NPD changes monthly reporting, removes hardware and software unit sales

by Alexander Sliwinski on Oct 12th 2010 2:30PM

NPD's monthly public report on video game software and hardware sales in the US will change this month. The most noticeable alteration will be the removal of hardware and software unit sales. The company will still provide a monthly list of the top ten selling "physical purchases" (i.e. brick-and-mortar retail) on consoles, but by title and not by individual platform SKUs -- meaning multi-platorm games will be clumped in one sum. The company will also continue to provide notes from its analyst, which may contain software sales figures. If this format seems familiar... congratulations, you're a reader of the weekly UK Chart-Track sales data.

NPD notes that the company's hardware and software subscribers "are permitted to release sales figures for their respective products." So, if Microsoft and Sony want to share hardware figures, but Nintendo doesn't, ain't nobody who can give out that data but the House of Mario.

NPD tried a similar tactic back in 2007, which lasted all of six days. As we said back then: "There's always a hunger for this data and if the NPD isn't going to give it up, people might just turn to less reputable sources."

Tags: ds, microsoft, nintendo, NPD, npd-group, playstation, ps3, psp, sony, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (51)

So.. there's going to be more time to play games, instead of worrying about sales numbers?

Huh...

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

As much as I find it interesting, I agree with you. All sales numbers do is bring unjustified hate towards a game if it sells a lot.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze If only gaming was available in the workplace. Instead, numbercraft is what we're left with. Beats actually *doing* real work.

In 2007, NPD said they would continue to provide this data only so long as the 3 console manufacturers all agreed to make it publicly available.

Looks like someone got tired of seeing those numbers published.

@copa
Thats what I was thinking....

@copa

I can't imagine who wouldn't want these numbers published however. Both Sony and Microsoft are up in sales this year and while Wii sales have slowed, they're still going strong and both Sony and Microsoft traditionally love to trumpet their NPD numbers.

@Xcrucio
Sony has been in last place all year, sometimes by a wide margin.

I think they might be tired of the embarrassment.

@Ordeith

Honestly this sucks. No we are going to have fanboys linking to VGChartz all the friggin time. They are so inaccurate and they tend to favor Sony heavily.

@Ordeith Sure, Sony just called NPD, told them to stop publishing hardware numbers and they listened of course.

Stupidity

@Kinjiro
I'm not even sure you read copa's comment...

That sucks, I like reading about the unit sales.

Well, that's pathetic.

Agreed. Less ammo for the fanboys is always a good thing in my book

Then what is the point of looking at their tracking. Lots of gamers like to know how much each game is selling. Madden 11 can be the number one game, but when you don't know how many units it sold, or how many units behind the second place game was, it's really pointless to list them at all.

Curse you Insert Name! Curse you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And fanboys everywhere wept.

Can't anyone think of the fanboys! What will this do to them?!

Shouldn't there be a link to the "less reputable sources", ie vgchartz

@Wonkuoysseleht
There went an elitist PC fanboy who's reminded every time that NPD numbers are released that his poor PC is nowhere to be found.

@A Sandwich
lol wut? have you seen any of the sales data for PC games that includes digital distribution? last year the revenue total was higher than all three consoles combined.

I know this is information that people in the industry track, but does the general gaming public care? Other than fueling the fanboy wars, why do I as "Joe Gamer Public" care which console version of Madden sold the best?

@theangryheretic

BECAUSE WE MUST KNOW WHICH CONSOLE IS THE BEST!

Right before PS Move and MS Kinect sales numbers start rolling in. Coincidence?

@SpacePenguinBot

It's not like it's doing bad. Move has been in the top sales on Amazon since it came out and if I do recall it made 140k preliminary sales. Kinect isn't even out yet, so it wouldn't be fair to go by pre-orders alone on that. So I hardly think Move and Kinect are the reason for this.

@SpacePenguinBot

Maybe this is to take our minds off 9/11... Or something even MORE sinister!?!

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2

I know 7 others personally with PS3s. 1 of them had even heard of Move, let alone knew what it really does. He also didn't know it required the PS Eye, or that there was even such a thing.

Kinect? Pffft. Will be discontinued by Spring 2012.

@Co

Your friends obviously aren't really gamers. I know people who don't own a PS3 and aren't even really that interested in gaming that bought the Move PS3 bundle. The advertising is all over the place, I find it hard to believe they don't know what it is.

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2

Move is currently still being outsold by the Wii each week. Even with the current PS3 install base and lower cost of entry for that base.

It isn't the best sign for the future of Move.

@Ordeith

"Move is currently still being outsold by the Wii each week."

Well, duh. Move is a PS3 accessory, it's not meant to replace the PS3 as a whole. Obviously not every PS3 owner is going to jump on board. The point here is that it's getting enough sales to continue to pull in more devs and publishers. There's already plenty of games that are planning support and more and more keep getting added each month.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_compatible_with_PlayStation_Move

@SpacePenguinBot
No...Conspiracy!

