Only 15% of gamers actually buy DLC…

Downloadable Content, a.k.a. Microtransactions, certainly seems like a “mature” development in this generation of consoles and even on the PC with Steam providing DLC sale and distribution, but the truth is, it is still very much a “young” element in the gaming industry. It’s easy to read the claims from Microsoft, Sony and such about how many millions of dollars they’re making fro DLC, but the real story here is how many millions they’re not making.

It’s estimated that more than half of Xbox 360 owners don’t bother connecting to Xbox Live or even go online, and an even larger number of people still haven’t made the leap from PlayStation 2 to a current-gen console. That’s a lot of gamers who aren’t exposed to DLC, or feel the need to upgrade to an HD console.

Meanwhile, according to VG247:

A survey conducted by media consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates has found that out of 800 gamers surveyed, only 15 percent purchased DLC.

A little under half also admitted that they were unaware of DLC being available.

With only 15 percent of the respondents stating that they were aware of or have purchased DLC, 41 percent claimed they were aware of DLC, but have yet to purchase additional content and 43 percent were not aware of it at all.

Speaking with IGN, Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors, said that those who were unaware of DLC were typically playing consoles that do not promote additional content, like PS2 and Wii.

While personally, the sampling of only 800 gamers seems incredible small, it’s still indicative of the larger picture, especially when you combine it with the news from Take 2 that the GTAIV DLC hasn’t been selling as well as predicted, though that may attributed to other factors.

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