I always thought it was a smart move from NPD to start sharing little tidbits of data. NPD gained relevancy although unofficially but still it was them directly who was now leading the discussion of software/hardware sales. In the past NPD numbers were total guesswork and because of that those numbers ended up being twisted and false after going through several websites.

NeoGAF has some deep rooted issues and I've seen a lot of people "wake-up". At first the forum makes you feel it is a place for open discussion and opinion. However the discussion is under subtle political direction and certain unpopular/unwanted opinions are silenced. In a way NeoGAF does not allow a person to have "bias", which is ridiculous since it is natural to humans and nobody can escape it completely. Strict moderation policy has only given birth to the same problems we have in our society. Those few in power cannot remain objective and cannot be touched. But that is only my opinion and those problems are real only because I wish NeoGAF would be different. Everything about NeoGAF makes sense if you just think about it as business.

VGChartz on the other hand allows a lot more freedom in all fronts and thus "users" remain their individuality to a much higher degree.

That's precisely what's the fundamental problem with NeoGAF. When you establish an totalitarian oligarchy, people tend to become corrupt, arrogant, and power-hungry, employing biases and favoritism and ludicrous policy made up on a whim to chase some demented echo-chamber under the guise of "proper discourse."

There is no reason why they should ban someone who gives them free numbers that have been coveted and desired. So many people on their forums want this data, it helps everybody and attracts more people to the site, it gives NPD free publicity and they endorse it, and it gives the owner of the website more money. I just don't understand how they are so corrupt that short-sighted bullshit gets in the way of something really special like that.

I really want them to as well. That's why I've really tried to push them to reveal stuff like the Top 10 numbers or hardware sales. It took months to accomplish but I finally was able to do it as part of a trial with NPD George / NDP Mulcair...then fucking NeoGAF moderators instantly unraveled all of my hard work in an split second. We'll see how The NPD Group fully reacts to this shitshow as time goes on, but I'm not expecting them to give the Internet another chance.

Maybe I would understand their position more if my Aquamarine account actually had a justified ban. But I *VOLUNTARILY* decided to *SELF-BAN* a year ago and yet when I have tried to reach out to them numerous times for an un-banning, I have never ONCE received a response or an explanation. The same bullshit happened to ZhugeEx, another fantastic poster who was perma-banned on a whim for completely nonsensical reasons (he "wasn't a good fit" despite making thousands of intelligent posts on GAF).

I really wish there were another forum where leakers would congregate because NeoGAF (because of its insane moderation policies) doesn't deserve the notoriety and ad revenue they get from leakers.

The reason Media Create gives so much data is because they have Kadokawa (Famitsu + Dengeki) as a competitor.  If they had a monopoly like NPD they would be just as silent nowadays, just like GfK is. Maybe the answer is to grow VG Chartz into establishing relationships with major retailers so they can provide very accurate POS data and act as a bonafide competitor to The NPD Group. Now that would start to wake them up.

NDP Mulcair got perma'd on GAF? Such bullshit..

I know, right? And NPD used to even give GAF numbers from like 2006-2008. That was the hook I was able to use. "Hey NPD George / NDP_Mulcair, you guys gave GAF numbers before, just do what you used to do back in the day." And eventually it worked, but only thanks to the new guys. A year ago when they were harassing me it would have been impossible.

I've made posts on GAF about the issues of VGC accuracy before and that still rings true today. Sometimes VGC is pretty accurate...other times it's far off the mark. I personally can't trust it because I can see the discrepancies are significant at times but hey, gotta give them credit for at least trying.

But that's really easy to solve. If VG Chartz could establish a relationship with Walmart, Target, GameStop, Best Buy, and Amazon, they would effectively become as relevant as NPD.  They would have 90% of the sales in the market. Now of course, 90% accuracy isn't as accurate as NPD, mind you, but it's still pretty damn close (NPD is 95% accurate). Close enough that lots of institutions would start paying for them. Hell, we'd buy a subscription to them.

How much is the monthly subscription?  

BTW the reason the owner of NeoGAF doesn't care if the leaks stop or bit is because his site makes him around 20k a month and that's with very minimal advert placement.  

He can sell it for millions and the website views will continue to grow with or without NPD leaks.  It's really not important to him.

 That would be a great idea, and so much appreciated !

Hoping that NPD_George was not too disgusted by this misadventure on NeoGAF and could give another try.

I think you and I both know this isn't going to happen any time soon. 

At the moment VGChartz numbers are all over the place and laughably wrong in some cases. They simply do not have the tools or experience to track the US market, let alone the worldwide market. 

A lot of people always forget how VGChartz started, it was originally a site that posted NPD numbers but once NPD got wind they contacted Brett Walton to tell him to stop. In response he started making up his own numbers based on "statistical trend fitting of historical sales performance"  which is hardly the most accurate way to track new physical game sales at retail. There are countless examples of how VGChartz have been incorrect in the past and have had to quickly adjust numbers to match publicly available shipment or sell through data. I'm sorry to say but the majority of numbers on this website are wildly off base and everyone in the industry knows it. 

Perhaps if Brett was to admit this and take steps to improve VGChartz data collection methodology then maybe they would be taken more seriously.

I hope so too.

You realise that 'VGChartz' is in direct competition with a service that The NPD Group provide right? 

Unless they enter some sort of partnership (which I don't see happening) there is no way they would post anything here. 

I was going to say the same thing. The conflict of interest should not be overlooked.