Tue, Oct 12, 2010 | 17:52 BST

NPD cans monthly hardware sales: “It shouldn’t be up to NPD to release these figures,” says Riley

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NPD Group has said it’s to stop releasing monthly hardware unit sales figures for the US, and instead the public will have to get the information from the console holders.

The change is effective immediately: the NPD release this Thursday, October 14, won’t contain the pertinent hardware information.

NPD executive director David Riley denied, however, that the move is likely to damage clear reporting and analysis of the US market.

“No, it won’t,” the boss told VG247. “Clients can release their figures, which we can verify, but it shouldn’t be up to NPD to release these figures.

“Our corporate publishing guidelines changed, but nothing has changed client-side.”

The move means that none of the hardware manufacturers are obliged to release their monthly US sales figures, but are “permitted” to do so, and will be “supported” to do so by NPD.

“I pay a lot for access to the data”

Wedbush Morgan analysis head Michael Pachter wasn’t surprised by the move.

“I’m not sure why they ever release any of their numbers to the press,” he told VG247 today.

“They probably do so to generate publicity, and they have likely concluded that they get plenty by publishing only a little information, so they want to give less away for free.

“I pay a lot for access to the data, and probably could have skipped the hardware piece and gotten from the manufacturers directly, so they don’t want paying customers like me to turn off their subscriptions.”

NPD will be changing the the following in its monthly reporting:

Removal of monthly hardware unit sales figures.
A shift in the Top 10 software from SKU level with unit sales for the top five to a top 10 software chart with no unit sales.
Revised footnote explaining that the monthly retail data reflects new physical purchases, not total consumer spend (digital, subscriptions, mobile games, rentals, used or social network games). The NPD Group will release a total consumer spend report to press on a quarterly basis.
Monthly analysis from NPD analyst, Anita Frazier, will include software sales figures at both the SKU and title level for various new releases.

The changes are to “address the changing sales landscape as well as updates to NPD’s corporate publishing policies,” so the only way we will learn of the hardware units sold is through the clients who retain the data: Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and software publishers.

48 comments

Psychotext
12/10/10, 5:20 pm

You bunch of utter clowns.

JL
12/10/10, 5:22 pm

Late April Fools’ joke? Please? >(

lexph3re
12/10/10, 5:28 pm

That’s brilliant actually, some. People should. Rejoice about this. It takes. Away ammmo for fanboyism and will have people focused on games again and not trying to figure out whose playing more on what. Now people will have to choose for themselves! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Razor
12/10/10, 5:29 pm

RAAAAGGGGGEEEEEEE.

What the hell?

Psychotext
12/10/10, 5:30 pm

Quite the opposite lexph3re, all you’ll get is fanboyism without facts, which is 10x worse. If you’ve ever seen the arguments over European console market share you’ll know what I mean.

lexph3re
12/10/10, 5:33 pm

Oh…. no….. I didn’t consider that…… sh!t!!!!! I already. Hear that. With. Sales figures now I have to hear. Worse things!? D@mn you phone spacebar for adding extra periods!

Johnny Cullen
12/10/10, 5:41 pm

Wow.

Like… wow.

Proper wow.

Fuck me sideways wow.

That’s a bit of a megaton.

2plus2equals5
12/10/10, 5:44 pm

Mmmm… suspicious…

JL
12/10/10, 5:52 pm

Shenanigans?

#10

Patrick Garratt
12/10/10, 5:54 pm

Updated with a quote from Mr Pachter there.

#11

Petulant Radish
12/10/10, 5:55 pm

I blame Microsoft…or Sony…or Nintendo…or Panasonic…or Samsung…or Dyson…or Hitler. Probably not Dyson though.

#12

Stephany Nunneley
12/10/10, 5:55 pm

I figured it all boiled down to money.

Everything always does.

#13

The Hindle
12/10/10, 6:00 pm

Im glad tbh, its about time Sony and Microsoft released more up to date sales instead of relying on the NPD.

#14

Retroid
12/10/10, 6:01 pm

Yeah, I’ll just get on the phone with Nintendo of America and ask them how much for their monthly numbers.

/Joey

#15

Prof.Dr.Moertel
12/10/10, 6:09 pm

Oh snap…

#16

Patrick Garratt
12/10/10, 6:10 pm

I’m not being funny, but aside from the serious issues of transparency and accuracy, this has brought back a lot of memories about building VG247. I’m honestly saddened by this on a personal level. Mike and I used to sit up in the middle of the night posting this stuff as fast as possible to be “first”. One of the spotlights on games journalism’s main stage has just been turned off.

I’M GOING TO CRY.

#17

Goffee
12/10/10, 6:20 pm

I remember once when Elspa sent out it’s usual charts with the sales figures attached by mistake. What a shock! (I.E. How small the figures were outside the top three – how the industry survives is a miracle) I imagine the hardware numbers are too scary to publish outside.of Christmas anyway

#18

Michael O’Connor
12/10/10, 6:33 pm

Good.

