Stardock's recently released 2009 customer report has quite a bit of info about the publishing company's Impulse download business. However there's also some speculation on the whole digital download industry for PC games. Company CEO Brad Wardell says that by his estimates, a new PC game title will get 25 percent of its revenues via digital distribution if it's released this year. That means that while brick-and-mortar stores still get the majority of PC game sales, the amount of revenues received from downloads represents a significant fraction that can't be ignored by PC publishers anymore.

Wardell also speculates that Valve's Steam service has 70 percent of the overall PC game download market with Impulse holding onto 10 percent for second place. We think those numbers could be debated but there's no doubt that Steam has the high ground in this industry with everyone else playing catch up. In Stardock's customer survey results, Wardell states that 61 percent of those who responded say they buy PC games digitally versus just 34 percent who still buy physical copies in boxes.