John-ShepardLike it or not, gamers, digital = the future.
While traditional packaged goods have fallen off in 2012, there's one aspect of video game sales that is on the rise: Digital distribution.
According to the NPD Group , downloadable content, subscription fees, mobile and social sales hit $1.47 billion in the April-June period, which is a 17% year-over-year increase. And that's higher than the packaged good business, which only came in at about $1 billion.
Still, NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier said the good performance by the digital branch wasn't enough to offset the continual decline in overall software and hardware sales. The firm's expectation is that the US industry was down 16% for the quarter, which falls in line with the rest of a disappointing year. Sales have been down year-over-year between 15 and 20% throughout 2012 thus far; here's hoping a busy fall can halt the slide.
