September NPD 2019 thread

[VideoGameAccountant]

fatslob-:O said:

SpokenTruth said:

This is 100% true but still doesn't explain the complete lock down of numbers.

The NPD reports that companies pay for are huge.  The volume of data and analysis is just massive.  The top 10 list is just a tiny, and somewhat irrelevant sliver, of what NPD reports cover and are valued for.  By that I mean no company is paying $10k per month just for top 10 lists.  It's the deep dive they pay for.  The return sales for warranty information they pay for.  The trending analysis they pay for.  They predictive analytics they pay for. The regional data they pay for.  They tie-ins with marketing budgets to measure ROI they pay for.  The individual store POS to stock level data they pay for.  It's the retailer vs retailer data they pay for.  It's the weekly (not just monthly) data they pay for.

This whole hide the monthly top 10 from consumers bit because it would devalue the overall product....?  Like an NPD subscription itself, I don't buy that.

Of course it does! 

NPD sees this as valuable information so the only way to protect this value is to effectively gate it off from the public. NPD's business relies on collecting data solely for the purpose of sharing it to their customers, not for the public ... 

It's hard work to compile data so it's reasonable for them to take measures so that others don't profit off from it or make use of it ... 

The value is in the reports which have far more detail than sales numbers. These companies are not paying thousands of dollars to get how much game X sold, especially as that information was given away for free while reports were being sold. You're paying for the analysis. 

It's hard to not see the NPD's current set-up as nothing more than marketing for the ESA. Only give out good news and spin the rest. Not like anyone can check the numbers.