Analyst Predicts Slow Adoption of Digital Distribution, Extended Console Cycle

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In a research note circulated today, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter predicts that the current console cycle will not expire until 2013 at the earliest--and when the new games come, they will still be wrapped in a box.

Pachter's paints a picture where "ancillary revenues" drawn from digital distribution and console updates--such as a possible high-definition Wii, as well as Sony and Microsoft's motion controllers--will naturally delay the release of newer hardware. But while Pachter sees an uptake in digital distribution, he expects a slow revolution, with downloads representing "less than 50 per cent of total game sales in ten years' time." The case of Grand Theft Auto IV's first digital expansion "The Lost and Damned" provides the basis for his hypothesis.

"After a tepid embrace of its first downloadable episode, Take-Two decided to offer the first and second episodes in a combined physical package, with the two episodes allowing full game play without the purchase of the original GTA IV game disc," wrote Pachter.

"This model reinforces our belief that packaged goods will capture the majority of game purchases for the next ten years," he wrote, while adding that consumers will "never fully abandon physical media."

From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 30, 2009 1:12 PM

    The Lost and the Damned had a lot working against it.

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      June 30, 2009 1:15 PM

      Maybe, aside from extreme awesome.

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        June 30, 2009 1:25 PM

        Well, I guess I should say that I felt like there were multiple factors working against it from my personal perspective. For starters, by the time it came out, I think everyone I know was still playing Fallout 3, among a few other full games that came out during the holiday season.

        Also, a lot of people I know who beat GTA IV were turned off by the ending. I thought it was neat, but mostly people I know acted like they wanted something more standard.

        I think, if it had come out earlier, it would have sold better.

        What I'm getting at is simply that I do think there are reasons other than a pure lack of interest in digital distribution that led to it not selling as much as it could have.

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      June 30, 2009 1:16 PM

      Yeah, like my complete lack of ambition to even finish the main storyline. Please analyse fallout 3 instead!

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