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UPDATE: NPD Considering Including Digital Sales
UPDATE: NPD'S Anita Frazier has commented on the fact that some – including third-party juggernaut Electronic Arts – feel that the NPD is misleading because it doesn't account for digital sales in its figures.
Frazier told GamesIndustry.biz: "The goal is to provide our clients with a total POS games tracking service that incorporates the growing digital channel as well as the currently predominant physical format, and to deliver this at the same frequency as we currently do for new physical retail sales (monthly)."
ORIGINAL STORY: In a story on CNN Money, publisher Electronic Arts questions the accuracy of the data provided by the NPD Group, which has long been the industry's foremost source for tracking video game sales.
EA's criticism is based on the fact that NPD does not include digital sales as a part of its monthly sales charts. Currently, the sales charts are based strictly on physical retail sales of video games.
"Using NPD data for video game sales is like measuring music sales and ignoring something called iTunes," said EA corporate communications executive Tiffany Steckler. "We see NPD's data as a misrepresentation of the entire industry."
NPD's Anita Frazier does release a quarterly report on digital sales, but many in the industry feels that the lack of digital sales in the monthly charts (which are NPD's most high profile reports in terms of press coverage) is misleading to investors and consumers.
In EA's case, it has reported that its digital sales have increased 39 percent over last year, and expects its total digital sales to reach $750 million for the fiscal year ending March 31. Other publishers, particularly Activision Blizzard with the ultra-successful World of Warcraft, earn an even greater percentage of revenue in digital sales.
However, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter still sees value in the NPD data, and believes EA is overstating its case. Pachter commented, "EA saying physical game sales don't matter is like Best Buy saying television sales don't matter."
It will be interesting how these matters are resolved. Already many of us in the press have complained that NPD's monthly data is a good deal less informative than it was even a year ago, after a late 2010 reworking of its charts.
For more, read the full story on CNN Money.
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