Did NPD Undertrack Wii in December?

[Viper1]

I realize we have an NPD thread but this question would get lost among the other hundred or so posts.

 

Unike 2007 where reports were often made of limited Wii supply in December, we heard no such reports for December 2008.   In fact, we continually heard of increased shipments.  I personally (pardon the anecdotes here) have been told by employees at a few retailers that their Wii shipments were higher in December than in November.  Yet NPD suggest December sales are only marginally higher than Novembers.

 

Now, NPD no longer tracks Wal-Mart or Toys R' Us.  Both retailers are known for their larger percentage of Wii sales over the specialty retailers like Gamestop.   It was reported that Gamestop's market share of video game sales were down this year compared to the big box retailers (like Wal-Mart and Toys R' Us) who saw increases in video game market share sales in December.

NPD now has to rely on historical sales data (as in back when those retailers were reporting their figures to NPD) and extrapolated market share data.   Given that NPD has only had Wii sales data at Toys R' Us when supply was massively limited (2006 and 2007) and has never had sales data on Wii from Wal-Mart (their contract ran out back in 2003 I believe), it is feasible that their extrapolated sales data combined with past market share data coupled with larger shipments than in 2007 that NPD has undertracked the Wii sales for December 2008.

 

Again I do not present this as conclusive proof itself, only proof of plausibility.

 

Note that I have not provided VGC's sales data itself for further proof as I do not intend for this thread to become a VGC vs NPD thread.