Books hit digital tipping point – how long until games do the same?

Retailer Amazon has reported that UK consumers are for the first time purchasing more digital books than they are physical copies.

Specifically, it currently sells 114 Kindle books for every 100 print books.

And it appears that as well as being of benefit to Amazon, the switch to digital has also boosted the independent publishing market to the tune of 400 per cent.

"Customers in the UK are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books, even as our print business continues to grow." Kindle EU president Jorrit Van der Meulen stated.

"We hit this milestone in the US less than four years after introducing Kindle, so to reach this landmark after just two years in the UK is remarkable and shows how quickly UK readers are embracing Kindle.

"As a result of the success of Kindle, we’re selling more books than ever before on behalf of authors and publishers. Thanks to Kindle Direct Publishing, thousands of self-published authors have also been given an outlet to share their work with the millions of Kindle readers worldwide."

The comparisons to the games market are obvious, not least because of the fresh life breathed into the once threatened indie dev sector since the advent of iOS and digital console platforms.

So how long until the sales of digital games overtake physical sales? Sadly it’s hard to know for sure.

With digital sales data remaining closely guarded by publishers and platform holders – and not to mention the incredibly fragmented nature of the digital games market – we still rely on individual companies to drip-feed us information as they see fit.

Could it be that in these times of incredibly poor performances on the UK High Street, digital sales have already taken the lead?