Digital Distribution Sales Surge

While NPD reported that US games industry sales suffered a fourth consecutive month of year-over-year declines in June, Valve saw a 97 per cent increase in download sales year-over-year during the month, and competitor Direct2Drive recorded a sales increase of 56 per cent.

Earlier this month Microsoft also announced that, in the first half, the number of paid downloads via Xbox Live jumped 73 percent year-over-year.

Microsoft "Not Anywhere Close" To Simultaneous Retail, Digital Releases

"We're not anywhere close to that world today. We have great relationships with the retail channel - they're important partners. We sell a lot of hardware and software through retail channels. We have to be smart about how we approach this business."

The question "Just how much out of the loop is Microsoft?" poses itself instantly. It's funny to read these articles literally back-to-back on Edge Online. This actually goes back to the Xbox 360 launch when Microsoft failed to predict the huge importance of HDD's. Few people were actually worried about this back then. Fast forward four years later and Microsoft has a console without a standard HDD. That's why we have a half-assed service with games that have to abhere to arbitrary limitations. That's why Microsoft really isn't anywhere close to a serious digital distribution service.

Live is such a wasted potential that it's painful to watch. Meanwhile, Microsoft is wasting time copying Nintendo with crap like Natal instead of realizing the true future of the medium. Seriously, just how much out of the loop is Microsoft?

This blog entry is sponsored by Telus, the future is friendlyŽ.