VGMarket and PlaySpan unviels 2010 Digital Goods Report

VGMarket and PlaySpan announced their
2010 Digital Goods Report that reveals consumer behavior patterns
among existing customers of third-party and first-party online game
marketplaces. VGMarket is a market research firm specializing in the
video game industry and PlaySpan offers monetization solutions for
online games, virtual worlds, social networks, and videos.

The PlaySpan/VGMarket landmark study
quantifies digital goods purchasing behavior at the genre and item
levels. It also provides statistics on first party purchasing
directly from publishers, third party purchasing through online
marketplaces and those who sell digital goods directly to other
players.

Social network games drive revenue:

Comparing information from first party
sites, Social Networks lead the way with the median spent on digital
goods coming in at $50 per year. This was followed by MMO ($40),
Casual Games ($40), Free to Play Games ($40), PC Games with Online
Play ($37) and Console Games with Online Play ($20). Also worth
noting is that overall 32 percent of respondents made purchases
within social networks.

It was also reported that although
males are playing significantly more games and are the primary
drivers of total digital goods sales, North American women 25 years
and older are spending disproportionately large sums of money on
digital goods. When looking at the median spent on first party
purchases within Social Network games, the average female spent $55,
compared to only $30 for males. Females also spent twice as much ($50
compared to $25) when comparing purchases of in-game currency and the
median overall expenditure was higher for females than males, at $80
to $60 respectively.

"The report demonstrates a number
of significant trends and monetization opportunities available to
both first-party publishers and third-party marketplaces through the
sale of digital goods. Each type of digital good has a unique level
of demand, and the amount of money that a consumer spends on digital
goods continues to vary widely by genre," said Michael Gluck,
President, VGMarket.

"As a leader in monetization, our
goal with this report is to shed light on the rapidly changing
digital goods industry, while providing our clients, partners, and
others with valuable information they can use to make timely and
informed business decisions. We look forward to continue working with
established researchers such as VGMarket to publish the latest
industry data and trends, so that others can better understand the
dynamics of the marketplace," said Eric Hartness, Chief
Marketing Officer, PlaySpan.

The VGMarket survey was comprised of
responses from a sampling of 2,221 customers between the ages of 13
and 64 across the PlaySpan Marketplace, Facebook via Spare Change,
and Ultimate Game Card.