NPD Decides to Quit Sharing With the Media

Over on Newsweek’s Level Up blog, N’Gai Croal has reported that our favorite number crunchers, NPD have decided to stop playing nice, and get greedy with their gaming industry info. Apparently, NPD has decided that only “paying” customers will be able to get the much coveted console sales numbers, therefore the media (and the gamers) are out of luck. The only information that they will continue to provide to the media is the Top 5 instead of the Top 10 that they had previously fed to the press and they will also only be made available on a quarterly and annual basis – no longer montth to month.

Of course the console makers Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony will be able to release these numbers to the media – but that is not a guarantee. We all know that companies usually only release information regarding them if it is in a good light. So basically, for example, if Sony sales are plummeting, they are most likely not going to let us know or they may put a “lighter” spin on it.

While this is a blow to the media and you, the gamer, those of you that follow the numbers like a Vegas roulette wheel, can relax just a little by satisfying yourself with the Top 5 numbers. As a way of trying to not seem like such gremlins, NPD has released the sales numbers for September, and you can get them by going to the link at the bottom of this post.

Thanks: Level Up