Looks like NPD has basically become useless. All the game companies that subscribe to NPD for the numbers ought not renew this year.

I'm guessing Sony finally got tired of it being publicly known they are in last place by a landslide. Either that or both Sony and Microsoft are afraid they both just came out with total failures and are trying to avoid the embarrassment from the gaming community..

@psyXcho

Yea.... That's exactly it...

@psyXcho

....Lol, are you serious?

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2

naa just being a dick :D

@psyXcho Last place by a landslide? Xbox needs to watch out, this isn't 2007 anymore. A few bad months for Microsoft could lead to an eclipse at this point. They've run out of games until Gears of War 3.

@A Sandwich

Oh, ssssssnap.

This is interesting, and I think there's a number of factors which led to the decision, which will certainly have implications, and no matter what, I can see every hardware and software manufacturer put their own positive spin on whatever information they do provide to the public.

In the end, I'm not sure I really care about actual sales numbers and it doesn't really affect me one way or another. It was always interesting to see the numbers and speculate though.

The other interesting part here, are those sites that attempt to mathmatically project the numbers of sales, but usually adjust when actual sales are provided by the NPD. I'm assuming that'll no longer be the case, which means for inaccuracy.

Won't someone think of the pageviews?!

Hopefully this will only last six days, just like it did before. This move makes absolutely no sense, and they are just pushing people to their competition.

The fools behind VGChartz must be pissing their pants in joy. Wonder if Forbes will use them again as a reference.

This is fine but I don't want to hear about anything being "sold out" anymore before it's even released. I'm looking at you Kinect...

@(Unverified)
Kinect knows you are looking at Kinect.
*queue sinister music*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDZBgHBHQT8

This is a really strange decision by NPD. It is so funny that the movie industry has no problem releasing their numbers every week with exact dollar amounts made, number of screenings per film, and loads of details about the box office revenue.

If the movie industry can feel so secure giving out that information week after week what is wrong with the gaming industry? Giving these numbers out weekly only helps to push sales for the movie industry. The same type of information can be obtained by music industry each week.

I'm not into arguing over console superiority, but I generally look forward to seeing which games sold on which console, and how many units were moved. I mean, I liked Alan Wake, but I also know it sold like crap. Without the context provided by the numbers, I can see that a game came in 10th place... but is that 10th place with a half million units, or 10th place with ten thousand units? There's a big difference.

I'm wiling to bet that this was done at the request of MS and SONY who want to cover up in the event Move and Kinect sales do poorly, the timing is too much of a coincidence. Why else would NPD stop reporting sales figures duringthe peak of the game shopping season?

Hey...

...do you hear that?

That's the sound of VGChartz being the only source for North American retail numbers.

Well if NPD refuses to do its job as a sales tracking reporter then someone else will step in & do the job for them.

The more games they play with the numbers, the more competitors that will come up to replace them. VGChartz is just the beginning. Wait until some site more reputable takes root.

None of this information should be secret. It's not secret in Japan & it shouldn't be secret here. And when that unforeseen competitor steps in & provides a more complete view of the health of the industry, NPD will find themselves out of a job in this field.

They better hope that this competitor doesn't try to cover other sales fields or NPD will be obsolete altogether.
John Lucas

@johnlucas
We can see your screenname right up there.
Where you screenname is.

It's sweet you're being quite professional with us, but you're not filing a report for us John.
blah blah 55

@blahblah55
*your
blah blah 55

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NPD changes monthly reporting, removes hardware and software unit sales

Reader Comments (51)

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:32PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:41PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Oct 15th 2010 1:27PM linkbeat said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:36PM copa said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:44PM TiLoBrown said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:49PM Xcrucio said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 4:09PM Ordeith said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 4:32PM leobebes said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 4:37PM Kinjiro said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 8:32PM blahblah55 said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:39PM Tapejara said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:39PM JoshMilewski said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:55PM Enigma7ic said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:43PM EDay said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:46PM AltairtheAssassinwhokillstuff said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:49PM Trojan said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:49PM Courtney said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:51PM Korova Pamplona said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:53PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2010 4:47PM darkfocus said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 2:54PM theangryheretic said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:21PM liquidsoap89 said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:01PM SpacePenguinBot said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:17PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:21PM liquidsoap89 said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:23PM Co said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:28PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 4:12PM Ordeith said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 4:31PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 5:08PM Lerkero said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:06PM psyXcho said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:22PM liquidsoap89 said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:24PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:38PM psyXcho said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:53PM Surfaced said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:09PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:16PM Starcade said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:17PM Konknok said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:18PM BananaBoat said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:24PM Muu said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:39PM xreadmore said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 4:04PM Ashitaka said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 3:36PM spid said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 4:07PM SurlyDuff said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 6:47PM sinewav said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 7:22PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 8:25PM johnlucas said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 8:35PM blahblah55 said

Posted: Oct 12th 2010 8:35PM blahblah55 said

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