San Diego - Video game publishers would do well to take advantage of the online storefronts offered by next-generation video game consoles, as games with downloadable content sell 114% more than other titles, according to a report from market research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR).

The report examined 180 downloadable games and 2,100 pieces of downloadable content for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, and found that Xbox 360 titles with downloadable content sold 129% more, while PS3 titles sold 16% more.

Nintendo currently only offers classic titles through its service, with no downloadable add-ons for existing titles.

"Our study shows that the marketplace is rapidly evolving into utilizing revenue options beyond retail game sales," said EEDAR COO Geoffrey Zatkin.

"In an environment with crippling production costs, publishers have new ways to dramatically impact their financial gain, while making gamers happy, if they understand how to utilize the new generation of console storefronts."

EEDAR found that the PlayStation 3 offers 19.2 GB of downloadable game titles and game content, while the Xbox 360 has 106.5 GB, which "makes a case for why Microsoft is offering the Xbox 360 Elite with 120GB of hard drive space."

Publishers who offered a downloadable demo and trailer of their titles on these systems saw 69% more revenue than games without either.

Currently, some 80% of the downloadable content on the PlayStation 3 is free, while only 29% is free on Xbox 360; the average price of downloadable content is between $1.69 (Xbox 360) and $1.97 (PS3).

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