British trade group UKIE today revealed plans to publish a beta version of its first digital PC game sales chart this February, in an effort to provide a more detailed breakdown of the digital distribution market.
While The NPD Group
already mentions digital revenues in its quarterly U.S. reports, UKIE's impending release promises to mirror its charts for boxed products, which compares the performance of individual titles.
UKIE's says its initial public chart will only cover "basic" information, though the group will provide more robust figures to any company that contributes its data to the chart.
Currently, contributing partners to UKIE's digital PC game chart include Disney Interactive Studios, Focus Multimedia, Get Games, Green Man Gaming, Mastertronic, NCsoft, Sega, Square-Enix, Ubisoft, Warner Bros, and more.
Following the launch of its first digital PC chart, UKIE says it will work on new charts covering Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.
In an official statement, UKIE CEO Jo Twist said, "Having this digital data alongside our UKIE Games Charts for boxed products, will allow the games industry to lobby government even more effectively, and allow our members to make informed and fact based commercial decisions."
Earlier this week, UKIE
sold off its shares of chart specialist GfK Chart-Track, and simultaneously extended its partnership agreement with the group for at least another five years.
