While I'm not sold on the idea of Sony being the cause for media going so private.... I agree with everything else. Nintendo has been quite forthcoming when it comes to sales numbers, even when they sucked absolute ass. They always put the numbers out there. Sony... Microsoft... as soon as a product of theirs doesnt lighte the world ablaze, go completely silent to the point that a site like this one has to try to come up with the numbers... and I've ALWAYS thought the vita is severely over tracked here, I think the thing has sat at around 12 or 13 million max... and the x1 too, low 40 millions... I also agree 100% that the ps5 will sell less than the ps4.... and the switch may outsell both..... COMBINED, all said and done. But..... having said all that, I just cant really convince myself that Sony is that concerned over the the ps4 or ps5 Japan sales to the point that they somehow silence a sales reporting firm.... why bother when famitsu still does and is basically the same exact shit.

This is 100% true but still doesn't explain the complete lock down of numbers.

The NPD reports that companies pay for are huge.  The volume of data and analysis is just massive.  The top 10 list is just a tiny, and somewhat irrelevant sliver, of what NPD reports cover and are valued for.  By that I mean no company is paying $10k per month just for top 10 lists.  It's the deep dive they pay for.  The return sales for warranty information they pay for.  The trending analysis they pay for.  They predictive analytics they pay for. The regional data they pay for.  They tie-ins with marketing budgets to measure ROI they pay for.  The individual store POS to stock level data they pay for.  It's the retailer vs retailer data they pay for.  It's the weekly (not just monthly) data they pay for.

This whole hide the monthly top 10 from consumers bit because it would devalue the overall product....?  Like an NPD subscription itself, I don't buy that.

I'll phrase it a different way.....

Companies paying $10k per month are not paying for the top 10 monthly sales chart.  That's a tiny byproduct.

The top 10 monthly sales is more valuable than.....

It's the deep dive they pay for. The return sales for warranty information they pay for. The trending analysis they pay for. They predictive analytics they pay for. The regional data they pay for. They tie-ins with marketing budgets to measure ROI they pay for. The individual store POS to stock level data they pay for. It's the retailer vs retailer data they pay for. It's the weekly (not just monthly) data they pay for.

??????

Read what I said again.  Because you seem to be under the impression I said the Top 10 Monthly Sales didn't have any value at all.  So, go read that again.

And by the way, customers paid that $10k per month even when the data was public.  And they didn't gain any new customers on the sale basis that the top 10 became private.  The Top 10 Monthly Combined Sales per unit dollar chart is not worth $10k per month. The deep dive analytics, return sales for warranty information, trending analysis they pay for, predictive analytics, regional data, tie-ins with marketing budgets to measure ROI, individual store POS to stock level data, retailer vs retailer data, the weekly data, etc..... THAT's worth $10k.

NPDs decision to remove the Top 10 from public disclosure was not a value-add move. It was not a customer retention move.  It was not a customer acquisition move.  

And I don't know what behavior your accusing me, nor what behavior I have engaged in that would be detrimental to the value of NPDs Top 10 Monthly Combined Sales per unit dollar data.  

Of course it does! 

NPD sees this as valuable information so the only way to protect this value is to effectively gate it off from the public. NPD's business relies on collecting data solely for the purpose of sharing it to their customers, not for the public ... 

It's hard work to compile data so it's reasonable for them to take measures so that others don't profit off from it or make use of it ... 

Apparently, somebody at Era knows the actual NPD numbers and they've been doing a thing where the people who guess closest get top predictor status. Since the leaks have all been shut down, it's probably the best we're going to get.