NPD to stop reporting monthly hardware unit sales figures

NPD Group has said it’s to stop reporting on the monthly hardware unit sales figures.Effective immediately, what this means is that this coming Thursday, October 14, when the US figures are released, it will no longer contain the pertinent hardware information.

Monthly hardware figures to be released by console manufacturers from now on.

[Ivan Drago IV]

Happy happy joy joy!

[darkcharizard]

Just because everytime you see PS3 getting its ass kicked by Wii and 360 EVERY MONTH?? LOL!

[Cloudberry]

.
It got Japan for that part.

[niceguywii60]

They won't be able to count the 360 number from now on anyways lol. I wonder if some console companies rallied against the tracking based on what's been happening and what will happen for now on starting next month lol J/K

[StanLee]

So ahead of it being reported that Microsoft is going to win big with its console sales numbers, possibly only being outsold by the DS, NPD is going to stop reporting console figures?! Right.

[DasBunker]

i guess VGC articles with the only ones filled with zales fanboys... what about the games? oh right you lost the most important battlefield.

[k-Lan]

Sony paid some big money to hide their embarassing numbers. I would do the same if i was to get murdered in sales this holiday season.

[Shang-Long]

so we gotta go by VGC now....yay...

[Chaos69]

I'm still waiting for Sony to release some MOVE numbers... oh wait, they just paid to cancel NPD instead.

[Bigpappy]

I expect them to both report 2mil sold in september in US. With MOve sell 3 mil at launch. VGchartz will be god as of now.

[silvacrest]

LMAO, why would sony waste there money on this??

[Biggest]

What the hell would Sony be paying for anyway? I don't get some of you sometimes. Even in the normal retarded fanboy reasoning this is abnormally retarded.

[raztad]

WTF???

My previous comment was reported as TROLLING. This is beyond ridiculous and piss me off big time.

Trolling who or what exactly? perhaps the mod doesnt know how to read.

Using some logic and countering absurd statements grants you a troll tag.

[DaTruth]

Look at some of the comments above that aren't flagged as trolling that clearly are trolling!

[DaTruth]

What am I gonna do now when I have no games? Oh wait, I own a PS3!

Never mind!

[ChozenWoan]

VGC has been gaining more cred recently thanks to replacing their guesstimates with NPD numbers after they are released. Being free (aka add supported), VGC is obviously cutting into NPDs subscriptions while profiting from their research... which costs NPD lots of money to obtain and collate.

The good news is that the inside industry will get to see just how far off track VGC is on a regular basis. As time goes on, VGC's numbers will grow more and more erroneous and the industry will call them out on it. Once VGC loses all cred, I'm sure NPD will resume our regularly scheduled updates.

In the mean time....

...
...

Your guess is as good as mine.

[Rumor]

but no....

OT: WTF!?

[MrMccormo]

How else will fanboys spin numbers and pretend that US sales = the world?!?!

[Chaos69]

Only Japan = the world. Because Sony's doing good over there.

[DaTruth]

Mediacreate sales articles don't ever have fanboys trolling like NPD.

Obviously you don't go to those articles and just make up crap so PS3 fanboys can look as bad as 360 fanboys... or maybe Ps3 fanboys only troll about having good games and not sales... oh wait, that's called discussing games on a gaming website!

[MRMagoo123]

the thing is sony is doing well every where not just the US so ur japan theory is dead.

[Lovable]

I guess VGchartz will be extremely hot now.

[Cloudberry]

.
I just think about that now, lol.

[Shadowstar]

Well, isn't that just a ray of sunshine.

[stuna1]

And no it has nothing to do with sony breaking out the checkbook.
But here a hint! Just look to future releases, hardware and otherwise.

@bigwheelstunts
You really don't realise just how much on the money you really are! But this is not just directly related to the fanboiz at large. This is much bigger! Certain entities have already been caught with their hands in the cookie jar before, and it was proven that their figures were off! Refer back to 2009 for clarity.

[visualb]

less fanboy crap spewage on N4G for one....

[k-Lan]

You're talking about the estimated WW numbers the PS fanboys are always throwing up in the comment sections?

[RageAgainstTheMShine]

Overall that will be good for everybody.

