NPD launching Euro sales tracking service, focusing on digital for a 'global perspective'

On Monday, NPD announced it was partnering with EEDAR to extend its retail research reports to the digital domain. Today, having braved the great digital divide, the New York-based company announced it was ready to brave another, less digital divide: the Atlantic Ocean. Beginning with Q4 2011 sales, NPD will offer a version of its "Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend" service that tracks "consumer spending for games content" across Europe's "largest video game markets," meaning UK, France, and Germany.

While companies like Chart-Track already provide retail insight in the UK, NPD says its "service in Europe will focus on measuring channels that are not currently tracked in Europe – namely those occurring outside of new physical retail sales." Why look at digital in Europe? We bet NPD industry analyst Anita Frazier has a great answer for that. "The new digital distribution channels in video games are not country specific," Frazier told a press release. "They are global in nature, which is why NPD is taking its proven, proprietary methodology, developed over a number of years, and applying it to a global perspective."