#19

mortiferus
12/10/10, 6:38 pm

This is a sham! What BS!!! So the big three will put out BS numbers that each will dispute and no one including publishers and advertisers will have a clear trend, gain/loss, or segmentation picture…

#20

Mike
12/10/10, 6:41 pm

*salutes*

*hugs Pat*

#21

Robo_1
12/10/10, 6:45 pm

What’s your reasoning for the “good” comment Michael? Oh, and has GAF melted down yet? lol

#22

manamana
12/10/10, 6:48 pm

Fanboys Round One: Fight!

#23

Soong
12/10/10, 6:57 pm

I don’t think anyone will care though, the sales figure obsession really came about at the start of this generation when there were massive changes going on: Nintendo going from last place to first, Sony going from first to last, and so on. Now the status quo has been in place for a good 4 or 5 years, and isn’t likely to change significantly in the future. It’s boring and pointless now, basically.

#24

Happy Hardon Harry
12/10/10, 7:12 pm

Good, hopefully the fanboys will shut the fuck up now!

#25

Grimrita
12/10/10, 7:21 pm

aka sales are in decline and the platform holders wont give us the data anymore

#26

Psychotext
12/10/10, 7:23 pm

I walked into a Wal*Mart recently and saw no Wiis, 2 PS3s and a pile of 360s. Pretty clear indication that the Wii is outselling the PS3, which is outselling the 360 by loads.

Also, if you look at the Amazon charts you’ll see that the Nintendo DS is much higher than the PS3 this month (like, by 20 places in the charts), so it must be outselling it by at least 20 to 1.

That said, if you look at vgchartz this week you can tell that the 360 is killing the PSP worldwide, and has been for the last 6 months.

#27

ybfelix
12/10/10, 7:25 pm

If anything fanboy speculations will be more wildly, WILD I say!

#28

AHA-Lambda
12/10/10, 7:46 pm

this is a sad day indeed ;_;;_;;_;

goodnight sweet prince

#29

Patrick Garratt
12/10/10, 8:09 pm

@26 Oh. Sweet. Jesus.

#30

Fantastic
12/10/10, 8:13 pm

And all of this is because the PS3 is now overtaking the xb360. MS did this to keep us in the dark. They don’t want people to know that Sony is killing them in hardware sales!

MS is very worried about the Move, and this proves it.

#31

reask
12/10/10, 8:16 pm

So no NPD this Thursday?

#32

lexph3re
12/10/10, 8:27 pm

@26 Yes. Because we all can rest assured that your local wal-mart is a determining factor on what. Console is in the lead. Honestly dude let’s just let that go because soon none shall no the truth!

#33

mortiferus
12/10/10, 9:11 pm

@26. Ohhh Ignorance is bliss… Wal*Mart, where you from, boy, North Carolina?

@32. Amen to that!

@30. You know that the 360 has been outselling the PS3 comfortably since the release of the slim model right? I don’t think it’s in MS best interests to hide that.

#34

Michael O’Connor
12/10/10, 9:13 pm

@21 I simply consider this a good thing.

#35

Blerk
12/10/10, 11:12 pm

I love the fact that everyone’s taking Psycho’s post seriously!

This is not only bad news, but “really bad news”. They’ve obviously been taking note of how things are done in Europe and realised they were missing a fantastic revenue stream by making all this stuff publicly available. As a result we have an effectively neutered public NPD, a lack of proper facts and almost certainly an exponential rise in FUD bullshit.

Super.

#36

Spaced Oddity
13/10/10, 2:26 am

@Blerk & Psychotext’s #26 post:

Yes, I find it amusing people don’t see Psychotext’s brilliant satirical example of the upcoming ocean of inaccurate fanboy retardation. Just take a look at how he brought out mortiferus’ insecurities and fanboyism. LOL

#37

Tonka
13/10/10, 9:05 am

How can anyone have missed Psychotext’s hardcore attitude towards numbers? The world must be a bigegr place than I thought.

Anyways, sad to see the NPD go. They provided a monthly entertainment.

#38

Blerk
13/10/10, 9:08 am

I refuse to believe that there are people in the world who don’t know who Psychotext is. Before the night-vision goggles incident, maybe. But now? Not a chance!

#39

Psychotext
13/10/10, 10:44 am

My love for darkened car parks is surpassed only by my love for numbers.

#40

Blerk
13/10/10, 10:48 am

Which is kind of lucky because in the future, darkened car parks are the only places you’re going to be able to get hold of NPD sales figures.

#41

Johnny Cullen
13/10/10, 10:53 am

OH SNAP!

#42

Psychotext
13/10/10, 10:57 am

\o/