1) Microsoft can stop their Mi$$information campaign
2) 360 fanboys main reason for happiness & glory will be severely severed.
3) Now we only have to worry about VGChartz which will be soon, going that way out too.
4) Gamers minds will be 'RESET' to their normal & sane state like it used to be.
5) This bring back the fun in actual games & gaming .... & not on crazy animalistic flaming and debate over useless figures.

[visualb]

I'm talking about all fanboy spewage.

and you seem to assume only PS3 fanboys spew crap on here, but thats maybe because you're ignored by all 360 fanboys or choose to ignore them (or you are a 360 fanboy) , truth is, everyone does it.

I see more people complaining about PS3 fanboys than actual PS3 fanboys, which is contradictory in itself, and quite sad,

the second you complain about 1 set of fanboys, its quite clear you're part of the other side.

ALL fanboys spew crap, and ALL will stop with the absence of NPD...or lets hope.

@Ghanksy - i doubt many real gamers come to N4G much...even I feel dirty for coming here -_- good source of news though

[lexington]

well this should please the pswii fanboys. Now they don't have to see their pshdwii in LAST place all the time.

[Mahr]

"ALL fanboys spew crap, and ALL will stop with the absence of NPD"

Yeah, because solid, concrete, factual information is what constitutes crap. Surely, made-up numbers based on nothing other than personal speculation can only lead to people developing less biased conclusions. Totally.

[morganfell]

Not happy for some people that rely on NPD as an affirmation. It will get even uglier for those persons if the numbers released by hardware manufacturers are worldwide figures and not just the US.

[k-Lan]

lmao! Prepare your Kleenex Morgan. It would get ugly for the PS3. I would love to see confirmed WW numbers for the last few months.

[nickjkl]

idk about you but sony is still at 38 million officially until the end of this quarter half year depending on what comes first

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

''NPD Group has said it’s to stop releasing monthly hardware unit sales figures for the US,''

¿WHAT? ¿NPD Sales numbers of US is not the whole world?!!!! /s

[Shang-Long]

well it should stop salas game

[EVILDEAD360]

No average person has 10,000 dollars to waste on the NPD subscription..but the information is bound to leak to both of those sites..thus some fan blogger will make a killing in hits by being the first one to leak the info to the general public via N4G etc.

There has been some interesting speculation..my favorite is NPD was losing subscriptions because they were giving the information to the press for free anyways..

Microsft will definately put their NPD out in press releases for October thru November as their US holiday sales are going to be it's highest in recent history.

VG Chartz will now be the most powerful sales site in the industry by default

Life is about to get interesting..kicks up feet..pops in the popcorn for what will be an interest 2 and a half months...

Evil

[raztad]

Wow, the monthly flamewar is not more. I guess some "fans" will have nothing to talk. The downside is VGC guesstimates will become the "real deal" for some.

Well, nvm. I think there is quarterly reports from platform holder themselves to look forward.

[otherZinc]

This decision is a SONY exclusive! SONY knows they have no chance in the US (the largest videogame market), it wouldnt look good for them to get blown out during the ENTIRE 2010 VIDEO GAME SEASON! And the gap is going to widen this holiday season.

This is terrible!

[Troll_Police]

Go back to the Bitbag.com MOTY.

[Man_of_the_year]

It's been confirmed that OtherZinc and myself are not the same person. If you know what is going on with the Bitbag, you would have known this. Please try and keep up and don't hurt yourself. Thanks.

http://www.thebitbag.com/bb...

[Lovable]

Can't say I'll miss it to be honest lol..

[cyborg]

must be curled up crying in a corner somewhere

[visualb]

except now they'll be doing it over time =D YAY!

[GiggMan]

...imagines a N4G without talking about sales...

*faints*

[Mahr]

"imagines a N4G without talking about sales..."

Um, N4G will still talk about sales. People will just make up numbers instead and there will be no solid concrete facts to contradict them.

[Moentjers]

strange... just before GT5 comes out...

[k-Lan]

Yeah because GT5 is going to sell 20 trillion copies! The game will be played for generations to come!!

Btw.. whats the definition of hardware Moentjers??

[Optical_Matrix]

Brilliant news. Next stop Media Create and Famitsu figures and N4G may be become a slightly more friendly place...maybe

[Adva]

You are forgetting that Vgchart site. The one that has be known to understate PS3 numbers and overstate/some what accurate Xbox360 numbers.

