After reading the 1up article about this, I have to conclude that it's very likely Sony asked for the information not to be publicly released. Here are they key parts (emphasis mine):
1- "The NPD Group [...] consulted with the hardware manufacturers on temporarily changing their policy to accommodate them. "There was no push back [from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony]," said Riley. "However, it's been a year, so we decided to pull this monthly feed
2- Regarding rogue sites that actively use existing data from market research firms, combine that data with estimates and then claim the data as their own -- it's true I'm no fan of sociopathic behavior and, as such, have real issues with sites like these but this has nothing to do with the change, either," he said.
So they consulted with hardware manufacturers one year ago and all was fine, and now suddenly they change it, and it has nothing to do with "rogue sites"? That likely means something changed with the manufacturers, and it's not hard to guess which one had problems with the media's and gamers' reactions to the data.
My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957
