Some 51 percent of consumers in the U.S. and Canada who own a high-definition videogame console (that is, a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360) have purchased downloadable content in the past 12 months, according to a new report from video game research firm EEDAR.
The number of DLC purchasers is up by 11 percentage points from 2010. EEDAR expects the North American market for DLC to generate more than $875 million in revenue this year.
Improving privacy protection may prove to be the biggest challenge for game publishers and network operators in further growing the DLC market. Among those who say they are unwilling to purchase DLC, 47 percent cite privacy concerns, followed by other factors such as price (32 percent) and the lack of a return policy (38 percent). EEDAR notes that privacy was a top concern even before the hacking of Sony’s PlayStation Network this past spring: when comparing survey responses prior to and after the breach, EEDAR says, the results were within four points of the overall 47 percent average. In addition, privacy concerns of Xbox 360 owners and PlayStation 3 owners remained within five percentage points of each other after the PSN breach.
In 2012, with the addition of Nintendo’s Wii U console and its more robust online service (compared to the current-generation Wii system), the DLC market will generate approximately $1 billion in North American revenue and nearly $2 billion in worldwide revenue, EEDAR says.
The research firm bases its findings upon a survey of 3,500 HD console owners in the U.S. and Canada, conducted between April and May of 2011. More takeaways from EEDAR’s “Deconstructing Downloadable Content 2011” report are available here.
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