XBLA tops $100 Million in 2009
Proving that digital downloads may very well indeed be the future, analysts from the Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment have estimated that the $100 Million mark would have been passed in worldwide sales during 2009 and believe that 2010 will reap even more turnover for Microsoft:
Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment, LLC (FADE) has released its annual report for 2009 for the Xbox Live Arcade market. FADE estimates that XBLA just broke the $100 million USD mark for the year ending 2009, at $103.4 million – a 34% increase from the year prior. Top titles include the fastest selling XBLA title of all time ‘Battlefield 1943′ which sold over 800,000 copies in the year. According to FADE’s forthcoming annual XBLA report, average price of XBLA titles increased rapidly during the year – from a $8.33 average in 2008 to $9.12 in 2009. This increase was strongly reflected in the top 10 list by revenue, with half of the titles featured at or near the $15 price point.
The Xbox Live Arcade market also became more frontloaded, due to incredible sales numbers among ‘Summer of Arcade’ titles such as ‘Trials HD’, ‘Shadow Complex’, and ‘Marvel vs. Capcom’. ‘Castle Crashers’, a 2008 ‘Summer of Arcade’ favorite, saw continued sales throughout 2009 – selling an estimated 485,000 copies during the year, bringing its sales to just under 1,000,000 units sold in total.
FADE believes 2010 will continue to see strong growth with the upcoming Natal launch which will drive new types of Arcade games into gamers’ homes, and additional hardware into homes. According to the report, FADE states that average revenue per user was slightly down from 2009, at $2.79 per user. FADE believes the key for Microsoft in 2010 is to continue to increase hardware penetration, which was a critical point of sales increases in 2009.
Estimated Top Titles by Revenue, 2009 (Average Price):
Battlefield 1943 (EA Dice) – $12.5 million ($15.00)
Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) – $7.3 million ($15.00)
Trials HD (RedLynx, LTD) – $7.1 million ($15.00)
Shadow Complex (Chair Entertainment / Epic Games) – $6.1 million ($14.38)
Family Game Night (Hasbro) – $4.2 million ($9.53)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom) – $4.2 million ($15.00)
Magic: The Gathering (Stainless Games) – $2.8 million ($10.00)
Worms 2 (Team 17) – $1.8 million ($10.00)
Peggle (PopCap Games) – $1.8 million ($8.86)
Turtles in Time: Reshelled (Ubisoft Singapore) – $1.7 million ($10.00)
Digital Downloads will only be the future as an alternative to boxed products. However I would like to see the day a unreleased title gets a sameday release as a Digital Download on XBL as well as released in retail outlets. Sadly the issue is simply space on ppl’s hard drives.