UKIE's digital PC sales data in beta form, only "basic" info to start with

The February due first digital PC sales revenue data from British trade group UKIE will be a beta version, and it’ll only provide the most ”basic” of information; more robust over time.

For the digital chart to work, which UKIE hopes will mimic their existing retailer tracking, they need more contributors. This data will help ”lobby government” even better.

Until the digital sales market is accounted for in detail, the UK’s game industry suffers as only boxed retail figures get tallied, despite the digital market exploding in success.

UKIE plan to track Xbox Live and PlayStation Network too. ”Having this digital data alongside our UKIE Games Charts for boxed products, will allow the games industry to lobby government even more effectively, and allow our members to make informed and fact based commercial decisions,” said UKIE CEO Jo Twist.

So far the contributors to the UKIE digital PC chart include Disney Interactive Studios, Focus Multimedia, Get Games, Green Man Gaming, Mastertronic, NCsoft, Sega, Square-Enix, Ubisoft, Warner Bros and others. A true picture of the UK digital PC market won’t happen unless UKIE manage to woo Valve’s Steam service into giving up data.