Looks like you called it. NPD changed their public release to combine multi-platform SKUs, a move that “coincidentally” shoves Nintendo evergreens entirely off the chart.
Of course Wii hardware and software sales tanking helps with that, too.
NPD is in a bunker mentality. Have you noticed that the Information Age is making a commodity of all information industries?
Let me ask you a question, oh amazing reader.
“Yes, Malstrom. Go ask it.”
Would you buy a dictionary?
“Don’t be preposterous, Malstrom! Why would anyone buy a dictionary today? I can just look anything up online for free, and it is done faster than flipping pages.”
Very well. Would you buy an encyclopedia?
“You are ridiculous! There is Wikipedia and other free dictionaries online. Why do I want to buy books of all things!”
How about newspapers?
“Hello Malstrom! Hello! Think, Malstrom, think! By the time newspapers get to my door, it is already old news. I can get superior news coverage, from hundreds of different sources, online for free. I don’t need a stinking newspaper.”
Well then! How about sales data for games?
“Silly Malstrom! I just look that stuff online.”
Have you noticed that every industry that deals with just raw information isn’t being creamed by the Information Age? Of course, gaming will never fully exist as ‘free’ because it is not information. It contains content. People are still willing to pay for content, but they will no longer pay for “information”. Twenty five years ago, I could write and publish a book that did nothing but talk about the planets of the solar system and details about them. Such a book might be bought by schools or universities or by people who think learning about planets and space is cool. But in this day and age, no one would pay for such ‘information’. Note that they will pay for ‘interpretation’ or ‘analysis’. But they will not pay for raw information.
The NPD’s product is raw information. It is just sales data. Why should any game company buy the NPD? And since NPD cannot track digital sales, it becomes even more useless.
I don’t fully buy the ‘official explanation’ that NPD stopped showing their numbers because of game publishers’ stocks being hit (due to decline of gaming in general). You know why? Who posted the NPD ‘free’ info? Generalized game websites and gaming forums.
Investors do not hang out on these websites. Investors do not sit on gaming message forums. Investors actually get the NPD information. Who are these analysts’ customers? It is investors.
The explanation that NPD numbers must be hidden because investors go bonkers because the numbers show decline and hit certain publishers is poppycock. The investors don’t rely on free NPD information. So this change wouldn’t affect them at all.
I think it is all about NPD trying to survive in an age where everyone expects information to be free.
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