No More USA Hardware Sales

[Dante]

Beginning with the October sales data, which is due later this month, NPD is going to cut way back on what they share on a monthly basis with their non-paying customers, i.e. media.

 

What does this mean?

 

For starters, no more hardware sales data. (Can you taste the bitter tears streaming from various forums and message boards?) Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo will of course be free to release their own sales info—and presumably leak that of their competitors, if it'll make them look good—but we will no longer receive that data from NPD. Software sales figures will only be given for the Top Five SKUs, not the Top Ten as we normally receive. We'll eventually receive hardware numbers and Top Ten software numbers, but only on a quarterly and annual basis. There are signs that this may only be a temporary pullback, but for now, this is were things stand.

 

 

http://blog.newsweek.com

[Tellyn]

"Non-paying customers". Does this mean that anyone who pays to get these figures, which I presume includes developers and possibly some of the media, could still leak the figures?

[Gizmo]

Lol, I thought No More Heroes had been released in America and I'd missed it completely, and this thread was for the sales figures for it :p

 

Kinda sucks, though I'm sure they'll be leaked mostly anyway.

[Zechs Merquise]

What a total crock of sh*t. Surely sites like IGN will pay to be able to publish that data.

 

Software sales figures will only be given for the Top Five SKUs, not the Top Ten as we normally receive. We'll eventually receive hardware numbers and Top Ten software numbers, but only on a quarterly and annual basis.

 

So America will lose it's games top ten every month? Bizarre. I can't see why anyone would think it good to with hold data like this. It'd be like losing the singles charts! Worse infact from my point of view!

[jammy2211]

IF someone pays for the data, and then leaks it, their arse is liable to be sued heavily by the NPD, so it aint gonna happen.

 

It's pretty bad news cause I like reading it and stuff, oh well.

[flameboy]

The vast majority of the media do not pay for these figures. They freely receive merely for reporting purposes. The paying customers get the full NPD package so to speak and will likely be analysts who release reports on their findings and developers who wish to know certain things.

[Tito]

Never fear, good friends! The war will continue!

 

Edit: apparently I can't post links to other sites before posting 15 times... oh well, so check out IGNWii's news section. They say they pay for the data, and the console wars will go on!