More computer games were sold online and downloaded than were bought at stores during the first half of the year, according to a recent market research report from Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD Group Inc.
Some 11 million digital computer game downloads were bought online from January to June, according to NPD.
During the same period, about 8 million video games were bought as packaged discs in stores.
It marks the first time games purchased via digital download made up the bulk of total computer game sales, the company said.
Games sold at stores continue to hold a greater share of total revenue at 57% during that period. That’s mostly because games sold in stores are more expensive than those sold as downloads.
Video games—once thought by industry watchers to be “recession-proof”—are far from it.
Combined sales of digital and store games were down 21% from a year earlier in the first half of 2010, according to NPD.
The number of games sold was down 14%.
That’s bad news for Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment Inc., part of Santa Monica’s Activision Blizzard Inc., the largest game publisher.
Subscription growth for Blizzard’s popular multiplayer online game, “World of Warcraft,” has stalled some in the past year.
Still, two of Blizzard’s websites made it into the top five on NDP’s top digital game retailers list.
Worldofwarcraft.com was No. 4. Blizzard.com was No. 5.
Design Win
Santa Ana’s Iteris Inc., a maker of traffic management sensors and other gear, scored a design win with an unnamed automaker. The value of the deal wasn’t disclosed.
Iteris said its technology, used to alert drivers if they are drifting into another lane, is set to be integrated into the front camera systems for the automaker.
Vehicles containing the technology are expected to start production in 2011.
Iteris’ lane-departure warning system was introduced in 2004. It’s currently sold in some Infinitis and Nissans sold abroad.
Iteris’ system uses algorithms and onboard cameras to track lane markings, alerting drivers if they start drifting toward another lane.
The company licensed the technology to France’s Valeo Group in 2003. Valeo sells directly to automakers with Iteris collecting a royalty for each lane-departure warning system sold.
Iteris also sells the technology as part of a suite of safety products for companies that run fleets of trucks.
Publicly traded Iteris sees yearly sales of about $60 million and had a recent market value of $48 million.
Science Contest
Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp.’s corporate foundation is set to give $6 million over six years to launch a middle school competition geared to promote science, technology, engineering and math for students and teachers.
The foundation is sponsoring a program dubbed the Broadcom Masters, which stands for math, applied science, technology and engineering for rising stars.
The program is working with the Society for Science & the Public, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that puts on nationwide science fairs and other academic competitions at the junior high and high school levels.
Some 7,500 students who compete in nationwide science fairs put on by the Society for Science & the Public will be culled to a group of 300 semifinalists.
From the semifinalist group, some 30 Broadcom Masters will be picked to meet in Washington in the fall of next year.
The Broadcom Foundation is set to pay for the trip and related learning activities for the students.
The competition ends in awards and prizes, including a $25,000 education grant from Broadcom cofounder and Chief Technical Officer Henry Samueli and his wife Susan.
Together they give via the Samueli Foundation, which gives millions to causes in education, alternative medicine, the arts and the Jewish community.
“We wanted to impact the defining moment when kids either stay with or turn away from science and math,” said Paula Golden, executive director of the Broadcom Foundation and director of community affairs for the chipmaker. “We narrowed the field to middle school. A science fair is the first time that most kids think for themselves and learn about what they like. It’s often the first time they get to bring their math and science skills to bear.”
The Broadcom Foundation was started in 2009 with some $50 million to put toward education causes with a focus on promoting science, technology, engineering and math for students and teachers.
Broadcom Chief Executive Scott McGregor, as a student, was a semifinalist in one of the early Society for Science & the Public-affiliated competitions, Golden said.
“He was acknowledged at a young age and took a turn toward science and math,” she said.
Broadcom is the county’s biggest chipmaker, with yearly sales of about $6 billion and a recent market value of $17 billion.
