36% of US plays downloaded games

Digital distribution becoming more common, 16% of population has ditched physical media for games entirely.

Digital distribution is increasingly becoming an accepted, and in some cases demanded, way for Americans to get their games, according to NPD Group data released today from its Exploring Digital Gaming report.

Based on a recent survey of more than 6,000 people in the US ages 13 and older, the group reported that 36 percent of the US population plays downloaded games on either a computer, console, or dedicated handheld gaming device like a 3DS or PlayStation Vita. A little less than half of that group has abandoned physical media entirely, as 16 percent said they only play digitally distributed games.

As for preferences, gamers were generally split. When both physical and digital versions of a game are available for the same price, 25 percent of respondents said they would take the digital version, compared to 30 percent who would opt for the physical copy. The remaining 45 percent were unsure of their preference.

The PC is far and away the most popular platform for digital distribution, with 90 percent of the NPD’s “digital gamers” reporting that they downloaded games for the computer. On the other hand, only 28 percent of digital gamers download games for consoles. And while two-thirds of console gamers said they download titles multiple times a year, only 14 percent do so on a monthly basis.

NPD analyst Liam Callahan said the digital movement has also driven more impulse purchases.

“Most digital players, regardless of device, don’t plan their purchases,” said Callahan. “They purchase simply when they find something they like. But primary console players do have a greater tendency to purchase at or before the time of release relative to PC players. As more consumers purchase the new consoles (Xbox One, PlayStation 4), we expect to see greater digital spending from digital console gamers as consumers indicated that purchasing these consoles will most likely increase their digital spending.”

 

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November 2013 PlayStation Plus Free Games in North America Include Resogun, Soul Sacrifice, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen

These games will hit the Instant Game Collection at various times throughout the month, so check back every Monday morning to see all the benefits of your membership.

Click here for a list of the latest PlayStation Plus content

November PlayStation Plus Preview

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Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen (PS3)

Free for PS Plus members, Regular Price: $39.99
An epitaph speaks of another’s demise…A mysterious island known as Bitterblack Isle appears off the coast of Gransys. Its depths have claimed the lives of many Arisen their voices still haunt the labyrinth that lies deep beneath its surface–a labyrinth ripe with secrets waiting to be discovered. The time to take up arms has come once again. Delve into the isle’s depths and uncover its dark secret!

Ibb & obb (PS3)

Free for PS Plus members, Regular Price: $9.99
ibb & obb is a two player cooperative game set in a puzzle filled world where gravity goes both up and down. You can only succeed by working closely together. Find a friend for some true local cooperative couch fun or match up online. Fall up and jump down through 15 levels filled with double gravity puzzles and discover the 8 hidden worlds that will test your new non-Newtonian skills to the maximum.

Resogun (PS4)

Free for PS Plus members
RESOGUN is an intense fast-paced shoot em’ up developed exclusively for the PS4 system. Unleash a diverse array of devastating weapons including lasers, missiles, overdrive, and nova-bombs to blast hordes of enemies and rescue the last survivors from distant galactic colonies that are under ruthless attack from an evil alien invasion force.

Contrast (PS4)

Free for PS Plus members
Contrast is a 2D/3D puzzle/platformer, set in a 1920′s vaudevillian, film noir dreamscape, full of cabaret, illusion and performance. You play as Dawn, the imaginary friend of a little girl, Didi, and you have the power to shift from the 3D world into a 2D shadowscape, by becoming your shadow. As Didi’s imaginary best friend, you must use your shadow shifting abilities to solve complex puzzles, in order to help Didi investigate the secrets that lie behind her troubled family.

Binary Domain (PS3)

Free for PS Plus members, Regular Price: $19.99
Created by Toshihiro Nagoshi, the man behind some of SEGA’s most well-known video game franchises including the critically acclaimed Yakuza series, Binary Domain puts players in the middle of a fast paced and intense battle for humanity in a robot-filled 2080 Tokyo. Fighting through the derelict lower levels of the city, players control an international peace-keeping squad that soon starts to question their surroundings and the choices they make. Are the robots becoming more human, or are humans becoming more like machines?

Oddworld: Strangers Wrath (PS Vita)

Free for PS Plus members, Regular Price: $14.99
In the dusty, undeveloped wastelands of Western Mudos, cantankerous townsfolk find their settlements besieged by belligerent outlaws. Along comes Stranger, a tall, dark and enigmatic bounty hunter with a mission to capture troublemakers and scoundrels and return them to civilized townships for incarceration.

Soul Sacrifice (PS Vita)

Free for PS Plus members, Regular Price: $35.99
Prepare yourself for a brutal combat experience where every decision made will have consequential results. Take on the role of a slave who is about to be sacrificed stumbles upon a forbidden book that allows its readers to relive battles between sorcerers and monsters of the past. In order to use the magic during fierce battles, the player must be willing to make a sacrifice – ranging from personal belongings, a limb, or even a life.

 

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Sony Clarifies: “All” PS3 Digital Content Won’t Transfer Over to PS4

Earlier this week a rumor spread out from the GAME Basildon Twitter account about how “ALL your digital content from your PS3 WILL carry over on to your PS4!” Quick to clarify that this is completely false, the European PlayStation Twitter account said:

Hi guys, this isn’t true. We can say that officially.

GAME Basildon then followed up by adding, “Thank you for the clarification. There must have been a miscommunication our end. Sincerest apologies to all!”

Since Sony had previously said the PS4 wouldn’t be backwards compatible with PS3 games – physical or digital – and Gaikai is coming out next year, this move GAME Basildon alleged would have been very shocking.

What’s interesting about GAME Basildon is how they went into detail about the information, before it was debunked by Sony. For example, they said, “We did ask questions, and those were the answers we got. Couldn’t speak on something we weren’t told”, “aim to be implemented in 2014″, and “[The Last of Us] played on your Vita, streamed from your PS4 that you bought digitally for your PS3!”

It’s definitely weird how there could have been this big of a “miscommunication,” but rest assured that PS3 digital content won’t be transferring over to PS4.

 

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