NPD: Gamers prefer boxed product

Whilst the drive towards digital distribution continues to gather pace, leading North American games analyst NPD has stated that gamers still prefer boxed product – and that 58 per cent have still never downloaded a game.

Edge reports that speaking at last week’s DICE Summit in LA, NPD’s Anita Frazier said that of those questioned by the firm, 75 per cent said that they prefer boxed games.

However, 77 per cent of those who had downloaded titles stated that they felt it was just as good as a boxed version. 65 per cent of the total respondents claimed they would be more likely to purchase downloadable games if they cost ten per cent less than boxed versions.

Elsewhere at the Summit, GameStop predicted that digital distribution won’t become the predominant retail model for another ten to fifteen years.