NPD To Start Tracking Digital Sales In The US

The problem with tracking game sales in modern times is that with the rise of digital, traditional video game tracking, which is usually restricted just to retail sales, is diminished a whole lot in terms of relevance and usefulness. And while we have seen a lot of trackers attempt to tackle this issue head on – Famitsu, for instance, now attempts to track digital sales in Japan too – western trackers are not with the program yet.

That will change soon- the NPD Group have announced that they plan on tracking digital game sales soon as well.

“As has been experienced across a wide variety of industries, digital has made a big impact on the overall gaming market, and we’ve risen to meet the demand for a reporting mechanism that tracks those sales in a timely and accurate way,” said Joanne Hageman, the head of NPD’s Toys and Games division.

“With the participation and support of leading publishers – whose cooperation makes this possible – we are excited to launch an industry-first service that addresses a long-standing need.”

For now, the initial reach will be limited. Only select publishers’ sales will be tracked, including EA, Capcom, Activision Blizzard, Square Enix, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Deep Silver and Warner Bros. NPD did state their intentions to broaden their range of companies covered in the future, soon, though. They also confirmed that to begin with, only PSN, Xbox Live, and Steam sales will be covered- this means that all of EA’s digital game sales on PC, all uPlay sales, all of Blizzard’s digital game sales on PC, and all digital Nintendo game sales via the eShop, are currently not going to be tracked.

These limitations actually make the initiative a bit… useless, for now. Hopefully the NPD work on them soon.

http://gamingbolt.com/npd-to-start-tracking-digital-sales-in-the-us

This the best thing ever. No more of the "I bet more than half purchased the game digitally" or "NPD doesn't track digital sales."

However, lemmings can still hide. I never see Cows claiming the digital excuse.

Well...at least it's the beginning of something that will be fun once again.

Yes, real numbers that we can use to further our agenda.

All tho im not one to prefer Digital copies and I normally stay away from Digital copies, but Im have increasingly been buying digital copies of games off PSN+

Now the Vita Master Race can truly shine

This the best thing ever. No more of the "I bet more than half purchased the game digitally" or "NPD doesn't track digital sales."

However, cows can still hide. I never see lemmings claiming the digital excuse.

For SW purposes, this is awesome

Yes.

I expected nothing less from you Madame.

PS4 will destroy PC and XB1 in digital sales

SONY IS A LEGEND they are legendary I CANT WAIT for the NPD's now.

lol

Exactly, time to rekt em.

@flyincloud1116: indeed. We are predictable aren't we. Xoxo

@kvally: Noooo!

O.O

Yeah good luck with that. lol

This will put an end to those "Well it could have been the best selling game of all time if NPD tracked digital sales" arguments.

Good, I'll be interested to see game sales for the big 3. Nintendo has said that their digital sales have been strong, so I wonder what that looks like?

They've been planning it for years to my knowledge. I seem to remember them announcing this 3-4 years ago.

Well most people on here don't game as it is, so they might as well get more material to talk about.

There is no excuse for PS not having an exclusive/excluding FPS that people play at this point. Its the most popular online genre on consoles and after last gen cows claiming 360 was the shooter/COD box, all PS has are COD and other multiplats in this cash cow genre. KZSF is an Ambien. Mercenary dumps on it.

What the hell does that have to do with anything Manticore?

Is their any reason to think Xbone vs PS4 would diff much in % of digital sales?

@flyincloud1116: Nothing really.............I just wanted to see if anyone would bite LOL

It's a good start, but they're missing a lot.

Microsoft and Sony are not doing it so far. They will only track third party titles from some publishers.

The only reason to do this is because digital sales are starting to be the norm.

Finally and that's good news for those that keep track for these things. Most of our games this gen are digital. This is a good start but looks like there's some missing marketplaces that provides digital content not counted yet.

They listened to us!