According to a new market survey from analyst firm EEDAR, video game console owners are purchasing more downloadable content than ever before. EER's market survey finds that more than 51 percent of Xbox 360 and PS3 owners have purchased downloadable content (DLC), expansion packs, full games or indie games via the internet in the past 12 months. That number is up from 40 percent in 2010 and 34 percent in 2009.
EEDAR estimates that downloadable content will generate more than $875 million in total revenue in North America for 2011. EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich, also predicts that North American DLC revenue will top $1 billion in 2012.
EEDAR comes to the conclusion that users are downloading more content because of better broadband speeds and increased marketing for DLC. Among those who don’t download DLC, privacy remains the top concern - 47 percent of gamers who said they do not purchase DLC cited privacy as the reason. Around 11 percent of those who said they did not purchase DLC cited poor quality as the reason. Other barriers included a no-return policy, high costs, no demo, and a lack of free content. EEDAR says that publishers, developers and console manufacturers should work together to deal with the concerns of consumers.
Finally, EEDAR says that if DLC holdouts actually bought something, that would generate $600 million more in revenue in North America each year.
Source: VentureBeat
