Shop smart, shop digital: how to survive the digital revolution of games distribution

• Digital games distribution is going mainstream and bringing about drastic changes in market structure and product lifecycle.
• Frequent, one-off deals mean consumers can optimize their game purchases and save up to 80% – if they find the right deals.
• Founded by games-industry veterans, online startup Deals4Downloads.com bridges the gap and is the first to aggregate deals, trends and news with an exclusive focus on downloadable games for all platforms.

We are witnessing a silent ®evolution: recent years have seen a marked shift from physical to digital forms of business and consumption. More and more content is sold and bought in digital form, be it music, movies, books or games. What started with music is now also becoming mainstream for games: millions of gamers are purchasing games directly from one of the many digital distribution platforms such as Apple, Valve or Amazon.

Within this highly competitive market, limited special offers are the most popular marketing tool. Most digital distribution platforms already regularly use weekends, spring, pre-orders and numerous other occasions to promote attractive deals and quickly attract new customers.

This drastically changes the classical product life cycle. In contrast to the more linear retail life cycle, the new trend of frequent download deals results in constant fluctuations in price.

Instead of having to wait for regular price reductions that usually only happen months after release, savvy consumers can now get great deals earlier and at any time in the product lifecycle.

Aggregators like Deals4Downloads can help to save up to 80% of the retail price.

Within the first four weeks of its Beta release, Deals4downloads.com aggregated more than 200 special deals with an average saving of 50% from more than 15 different partners.

This brings about new opportunities and challenges for both the industry and the consumer. Consumers have more choice than ever and can benefit from great price cuts and deals – if they find them in time. Digital games distribution also means complex offerings that are more difficult to compare. New market players make brand recognition difficult. More choice needs more transparency and guidance.

New services like Deals4Downloads.com drastically reduce the search costs for digitally-provided content such as games and help consumers to benefit from this market evolution. By providing customers with up-to-date information about deals, trends, availability and pricing of digitally-distributed games, the service saves gamers time and money. Deals4Downloads also offers regular reviews of online shops and market analysis on their blog, helping consumers avoid the potential pitfalls involved in buying downloadable games.

Deals4Downloads.com also provides independent publishers with an additional marketing channel, helping them compete in the face of dominant digital distribution platforms.

Founder and CEO Sebastian Lindig remarks: “Working at different traditional games publishers and distributors I learned how difficult it is to move on and develop the right mindset for the digital market. Gamers want the best games for the best price and from a reliable, trustworthy and convenient partner. With the growing complexity, choice and speed of the digital games market we need more transparency and reduced search costs. We want entertainment instantly at any time from anywhere on any platform. This is exactly what Deals4Downloads.com will stand for.”