Last month, the NPD Group released a new study that claimed digital downloads sales for PC games had come close to reaching the same level of units as those PC games that were sold in retail stores. That study's findings were disputed by game download sites like GamersGate and Impulse, with its founder Brad Wardell telling us at the time, " I can't think of a single publisher (including ourselves) that sells even close to a majority of its units digitally."Now yet another study from the Entertainment Merchants Association claims that retail store sales for games still dominate the marketplace. The EMA says that based on data from several sources, including the NPD Group, game purchases in retail stores still account for 80-90 percent of all game sales. Bo Andersen, the president and CEO of the EMA, is quoted as saying, "While it is tempting for industry outsiders to say 'disc is dead,' as the saying goes, reports of its demise are grossly exaggerated."


If there's one thing penn & teller taught me, its that studies like this are bullshit. There is absolutely NO WAY pc retail games are selling faster than digital downloads and when I say digital downloads, i'm talking the whole internet, not just one service. These studies are just being conducted to help comfort retail stores and prevent competition, which is why gamersgate and impulse are backing them, if news gets out that digital is the new way, impulse and gamersgate would get blown out of the water with competition. Posted at 1:22PM on Aug 4th 2010 by Sam