NPD: Has digital stolen retails missing sales?

The notion that games are recession proof is now well and truly forgotten – but perhaps the rise of both digital downloads and free-to-play online gaming is as big a culprit as global banking greed.

NPD figures show that the North American video game market declined by 31 per cent in June – the biggest year-on-year decline since the 41 per cent drop suffered in September 2000.



But the falls appear to fly in the face of estimates which state that 4m new gamers have entered the market since the beginning of the year. So why the decline? NPD reckons that the rise of digital downloads and free-to-play online games is now taking sizable chunks out of the traditional retail model.

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