We told you last week that UKIE was planning on putting together digital download charts for both PSN and Xbox Live. Today the trade body released details of a PC Download Chart due to be rolled out in February.
The chart has already been running as a closed beta for some months, and the trade body is now ready to make that data public. UKIE's PC Download Chart will be the first of its kind, and precedes the PSN and Xbox Live charts.
Jo Twist, CEO of UKIE commented: "UKIE is committed to measuring the size of the digital games market and is delighted to announce that it will be launching a public Beta of the UKIE PC Download Chart in February. Having this digital data alongside our UKIE Games Charts for boxed products, will allow the games industry to lobby government even more effectively, and allow our members to make informed and fact based commercial decisions."
UKIE are encouraging developers and publishers to share all information relating to the sale of downloadable games. They're offering more detailed access to the information collected by data gatherers GfK Chart Track (who this week announced they will be continuing to work with UKIE for another five years) to anyone who contributes to the new charts.
A press release from UKIE lists the major contributors to the new chart, and they include: "Disney Interactive Studios, Focus Multimedia, Get Games, Green Man Gaming, Mastertronic, NCsoft, Sega, Square-Enix, Ubisoft, Warner Bros and other top PC game publishers and digital distributors."
There's no mention of Valve's Steam or EA's Origin in there, so presumably talks are ongoing between these major publishers and the UK's interactive entertainment trade body.
PC games often struggle to compete with consoles when it comes to over-the-counter sales, so the release of this much anticipated digital chart should give us a more accurate idea of how well the platform is doing. We await the results with interest.