Xbox Live and PSN in decline?

Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 owners are not rushing to embrace the digital download revolution, according to a new study by NPD. Instead, gamers still appear to prefer getting a boxed copy of a game.

Less than 20 per cent of Microsoft Xbox 360 Xbox Live Gold members regularly download games from Xbox Live Arcade. Xbox Live Gold members have to pay an annual subscription to pay for access to multi-player servers etc. Just over half of all Microsoft Xbox 360 owners last year were Xbox Live Gold members.

While Sony PS3 owners do not have to pay for access to the PlayStation Network online service, only 10 per cent of all Sony PS3 owners pay for content regularly from Sony’s PlayStation Network Store.

Outspoken Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter estimates digital downloads will represent a mere two per cent of games sold this year. Although that will double for the next few years. “Downloads will become 20 per cent of the market within five years, and probably peak at around 50 per cent of the overall market in 10 years” Pachter told Reuters.

While both the Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 are touted as broadband-connected multimedia machines (now with added Facebook, Twitter and last.fm), this survey and other market research data makes it clear that most gamers are still using their consoles largely simply to put in game discs and play them.

(Via Electricpig)

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