Souldriver said:
I was wondering about that too. How is NPD allowed to give false numbers if giving correct numbers is the sole service they should provide to their customers?
The numbers are estimates.
NPD tells you how they sampled the numbers and a bit of info as to how they derived the total estimate.
If NPD does their statistical voodoo and estimates Kinect sold 3,217 copies, they can easily tell subscribers it sold 3200. Or 3204. or 3241. Etc. As long as the range lies within the stated confidence interval for their stated methodology, there's no harm done.
When some dipshit goes on GAF and posts that Kinect sold 3204 copies, NPD will know who leaked the numbers.
And not every customer has to have unique numbers for every piece of hardware/software.
Simply going with the 3 consoles and the top 5 software, and a range of -2 to +2, you've got 390,625 unique data sets.