49% Of Gamers Don’t Buy Downloadable Content

An Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) report has released figures showing that 49% of gamers in the marketplace still aren’t purchasing downloadable content for HD consoles. The report cites that privacy concerns, along with issues of cost and a lack of an ability to return the content are among the major reasons for the slow uptake of paid for DLC.

Interestingly, despite the fact a number of consumers cited privacy issues, EEDAR are claiming that the PSN hacking incident actually had very little effect on the statistics.

    However, EEDAR’s survey data does not suggest that the PSN incident had a major impact on consumer privacy concerns. EEDAR’s survey was conducted before and after the official announcement of the breach. When comparing the responses prior to and after the breach, the results were within 4 points of the overall average (47%). In addition, privacy concerns of Xbox 360 owners and PlayStation 3 owners remained within 5 percentage points of each other after the breach.

Personally, I tend to not buy add-on DLC, even if the content promises compelling new content. I’m usually happy with the experience of the boxed games themselves. The one exception for me was the Episodes from Liberty City content, which felt like complete new games as opposed to add on content.

You can read the full report here.

What about you folks – do you commonly pick up DLC through your PSN and 360? Let us know in the comments below.