64 per cent of gamers prefer physical discs

Survey says downloads cost too much

At the top of the list of concerns about digital downloads, 35 per cent of those polled said they just preferred to own a physical disc. Meanwhile, 33 per cent said they were worried they'd lose their games and 20 per cent said they like to own a physical collection of games.

Interestingly, 17 per cent said their console simply wasn't connected to the Internet, which doesn't bode well for the future of gaming services such as OnLive.

It also looks as though owners of different consoles have a slightly different outlook on moving to digital downloads. A huge 82 per cent of Xbox 360 owners said they were potentially "interested" in a download model, compared with 76 per cent of PlayStation 3 owners and just 62 per cent of Wii owners.

"They [Nintendo owners] are less likely to be downloading than Xbox or PS3 owners," points out Bramley. "I think the only area where the interest is more level is when they're downloading classic games, but their interest in all the other models was lower."

However, Bramley also explains that although Wii owners are less interested in digital downloads then the owners of other consoles, the figure is still high. "Although it's only just over half of Wii gamers, it's actually pretty strong," he says, "particularly in the context of film, music and press."

According to the survey, only eight per cent of the gamers polled had downloaded a game on the Wii in the last 12 months, compared with 59 per cent who had bought a game in store. By contrast, 23 per cent of Xbox 360 owners and 18 per cent of PlayStation 3 owners had downloaded a digital copy of a game.

Given that we still seem to be clinging on to the notion of physically owning games, will we ever see console games moving beyond physical media?

"At some point the market will shift," says Bramley, "where it's more digital than physical. There are also limitations at the moment in terms of the consoles themselves and what they can actually hold." As a case in point, the Wii only has 512MB of storage space as standard, which isn't enough to hold much in the way of new and complicated games.

According to Bramley, the advent of services such as OnLive next year could herald the switchover. If successful, he says it "will certainly accelerate people's perception of digital, and maybe accelerate the potential decline of physical discs - when people are more used to accessing stuff online."