In-Thought: Full Retail Games For Download

burnoutpsn

Back in September we were treated to a nice full digital release of Burnout Paradise. This was a nice step forward for digital releases considering it was a 3rd party multi-platform title releasing on Sony’s network. Previously Sony has experimented with “big” title releases such as Warhawk, and GT5P. So I ask, where are the others?

A few weeks after the digital release EA released sales numbers for the download-able title stating that 20,000 units were purchased in a 3 week period. If I were to put my horrible math at work, a use anecdotal evidence I would estimate LTD sales of Burnout PSN to be around 180k units sold but I am no analyst. If Burnout PSN continued a consistent range of sales, and enjoyed a boost of a price reduction to $19.99, I can’t help but to think that it may have realistically achieved those numbers. So again I ask, where are the others?

Publishers are always looking for a way to extend the life of their product and one such way is the use of DLC. If sales start to decline at retail and you are looking to initiate a price reduction to spur retail sales, take a page out of EA’s book and put the game up as a download-able purchase as well. Make the game more of an impulse buy for gamers browsing PSN or XBLM because it can certainly attract those who were on the fence about the product or just never got a chance to pick it up previously. Guilty. What you see before you is another tool to extend the life of your product. Just don’t wait too long and don’t get too greedy!