NPD puts gag on Pachter

US sales tracker NPD has issued a note to analyst Michael Pachter requesting that he stops handing out NPD data to media outlets.

Above: Malstrom’s reaction

More below.

In October of last year the company announced that it was to change the way in which it publishes its monthly video game sales data, omitting most of what had made the reports some of the most revealing in the industry.

NPD instead said it was up to individual platform holder and publishers to govern the publication of sales numbers.

And now it seems that it doesn’t want analysts spreading the word, either.

“NPD would appreciate it, if you and your teams refrain from providing any of our Games data directly to the media,” the note to Pachter read. “This includes live discussions, e-mails, and/or notes.

“In some cases, you may have to remove the media from your distribution lists. Should the media take issue with this, you can feel free to send them my contact information, and I can connect them with the appropriate NPD representative.”

Pachter has confirmed that he will adhere to the request, telling journalists: “Going forward, we are not permitted to send our NPD results note to anyone associated with the media.

“I have been distributing the results note to the media, and will not do so going forward.”

Pachter is such a politician, he constantly runs to cameras and journalists. I have no doubt he probably kept using NPD information as a carrot because he loves media attention (as any politician does).

But what is going on with the NPD? A few years ago, NPD had no problems with their data going out or sharing it. I remember in 2007 about the NPD crowing how the Games Industry was growing leaps and bounds. Of course, all this growth came from the DS and Wii.

My question is, “If the games industry was very healthy, would the NPD have the same reaction?” I don’t think so.

Investors get the sales numbers through the companies they invest in and the analyst reports they purchase. NPD is annoyed at these numbers getting into the public. If there were bad numbers, investors would already know it. Investors do not get sales numbers from the USA Today or Kotaku.

A more likely scenario is that other sites, such as VGchartz, gather all sales information they can find and display it on the Internet. NPD finds this ‘free information’ (factual errors or not) to be threatening to their very expensive product of sales reports. But what doesn’t make sense is that VGChartz has been around for quite a while. The only change in the last few years has been the economy and the decline of the game industry.