Digital vs Physical – the REAL Christmas No.1

Think this year’s Xmas No.1 in games will be Call of Duty or FIFA? It is more likely to be Angry Birds or Minecraft.

Xbox Live, Steam, iOS, PSN and the rest are expecting a surge in downloads on December 25th, as gamers receive consoles, tablets, PCs and points cards as gifts.

According to research firm Kantar Worldpanel, the two weeks ending January 1st will account for almost seven per cent of all games downloaded across mobile, tablet, console and PC this year.

Christmas Day is huge,” said Ed Rumley, the COO of EA’s mobile publishing business Chillingo.But that’s not surprising when you consider the number of people getting Kindle Fires and iPad Minis. There is all this incredible hardware on the market now at very affordable prices.

In fact, January is our biggest month. Because that is the period when the iTunes gift cards are getting converted into spend.”

Green Man Gaming boss Paul Sulyok added: We anticipate the Christmas to New Year period will account for over 60 per cent of our December revenue.”

Digital music and movies also sees a surge in activity over the festive months.

With the Christmas holidays, we do see an increase in Xbox Live activity but it’s not just games,” said Xbox Live UK product manager Pav Bhardwaj.

Entertainment consumption on Live has increased 140 per cent year-on-year globally. With the number of apps growing, and a host of DLC due this month including Halo 4, Skyrim and Nike+, there will be something for everyone on Xbox this holiday.”