NPD: Non-traditional games revenue hit $3B in Q4 2011

An NPD report states non-retail offerings in France, Germany, the UK and US hit $3 billion during Q4 2011.

According to the firm's report as posted on GI.biz, "used games, rentals, subscriptions, digital downloads, social games, mobile games and DLC" hit $3.33 billion in the aforementioned regions during the quarter with the US holding the lion's share with $2.04 billion in revenue. The UK came in second with around $508 million in revenue, followed by Germany with $461 million and France with $320 million.

"Now that we've established our Europe based service covering the UK, France, and Germany, we can begin working directly with clients to help them dissect at deeper levels how the unique market drivers specific to each country can help them understand the increasingly global nature of the games industry," said European industry analyst Sam Naji.

"It's fascinating to see the nuances in consumer behaviour across geographies," NPD analyst Anita Frazier added . "Clearly these other forms of content acquisition do not follow as consistent of a trend as we see with the established box product business in the US."