Xbox Live’s “Games on Demand” Downloads Continues to Rise

Microsoft hasn’t hopped onto the Blu-Ray train for its Xbox 360 console yet because the company sees digital distribution as an increasingly important feature that will become the de-facto way to purchase video games in the future. According to a new report by GameIndustry.biz, “55% of Xbox 360 users bought at least one downloadable game last year, up from 43 per cent in 2009.” Compared to its competitors, 50% of PS3 users bought a digital game last year (up from 42% in ’09) and 43% on the Wii (up from 37% in ’09). These results are no doubt strengthened by users subscribing to faster broadband connections to enable game reasonable game download times and the new Xbox 360 S that was released last year having built-in Wi-Fi. The physical optical disc for delivering video games isn’t dead yet, but it’s clear that more and more people are comfortable with buying digital copies of their content, which for what it’s worth, is great for the environment. Because let’s face it, who really looks at the instruction manuals, or box art anymore after they pop the game in? We can’t remember the last time we even did that!