In recent years there's no doubt been a growth in digital game sales, what with Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox all offering downloads for top games as well as regular discounts, leading some to believe that digital may be cannibalising the retail market. This is something that NPD analyst Mat Piscatella disagrees with, however, and he explained his stance while talking to GamesIndustry.biz.
"I've been looking at the interplay between digital and retail sales data for years now, and the data suggests to me that digital is more incremental than cannibalistic to full games sales - meaning that I simply don't see digital and retail competing in a zero sum game for full game sales," he explained. "Yes, more digital games are being purchased, and the overall share of digital is increasing, but that's not leading to direct offsetting declines in the retail space."
He instead believes that these digital sales are adding to the sales, rather than taking them away from those that would have otherwise gone to retail, saying: "The data suggests to me that digital is increasing the size of the overall pie, and that both retail and digital are vital parts of the new ecosystem, and will be for some time. We have data that suggests, for example, that millennials and Gen Z game buyers have the highest purchase incidence rates of packaged retail games, likely driven by the way young people use packaged retail games as a form of currency for purchasing new games later when they are sold or traded in. It's quirks in the video games market like this that will keep packaged retail in the forefront of full game sales for at least the short to mid-term future."
Do you think the growth of digital sales is something to be concerned about?