Digital predicted to account for 66% of market by 2017

A new report from DFC Intelligence predicts that digitally distributed games will account for 66 per cent of total overall games revenue by 2017.

It also predicts a significant expansion in the overall games software market, which it believes will grow from $52m now to $70bn in five years.

Interestingly, it adds that the PC platform will be responsible for the majority of the growth, claiming as much as 39 per cent of the software market. Consoles will account for 36 per cent and mobile 25 per cent.

"Digital distribution, already widely accepted among core gamers globally, is clearly broadening access to products and driving much of the industry growth," DFC Intelligence CEO David Cole told Gamasutra.

Cole also thinks that games on social platform such as Facebook might struggle to realise further growth unless they widen their appeal to more traditional games market.

Cole added: "The bottom line is core gamers spend money on products they like and right now the game offerings on sites like Facebook are simply not appealing to that demographics."