Wall Street analysts comments on the NPD v VGChartz debate

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ItsaMii said:
The first comment make puke a little:


meister [06.17.08 03:25 AM]

Interesting article but you really should do more homework before you author stories like these.

vgchartz.com is all about smoke and mirrors. He continually lies to his visitors. I can explain his real history in great detail if you're interested but Brett Walton, the site's founder, is nothing more than a petty manipulator and illusionist. The problem is, he sees nothing wrong with what he's doing. It really does boil down to the fact that his visitors believe what he's posted in his "Methodology" section. For the record, he's lying to his visitors. He doesn't collect data from retailers. All of vgchartz's figures are guesstimates. He TAKES charted information and best sellers lists from online stores like Amazon (this is how he's able to get a ballpark Top 10 list each week/month), and from stores like Wal-mart, Target and Gamecrazy, then fits that data to chart positions, using publicly available historical information from NPD, Famitsu and other reputable firms for reference. In reality, he uses public chart positions, press releases and shipment figures to come up with sales figures. Don't believe any of this? Ask him!

This is NOT Brett Walton's (vgchartz) proprietary information, nor is this information something that a real analyst couldn't compile with a little hard work and common sense but at the end of the day it's all about making it easy. Ahhh, that's why we have to love the Internet. There's no longer a need for integrity. Just point and shoot ... I mean, click.

vgchartz's information belongs to the market research firms and retailers he's lifting it from. He should give credit where credit is due. He's making a name for himself off the hard work of others. Wal-Mart, Target, GameCrazy, NPD, Famitsu, Chart Track, Amazon ... the list is large but not nearly as large as Brett Walton's ego.

@meister: I hope you come here and read this - you are a complete douche.

Firstly - even if this was the case - so what? Its publicly available data, and like you say - this IS the web 2.0 age. Its all about databases, communities. It was always inevitable that someone WAS going to do this - and its your own fault (and pure greed) for NPD not doing this originally - as a FREE public service.

Secondly - even if this information is being used, the accuracy of the data has improved markedly over the last few years - and is starting to make NPD look bad. Who is it that checks YOUR figures to make sure NPD doesn't make a mistake - or even worse - intentionally cook the books? That's right - no one. Have to wonder if anyone has tried to slip you a few notes over the past, to make their figures look just that little bigger.

There is no question that VG uses figures beyond the ones you mention, and is continuously doing deals to acquire additional figures from new retailers.

Just as there is no doubt that VG will continue to grow in accuracy, popularity - and the relevance of NPD will continue to wane. Its only going to take one major news outlet to start quoting VG weekly figures - and NPD will virtually be forgotten.

...

I'm looking forward to the continued degradation of your client base, and the day that NPD is forced to change their model - or go out of business.

In the meantime, you might want to drop the personal slanderous comments - it doesn't reflect well on you or NPD - or you might just end up with a defamation lawsuit in your face some time.