NPD: Analyst reaction (NPD not using Toys R US?)

[Lingyis]

TheBigFatJ said:

albionus said:

TheBigFatJ said:

And, as he pointed out when talking to the MS and Sony representatives, they are each more well represented at different stores than each other (MS = Best Buy, Sony = Walmart, Nintendo = TRU probably).

Well if true that would explain why NPD undertracks the 360. WalMart and TRU are major video game stores and if NPD doesn't track them but it does track Best Buy then guess which system would be overrepresented in their sample (hint: it's not the PS3 or Wii).

 

You mean they overtrack the 360, correct?

 yeah, that should be what he means.

but tracking is a complicated issue; NPD has been doing this for years and they have whatever algorithm they've been using.  nobody knows what kind of bias they have (store selection, locales, etc) or how they modify their formulas after say ToysRUs pulled out.  perhaps they have a guru on every tracking team that does the kind of work ioi does, and applies his own adjustment on data, who knows.

i don't think anybody on earth spends as much effort as ioi analyzing and pondering over data.  i hope more and more stores contribute to VGChartz.