Mad prop's to the bosses.

And seriously, if the data was actually as crap as Meister and the NPD groupies would have us believe then why do they even care about little 'ole vgchartz.

It's us, ioi and the VGChartz community, going up against the big-business, corporate elite. 

But like the people of Cochabamba, Bolivia, we fight back and WIN when the evil corporation try to privatize and make us pay for our wate... er, our numbers!

Great job, VGChartz.  I'm glad to be a part of this community and glad to see us getting some respect!

that almost makes me think someone will be making some "Viva la VG Chartz!" propoganda posters.

I'm sure they have considered this possibility but if they do, there will be NO public information available other during that period.  Guess where people are going to go for their sales data?  If they do, it will be a win for VGC.  If they don't, things just continue down the path they currently are going...  neither is a positive road for NPD.  Ioi can slam the door on NPD with 3 or 4 wins at the retail level in terms of cooperation in providing data.  The day that happens (and it will if Ioi keeps pushing), NPD is in trouble.  The best part?  They know it.  I suspect this will get a lot uglier in the near-term.

Is that T-shirt contest still open? Sounds like you have a winning design right there, if done properly....

Its amazing how far VGChartz has come.. LOL@NPD headaches

wow, thats fantastic for vgchartz, congratulations ioi... i agree that it would be ideal if the two could go on side by side, but i guess since NPD get paid strictly for their analysis, its tough for them to just let another group enter their 'business' without giving some direct competition

That's exactly what NPD is afraid of. You are succeeding because you are disrupting them.

Had you started trying to sell your numbers to the gaming industry two years ago you would have been laughed at and gone nowhere, but by catering to us who were underserved when it comes to sales data (except in Japan), even your "crummy"* numbers were better than the lack of numbers we had before.

Of course since then your accuracy has gone up and you have moved upstream and are now competing with NPD on a higher tier and I would expect that in a few years you will be as well regarded as them as regard accuracy, and better regarded than them as regard service (weekly data, more transparent corrections and even the forums as there regularly are interesting insights there though amid a lot of drivel).

So felicitations on successfully (so far) disrupting a business model that had a seemingly overwhelming barrier to entry and good luck in continuing to do so.

* I don't mean it in a bad way, if you have read either Malstrom's Wii disruption articles or Clayton Christensen's disruption books you will understand the meaning of the word in this context.

That is one great article.

Holy crap.. I under estimated this site's popularity and respect. holy crap. On my goal chart on the staff forums I have this site at like .7%... seems I need to add a 2 and 0 in front of that.