Gamasutra refuses to report NPD numbers

Some people say this day would never come. What have they to say now?

Many of our readers know that the NPD’s monthly public reports focus primarily on U.S. physical retail, and headlines often say how the game industry is in decline, when in fact it’s new physical game retail in the U.S. that’s declining, not the industry as a whole. The NPDs, as you may understand, do not paint a 100 percent accurate picture of the health of the game industry today.

Pictured Above: My hero. I will trololo through the generation.

The editor of Gamasutra refuses to post NPD numbers. The editor probably thinks the above is reason, but it is not. Let’s take a look at this.

1) Instead of posting NPD numbers and adding a notation saying, “This doesn’t include industry digital sales which have been growing,” the decision to not post anything is editorializing sales numbers.

2)  If NPD showed stagnancy or growth, Gamasutra would likely have posted them. You can’t just post numbers when you feel like posting them or you remove all journalistic integrity. There is nothing opinionated about sales numbers including physical ones.

3) NPD retail numbers matter because they are known, and they can display trends. Just because digital numbers are unknown does not disqualify the physical numbers as the editor reasons below.

But the way that publishers and digital distributors like Steam lock down their sales data, it’s hard to imagine anyone making accurate estimations of sales by title, or even overall digital sales.

4) People are saying, “The industry is not in decline because the numbers are missing digital sales,” and then saying, “We cannot know the number of digital sales.” Then how do you know if the industry is not declining as you expostulate?

5) Digital sales are still largely in the minority. If it weren’t, then why was there a huge backlash against the Xbone?

6) Hardware is still 100% physical. Hardware sales point out the software sales. If you say, “We can’t know the volume of Steam sales,” I say you can. Look at the hardware. PC hardware has been heavily declining and PC parts areas of stores like Best Buy are having their floor space replaced by tablets and smartphones. If Steam is growing, it certainly isn’t in the United States with new users.

There is much we can learn from NPD data. Instead of reporting the numbers and letting people interpret it the best they can, Gamasutra has declared us too stupid to have the numbers because we might arrive at the wrong interpretation which is that the Game Industry is crashing.

Of course, Gamasutra has no data to report that says the Game Industry isn’t crashing. The editor doesn’t like how the NPD numbers leads to an interpretation he or she doesn’t like.

“We know the Game Industry isn’t crashing…” Do we now? Does the editor of Gamasutra realize it would be radical and phenomenal to suggest that the Game Industry ISN’T DECLINING. Do you know why?

IT IS BECAUSE EVERY INDUSTRY IS DECLINING.

What industry in the United States is actually doing well? Can someone name me one that isn’t oil or state? The housing market isn’t doing well. Clothing market isn’t doing well. People living on food stamps has skyrocketed. If the Game Industry was doing well, NAY! Let’s say ‘OK’, then that would be extraordinary for the Game Industry to defy the macroeconomic trends of the nation and the entire globe.

Or is it more probable that the Game Industry is following the trends of other industries and is in a decline?

The problem isn’t the interpretation of the Game Industry in decline. The problem is that Gamasutra doesn’t wish to report data that allows us to make any interpretations at all!