NPD Responds, Won’t be Changing New (Old) Policy

We found out yesterday that the NPD was going to quit revealing so many of its numbers with the media each month. The news lead to some a whole lot of angry fanboys on message boards, and a lot of disappointed industry folks such as myself who love picking apart the NPD numbers each and every month.

According to a PR rep for the NPD, the outcry from the gaming community was completely unexpected. Speaking with 1UP, David Riley said, “I had no idea this would be so ill-received. Honestly, I know this sounds ignorant but I really was taken aback when I started hearing/reading about this. It was unexpected.”

The NPD only began handing out numbers last year, when all three next generation consoles hit the market. They changed their policy after talking with the three hardware manufacturers. “There was no push back [from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony],” said Riley. “However, it’s been a year, so we decided to pull this monthly feed and leave it up to the mftcr. as to whether or not they wanted that sales information released to media.”

Riley expects the industry will police what data is released, and warns against putting any stock in what “rogue sites” state.

“Regarding rogue sites that actively use existing data from market research firms, combine that data with estimates and then claim the data as their own — it’s true I’m no fan of sociopathic behavior and, as such, have real issues with sites like these but this has nothing to do with the change, either,” he said. “The best way to approach this issue is to let the industry police it, or to simply wait and let the truth come out in the end. It always does.”