of game sales, with three games in the week’s top 10 – ahead of the Xbox 360 which has just one.

This week’s top selling games, from GfK data are:

  • Wii Fit (Nintendo Wii)
  • The Sims 3 (PC/ Mac)
  • Wii Play (Nintendo Wii)
  • Infamous (Playstation 3)
  • Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo DS)
  • Mario Kart (Nintendo Wii)
  • Ghostbusters Video Game (Playstation 3)
  • EA Sports Active (Nintendo Wii)
  • Prototype (Xbox 360)
  • Prototype (Playstation 3)

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

More about: Microsoft, Nintendo, Playstation, Sony, Xbox

Comments

1

Anonymous

Mon 13/07/2009 - 11:31

financial year?

did you mean the 2008-09 financial year? or are you talking about the 12 months from 1 July 2007 to 30th June 2008?

2

bp.riggs

Fri 17/07/2009 - 01:43

Nice

They just keep coming up with more and more great ways to get games for these systems. This is something that we should all be taking notice of. Great article! <a href="http://www.asbafo.net" id="clean-url" class="install">casino online</a>

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