NPD Will Soon Include Digital Sales In Data Reports

Following accusations from EA that it’s misrepresenting the gaming industry, the NPD group has said it’ll start including digital sales in its future monthly reports.

That’s according to the firm’s Anita Frazier, speaking to GamesIndustry.Biz.

“We are expanding the number of digital retailers we have relationships with in order to develop a digital POS (point of sale) service,” said Frazier.

“The goal is to provide our clients with a total POS games tracking service that incorporates the growing digital channel as well as the currently predominant physical format, and to deliver this at the same frequency as we currently do for new physical retail sales (monthly).”

One of the reasons, according to NPD, why there hasn’t been a speedier adaptation to include digital data, is because firms have been unwilling to share their numbers, however she’s hoping all that will change.

“We expect it to happen, especially as digital grows to become a larger portion of the consumer’s overall spend,” she continued.

“It will become increasingly challenging for the financial community to create proper valuations of companies in the absence of an objective third-party source covering the entire market, and it will be harder for companies to manage their businesses and resources without visibility into all forms of distribution.”