For years now, NPD’s monthly videogame industry sales data has been the staple of many a videogame enthusiast who calls the Internet ‘home,’ and due to the nature of the data provided, these reports alone have been able to successfully keep alive that age old question: Which console is better?

Now though, and according to a report on consumer site VG247, the US research group will no longer include console sales figures with its monthly videogame industry sales report, instead leaving that job to the hardware manufacturers themselves.

Effective immediately, NPD will not reveal ranking or unit sales data for Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft’s consoles, and in addition, a few other changes will be made to the monthly report, including:

• A shift in the Top 10 software from SKU level with unit sales for the top five to a top 10 software chart with no unit sales.
• Revised footnote explaining that the monthly retail data reflects new physical purchases, not total consumer spend (digital, subscriptions, mobile games, rentals, used or social network games). The NPD Group will release a total consumer spend report to press on a quarterly basis.
• Monthly analysis from NPD analyst, Anita Frazier, will include software sales figures at both the SKU and title level for various new releases.

Speaking to VG247, NPD executive director David Riley said that these changes to the company’s reporting structure won’t harm short- and long-term analysis of the US videogame market, saying:

“Clients can release their figures, which we can verify, but it shouldn’t be up to NPD to release these figures. Our corporate publishing guidelines changed, but nothing has changed client-side.”

Riley also says that hardware manufacturers aren’t obliged to release their monthly US sales figures, but are most certainly allowed to share them publicly, which means us videogame enthusiasts (and market analysts who don’t subscribe to NPD’s reports) will have to rely on Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft for the monthly console sales numbers, which will be verified by the NPD Group.

This coming Thursday will be the first time NPD’s new reporting structure is to be used. It’s going to be interesting, for sure.

Source: VG247