Don't be silly, they aren't afraid of NPD taking action against the boards (at least on this vgchartz issue). It's just that it's convenient for them to be in friendly terms with NPD, and banning vgchartz discussion surely makes NPD happy.
Personally, while I don't trust the euro hardware numbers and the all-around software numbers here, the american hw estimations are getting nicely close to NPD and that makes them reliable enough to have a rational argument based on them.
I'm sure NPD doesn't feel threatened by vgchartz but they sure see the potential in this site - as time grows if ioi does a good job it'll start to get good with software too. Then it might start being a cause of worry for them. Sure the guys who invest in videogames will keep using NPD, but what about the journalistic accounts? that's money lost there.
Current-gen game collection uploaded on the profile, full of win and good games; also most of my PC games. Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts 1982-2008 (Requiescat In Pace).
