EEDAR: Sony's Welcome Back Program assisted PS3 sales

EEDAR has published a new Retail Buyer Report for July which, using IGN GamerMetric figures, discusses how Sony's Welcome Back Program helped boost sales through the firm's PlayStation Network.

According to the report, all four Welcome Back titles: Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Nation and WipEout, were in the top 25 of consumer reported purchases during June 2011.

The report also states 17 percent of IGN users purchased a PSN title during June, which is up 13 percent over March.

EEDAR's report also claims the Welcome Back program boosted PS3 game sales, stating PS3's share among current-gen consoles stood at 44 percent, compared to 40 percent just prior to the PlayStation Network outage in April.

"As with the previous analysis, removing the four Welcome Back titles resulted in a 1 percent increase in market share from March 2011," reads the report. "While this increase in market share is small, the fact that the PlayStation 3 market share increased both with and without the free offerings indicates that the Welcome Back Program likely boosted sales of other paid content, specifically those available either exclusively through download or those that had a physical or digital purchase options.

"While the Welcome Back program was designed to rekindle the activity and consumer trust of PlayStation Network users, the data suggests it may have highlighted a new profitable sequence for video games."

Thanks, Industry Gamers.