-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
NPD will no longer release monthly hardware/software unit sales
- Thread starter Kobun Heat
- Start date
charlequin
Banned
donny2112 said:
Well, first off, NPD is absolutely getting per-store data from at least some retail partners (and is using this in formulating their estimates), but furthermore: who said it was more than NPD was getting? What NPD does to produce their numbers is a ton of work requiring a lot of raw information about the source of the numbers they're working with and a fairly large amount of institutional knowledge. A publisher or hardware company can't easily duplicate that just by placing a few calls to retailers, which is the entire reason NPD can charge for extraordinarily expensive subscriptions in the first place.
Oh, and no, they wouldn't get lump-sum data from Wal-Mart.
It's pretty foolish to believe that because NPD specifically doesn't any longer track Wal-Mart data that it's impossible to do so, especially given that a) they used to and b) Wal-Mart participates in SoundScan so they obviously have no innate unwillingness to participate in third-party sales tracking systems.
charlequin said:
NPD also has a consumer panel of 1.8MM individuals that they draw data from. They use this panel to accurately size the total market, which allows them to figure out what percentage of the market Walmart represents. Most people aren't aware of this, but NPD clearly calls in out on their web site:
NPD said:
It greatly increases the validity of their data and is obviously not easily replicated.
PantherLotus
Professional Schmuck
AniHawk said:
But where are we going to get chaps at this time of night?!
Psychotext
Member
Move.
So we no longer have any good way to determine how good sales wise any games did with a legitimate source? I mean numbers wise at least, even if they rank the games 1-10. Just because a game is number 1 or 2 doesn't mean it sold good at all necessarily at all, just did better then everything else on the list. Sad times I was looking forward to seeing how some of the recent games that came out actually did. Oh wells
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
jvm said:
For the top ten SKUs with unit sales, duh
Freezie KO
Banned
jvm said:
A new bike.
Old Gimlet Eyes
Member
Dead Rising 2 sales for 360 and PS3.jvm said:
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
20 pages over this?
NPD wasn't that great anyways if you weren't a number fetishist or a fanboy. Just live your life dudes.
NPD wasn't that great anyways if you weren't a number fetishist or a fanboy. Just live your life dudes.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
GAF reaction:
elrechazado
Banned
Thanks for posting in the unimportant thread on the unimportant topic to let us know your important opinion on this matter.Andrex said:
Cuban Legend
Member
is NPD the old guy from gametrailers? sure as hell wont miss him
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
elrechazao said:
My pleasure. I'll be here all week.
Also the important numbers are delivered in PR form by the companies in charge anyways.
Psychotext
Member
I'm a number fetishist. Now what?Andrex said:
Andrex said:
Like when Microsoft announced that Halo: Reach sold $200MM on day one, but didn't specifically call out that it was worldwide and it was misinterpreted by journalists who didn't notice that the $170MM day one number Microsoft announced for Halo 3 was US only?
At least some people caught the error and corrected it.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
Psychotext said:
I can only hope you get help soon.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
ToxicAdam said:
Regardless of what the numbers are it's not like we can act on them. It makes no difference if the numbers are released or not, they only really matter to the game companies.
ThatObviousUser
ὠαἴÏÏιÏÏÎ¿Ï Ïαá¿Ï εἶ
Jinfash said:
Sure thing mang.
charlequin said:
Who?
Edit:
And if they are, what would preclude another company jumping into tracking from getting the same?
The point I was rebuffing was the idea that NPD themselves had tracking stations in individual stores and were, thus, getting more specific data than the retail partner. That does not make any sense based on the anecdotal comments we've heard over the years.
charlequin said:
What are you talking about?
charlequin said:
Duh? They didn't get there overnight. They spent years fine-tuning their formula (which, at times, has been drastically surprising, if not outright wrong), and anyone who came afterwards would start at a similar starting point and work from there. The raw materials would be the same, though.
charlequin said:
And the point is? You mean a new company would have to start with the same raw data and work from there? Shocking.
charlequin said:
Of course not. However if Wal-Mart isn't swayed by NPD to join their panel, what would be the likelihood of jumping in with someone new to the scene?
In short, NPD is not some magic company with an unreproducable, if not unbeatable, method of determining U.S. sales. They're just the only ones doing it publicly, right now. Personally, I'd be surprised if Wal-Mart wasn't reverse-engineering NPD's data to extract the raw values, adding in their own raw values, and extrapolating the other 10% or so of the market from there to get better numbers. If that was happening, though, there's no way they'd let it get outside of their company walls.
GillianSeed79
Member
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Neilsen already do gaming trend analysis? The problem with Nielsen is I'm pretty sure their analysis doesn't have anything to do with actual sales numbers but sample sizes of average time spent playing a specific system/game or purchase intent. I always found Neilsen ratings, particularly in other mediums, kind of sketchy personally because they depend so much on random samples and people that volunteer to participate. As far as TV ratings, in the old days they actually had people keep logs of what they watched to come up with ratings. Now they use some sort of set top box if I'm not horribly mistaken. Regardless, their data always seemed dubious to me.
edit: actually Nielsen is considered non-random sampling, which is one its criticisms.
edit: actually Nielsen is considered non-random sampling, which is one its criticisms.
Pristine_Condition
Member
If Billboard Magazine, or another entertainment industry trade paper, was on the ball, they'd realize that NPD are handing them a golden opportunity here. These charts are a terrific way to install your publication's brand into the world's consciousness, and up its profile in general. I think Billboard in particular would be good for picking up this mantle, since they know how to report similar retail sales in music, and music sales in retail have slumped so low that those reports are less important and they should be looking to diversify.
But the publishing industry is pretty much doomed for reasons of short-sightedness for a reason, so I can't say I'm too shocked that all these publications are dropping the ball. I'm especially not shocked no one in the N. American video game press has gotten a nationwide sales survey together. Sadly, the video game press has steadily declined into a state of only really being able to produce reviews of mixed quality and rewriting press releases over the years.
I wonder who has better industry reporting these days, the video game industry, or the porn industry?
But the publishing industry is pretty much doomed for reasons of short-sightedness for a reason, so I can't say I'm too shocked that all these publications are dropping the ball. I'm especially not shocked no one in the N. American video game press has gotten a nationwide sales survey together. Sadly, the video game press has steadily declined into a state of only really being able to produce reviews of mixed quality and rewriting press releases over the years.
I wonder who has better industry reporting these days, the video game industry, or the porn industry?
elrechazado
Banned
You just don't care soooo much.Andrex said:
:lol
Segata Sanshiro
Member
Ew, you're pro-Andrex? You are definitely out of the gang now.Boney said: