Jester,

Perhaps 'digital downloads', unsubstantiated, covers all sins? Or does NPD have a way to account for that these days? It probably matters not, as EA has so often, as you point out, had a disconnect between revenues and stock price.

Estimates for Bloodborne digital sales put it at 15% of total, which other anecdotal evidence I've read seems to be reasonable. Bear in mind though, that doesn't mean growth in typical game digital sales from 0% last year to 15% this year. It was likely double digits last year. I forget who it was, but one of the analysts when defending GME was saying that digital favors the hardcore, who are the early adopters, so moving forward we shouldn't expect the same fast conversion from retail to digital to continue. It will still be happening, just not as quickly as the recent growth spurt.

Because these digital sales aren't very transparent, it's become the equivalent of "European" sales 10 years ago. Remember back then when a game had poor NPD people would be claiming international sales were great? Which, conveniently, weren't transparent.

venturebeat.com/20...lling/