EA calls NPD's monthly report a 'misrepresentation of the entire industry'

@mguniverse

You are correct, and incorrect all at once. Here's why.

Where the problem lies is not NPD, but Apple, and Sony, and Microsoft, and Nintendo, and Steam, and all the other digital companies who either refuse to allow NPD to have access to their sales data, or denies NPD the right to report those numbers publicly.

Yeah, you could blame NPD, but trust me, it is not by choice they do not track digital downloads. That is a situation that is being forced on them by the oligopoly of companies (the gatekeepers if you will), that control all access to, and all information flowing out of, the digital distribution domain. If EA wants to complain about the information their investors are getting, then maybe they should take their complaints up with Apple, and Sony, and Nintendo, and Microsoft, and Steam . . .

And as for the shrinking importance of physical sales being a misinterpretation of the industry, that statement is the most utter piece of bullshit that I have read in a very long time come out the mouth of an EA exec. I guess the 50 million people who own Xbox 360s, and the 41 million people who own PS3s, and the 86 million people who own Wiis, and the 67 million people who own PSPs, and then 150 million people who own some variant of the Nintendo DS, I guess all those people have already switched to buying 90% of all their full priced games via digital downloads . . . oh wait a minute, outside of the PSPGo and the Xbox 360, you CAN'T buy current-gen premium games on current-gen consoles and portables from digital downloads! And let's face reality, this is still where the bulk of all sales are for the simple technological reasons that the systems do not support the feature - and the two systems that do, offer extremely limited digital libraries when it comes to their available library of premium titles.

Not saying that people are not going to digital - they are, especially on mobile (where they no longer have a choice) and PC. And tons of people are certainly purchasing XBLA, PSN and WiiWare titles. But even the extreme few publishers who have been balls enough to actually publish their digital numbers for the XBLA/PSN/WiiWare titles, those numbers come no where near the number of premium titles sold on disc.

Collectively, even today with the rapid adoption of gamers to digital formats, you are lucky if you could make the statement that even 10% of all PREMIUM games sold (not counting those $1 iPhone games), were sold via digital download. Make no mistake, one day we will get to the point where 90% of all games are sold digitally, but we are no where near close to that today. And EA trying to insist that NPD reporting methods are a "misrepresentation", as if NPD were no longer valid, is one of the biggest lies I have heard come out of EA . . . well, since they stopped being the Evil Empire version of Electronic Arts.

@littlepunkryo

Tiffany Steckler is most likely a woman. =p

@xiLeShadow *facepalm* Yep, she is. In my own defense though, I've only known one Terry and he was a guy!

@littlepunkryo

What's even better is her name is Tiffany, not Terry.

@sonicspike41 Oh wow and I read it as Terry BOTH times. I need to go to bed.

@littlepunkryo apparently you missed the part where it said most companies dont allow access to their digital sales figures....its not really the NPD its the major companies that dont allow them the data they need to make correct sales charts. If I were the NPD id rather not publish numbers when I dont have all the figures either.

@Xero Theory But the post also says that they DO release digital sales figures that they have, just separately. So I don't get why they can't just combine the numbers into one single report?

@littlepunkryo "EA certainly has a point, but it's not like it's NPD's choice -- the purveyors of these digital distribution platforms certainly aren't going to freely offer over all sales data." I wouldnt put out a report without all the numbers either, there is no point, if you cant get an accurate number from anyone because they guard all their digital sales, f em. EA shouldnt be ripping NPD they should be complaining to the places that wont share the info.

@xiLeShadow

This is what counts:

Call of Duty: Black Ops in 1 of 8 U.S. Households
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/115/1155418p1.html

Wake me up when digital sales are there.

@Starcade They're talking about the numbers that analysts use for talking about the current health of the industry, which the NPD doesn't track.

@Assmar

No actually NDP is, and has always been, the one of the best ways for a company to trace product sales.

Any big publisher,developer,corporation that sells product has an account with NDP that reports sales for them in accordance to the industry.

For us as the normal population, it means little since we never get to see the internals of the sales industry other than some figures that we no longer even get.

otherwise, for businesses, its a good thing.

@Assmar
90% of investors out there are idiots and sheep. They can't think for themselves so they go to crap like this. Then they wonder what happened after they made a mess from their misinformation.

Damn big post...I don't even care about sales numbers or how they should be represented.

My fingers seem to operate on their own accord.

Dang! Big post! Surprising for me since I don't actually care about sales or how they're represented.

My fingers seem to operate on their own accord.

@Premature ejaculation man Are you saying that the words came out when you weren't expecting them too? Shouldn't you be used to that sort of thing?

@(Unverified)

Indeed!

@nawoa
That wouldn't be odd, that would be awesome!

@nawoa I do no have steam installed. And I do not support digital distribution.