| Bodhesatva said: 1) Would be under much greater scrutiny when releasing their information, since the information is their business, and not just a byproduct of it 2) NPD would be instantly and completely ruined, instead of just very damaged, which is the fate of most companies caught in such scandals 3) How do you approach the NPD to ask for this favor? What if they refuse? Then your company has been caught trying to bribe the NPD. When you cook your own books, you don't have to trust some other random company to cook them for you. Again, not saying it's impossible, just implausable. |
1 - How would a company know if NPD lied about another companies numbers? Also, why would a company complain if NPD bolsters their numbers? In such a case this would be good for the company so no one will complain. So NPD could for example, give accurate numbers for MS & Sony but bolster Nintendo numbers by 10%. In such case, MS and Sony will have nothing to say and Nintendo will be too happy to care that the numbers are wrong.
2 - But most companies/people are never caught because they are careful about it.
3 - In politics every one knows everyone else because they are all in the same game. Folks at NPD that work on video game sales will undoubtably have connections with folks in the gaming industry. It would make sense for higher ups at gaming companies to get in on the good with these folks so you can bet that they must have arranged for meetings one way or another very much like how big businesses want to get in good with their local politicians or how game companies send free stuff to big review websites to get better reviews and we all know that happens a lot. Also, a lot of people get jobs by referal from someone else. How does one get a job collecting video game data? Maybe they worked for a video game retailer or maybe for a software or production company. What if these people have friends at their old companies? This is how it works usually. No one goes all out and just asks a stranger directly but over a friendly game of golf, or perhaps at an expensive high class party or maybe even in someone elses bed strange deals can be struck. Unlikely maybe, but maybe not given NPD's position to make or break a company or person. Edit: Oh and lets not forget about moles. People from a company who get a job just to do something like this. In my 1 year at Sony here in San Diego we actually fired 4 moles who actually worked for another company and their job was to infiltrate sony and illegally leaking information before games were launched. The world is a very strange place 
This is not a joke either. Ask some of the producers there and they can tell you their stories.
