Content of all type is moving from physical to digital distribution, so says Pietro Macchiarella, Research Analyst with Parks Associates.  Macchiarella adds that content protection and the rich data that digital distribution provides are common discussion points regardless of content type (e.g. video, music, gaming).

He also provides his views of the recent E3 gaming conference. He notes the increasing interdependence between broadband and gaming, whether it is existing consoles or the new streaming game services. He implies that there may be an opportunity for third parties (e.g. service providers) with new models, such as the one offered by Gaikai (see a related release regarding their announcement to stream games to Samsung TVs).

135 million Americans fit the definition of “gamer”, which is playing games on any platform one hour or more per month. The ever-growing popularity of games, whether free-to-play (with monetization via virtual goods or advertising), pay, subscription or some hybrid model of the aforementioned, is leading to real revenues, with Parks Associates reporting that, “gamers who spend money on Facebook games average about $29 USD per month in spending while those who pay for virtual goods and upgrades in free-to-play games spend about $21 USD per month on average.”

To read more of Macchiarella’s research on gaming, click here for a recently published Parks Associates white paper on the topic, http://www.parksassociates.com/whitepapers/parks-gaming-wp2012.

[ViodiTV coverage of Connections 2012 brought to you by Parks Associates]