MAY 19, 2015 • Part of the results that Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. reported from its fiscal fourth quarter ending March 31 included some intriguing details Grand Theft Auto V digital sales on PC. Since the computer version was released on April 14, 75% of units purchased were delivered via digital distribution. By comparison, Evolve, which was released in February, saw 20% of its 2.5 million units sold as digital on all platforms. Take-Two also reports that the PC edition has the highest number of concurrent users for a non-Valve title. For the quarter, non-GAAP net revenue from digitally-delivered content grew 66% year-over-year to $202.5 million out of a total of $427.7 million. Further, virtual currency, downloadable add-on content and online games accounted for $109 million of digitally-delivered content. Take-Two said the largest contributors to digital revenue were Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K and Evolve. As for physical copies of GTA V, last February Take-Two said the title had sold in 45 million units since it was first released in 2013. The number sold in on all platforms has now risen to 52 million.
Impact: How substantially GTA V has been purchased as a digital download on the PC is right in line with consumer trends that DFC has identified previously. Computer gamers are now very comfortable with the Steam platform and that service’s frequent price promotions. PC gamers are also fed up with the reduced support at retail for computer titles over the last decade. So for a PC title to actually sell 25% of units at retail is actually higher than expected in this market. The issue becomes as core gamers tend to play on multiple platforms how fast will this buying behavior extend to their console purchases. Evolve was released not only for PC but also for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. This obviously lowered digital sales significantly. For the moment we do not see the console component of these digital percentages rising nearly as swiftly as on the PC since the sources of downloadable versions tend not to discount MSRP as Valve does, plus there is much wider support for console software at retail where there often is competitive pricing. Regardless, the percentage of digital sales will only continue to rise. In the new DFC Intelligence report, Digital Console Market Q1 2015, DFC Intelligence forecasted that sales of AAA console titles priced over $30 reached $52 million in the first quarter. This report discusses how publishers are using special programs to help drive digital sales. For example, consumers could pre-order and download Borderlands: The Handsome Collection for the Xbox One two weeks prior to its March 24th launch. These type of pre-order programs can significantly drive digital sales for a specific title.
