Digital distribution giant Steam is losing market shares to Amazon, GameStop and Microsoft.

June 1, 2011 - PRLog -- Berlin, 1st June 2011: A study conducted by the leading digital deal and price comparison portal Deals4Downloads.com revealed a strong growth of the digital games distribution market of more than 200 percent. While market leader Steam sees substantial growth, it still loses market share to newcomers like Amazon and Microsoft.

The study, which was conducted over the past year by Deals4Downloads.com, revealed some interesting facts about the dynamics of the digital distribution of video games. According to the study "Market Shares of Digital Distribution Platforms in 2010-2011", the overall market of digital distribution saw a growth of 220%. This growth is attributed mainly to an increasing shift from physical to digital distribution. Additionally, traditional retail players like GameStop or Microsoft are making increasingly aggressive moves toward the new digital market.

The biggest new entry to the digital market though is Amazon, who made a strong push into the market with it's own digital distribution service that covers both PC and Mac video games. Amazon is followed closely by GameStop and Microsoft, which both launched their own digital distribution platforms, too.

Longtime market leader Steam is now facing more and stronger competition than ever. Steam itself shows a respectable growth of more than 150% but still loses more than 10% of it's market shares to it's new contenders. While Valve's digital distribution platform still holds a comfortable 55% of the market Amazon, GameStop and Microsoft grabbed 10% each on market entry, trailed by EA with 5%.

Most of the established independent digital distribution services like Direct2Drive (+34%), GamersGate (+63%) or Good Old Games (+54%) still managed to grow despite this market shake-up. With Desura, GreenManGaming, and Beamdog we even saw a couple of promising new indie download shops entering the digital market.

The biggest losers, including Bestbuy, Alienware, or Xfire seem to be download shops that didn't manage to find a unique positioning or failed to address the increasing price pressure due to growing numbers of download deals. Deals4Downloads.com reported an increase of deals for digitally distributed games by a factor of 10!

The study is based on internal data combined with publicly available traffic and usage information. The full methodology and more background information can be found here: http://www.deals4downloads.com/blog/


About Deals4Downloads.com

Online startup Deals4Downloads.com is the largest deal and price comparison portal for digitally distributed games. Currently it tracks and lists 250+ daily deals and more than 10,000 digital games at more than 50 international download shops. The Deals4Downloads.com blog further reports on trends and behind the scene information within the digital distribution market.

With its exclusive focus on digital content, Deals4Downloads.com supports games developers, publishers and online shops to market their digital content and to target their audience. It stands for an open, transparent and quickly growing digital market. It helps consumers to find their digital games and online store faster, safer and for a better price.

Deals4Downloads.com is a service of Bitfish GmbH, a startup based in Berlin, Germany. The core team around the founders Sebastian Lindig and Michael Krenz is supported by an international team of research analysts, editors and developers.

Press Material and Contact Info

Print-ready logos and other assets: http://www.deals4downloads.com/index/press

For more information about Deals4Download.com please contact:

Sebastian Lindig
Phone: +49 – (0)30 - 2945861
Email: press@deals4downloads.com
Web: http://www.deals4downloads.com
Blog: http://blog.deals4downloads.com/