NPD changing monthly reporting
Industry-standard reporting firm ceasing hardware, software unit sales figures, adding PC game software.
Each month, console war partisans get ammo from the US game-industry report from The NPD Group. Starting this Thursday, though, that practice will come to an end. In a note issued this morning, the game-industry tracking firm announced it will cease releasing unit hardware numbers each month, instead only releasing an overall hardware dollar-sales figure. The big-three console makers, however, are free to release unit sales data on their own.
Also gone from NPD's monthly reports will be unit software sales figures for the top five-best-selling products or SKUs (Stock Keeping Units). Going forward, the company will instead release a chart of the top 10 games, which takes into account sales of single titles across all platforms but will not include any unit totals whatsoever. Rankings will continue to be drawn from physical retail sales only and will not include digital downloads.
Finally, after years of keeping PC games separate from its monthly video game sales figures, NPD will begin including them. That means each month will have non-PC and PC game dollar-sales figures, as well as a total of the two. PC game sales will also be taken into account when determining the top 10 software rankings, and PC titles will also appear in the chart when warranted.
The next NPD report is expected on Thursday, October 14.
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
Join the conversation