[Mahr]

"Next stop Media Create and Famitsu figures and N4G may be become a slightly more friendly place"

I do not see that happening. This announcement is not even 9 hours old yet and already we have people resorting to insane conspiracy theories about Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft paying off NPD to hide the 'fact' that Move/Wii/Halo/Kinect are/will be failures.

[Megaton]

That'll be nice. It's like the special olympics around here when NPD releases numbers. On the other hand, I assume some people will start using VGChartz as a credible source to fuel their sales addiction.

[DaTruth]

Do you have anything better than VGChartz, will now have more ammo!

[hoops]

Good. Now let the rest do the same.

[CREESH]

paid large for this

[HDgamer]

Lol fanboys with no proof to support this theory.

[Gears_of_War_3]

360 is selling so well and Kinect hasnt even launch yet... they must be sony fanboys now that 360 is like going to sell easily 4M only in December in the U.S they stop giving us numbers!

Long live to the king !

Xbox 360!

[Adva]

Your king has a life span of <1 year, on avg.
Yeah, trollish comment. it's because mods don't exist here.

[SuperStrokey1123]

Are you on drugs? 4 million in december in the US alone?

[biggame901]

This is good news. Now we won't have the monthly drool fest over numbers that mean nothing to anyone except moronic fanboys. Instead, we can focus on what this site is supposed to be about: games.

[M4ndat0ry_1nstall]

Now fanboys can claim their <insert console> is outselling <insert console> in US, because their local store has sold more <insert console> than <insert console>. Just like they do with every other territory that doesn't have monthly hardware sales.

[ActionBastard]

So it's back to shipped vs. sold.

[LordMarius]

I hope people dont start using vgchartz as their source now

well anyways since no numbers will be released this are the Sept sales
1000K PS3
50k Wii
-100K 360
.....try to prove me wrong ;)

[Adva]

Selling negative #'s is not possible, so you are wrong!

[LordMarius]

lol touche,

350k PS3: Move
250k Wii: Nothing
450K 360: Halo Reach

[shadow2797]

Returns?

[Raoh]

ps3 must be about to pull some win over the competition and npd is being paid to not report it..

(commence the bashing)

[The Wood]

is a momentous say for GAMERS....poor poor wanna be patchers. For some this part of the month was the part when 'some' felt at their best... Everything they did had a 20%% improvement...they felt alive......lol Now they'll have to play games with a pad instead of numbers with a calculator.

I prey that that guestimate site doesn't try to take its place....that would be awful

[Silly gameAr]

I'm sure quite a few people just died a little inside.

[Zeevious]

.
H E L P!

My sales reports...Shipped and sold -- that my life depends on -- just failed me . . . What will I twist into truth now?

AGGhghhaghhaghhaghthhthgaghga -haghkkkxx!

Hold on, I can't type right now...I'm dead.

[The Wood]

rest in peace.

on 2 million to go ;)

[Silly gameAr]

Hahaha. That gave me a chuckle fellas.

[alphakennybody]

In time for kinect huh, I really wonder how many unit it actually sold to be sold out.

[redDevil87]

wow, first open zone goes and now this ... i'm scared

[Fiona]

Thank god! im quite happy for this. Its all about the games now! I really really dont care about hardware numbers.

[lodossrage]

Now exactly how do you figure Sony "paid" for this to happen? This is America (Microsoft land), not Japan. They had no qualms with showing the 360 outselling the ps3 in the U.S. all this time. So why oh why would they all of a sudden do that now?

[stuna1]

Well said! It's elementary my dear Watson. Plus bubble.

[NYC_Gamer]

bad news for the N4G stock-holders...

[Prototype]

HA HA HA I gave a + bubble, funny

[Rockstar]

How can I possibly enjoy playing vidja games without knowing how much my preferred console has sold?

Sad, sad day for gamers who love counting units sold because it makes them feel better.

Ah well....there's always VGCharts!

[SoapShoes]

What will VGChartz have to go off of now? The US was their only dependable source and now if the manufacturer doesn't report it, they won't have months of data....

[DeathGazer]

This only means more lame-ass PR from Aaron Greenturd.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

One of the more interesting points to clarify will be what exactly does "Manufacturers" entail? Is it just the hardware console makers, or is this companies that produce product to retailers? I mean software companies are going to want to see these reports so I have a hard time believing its just Sony/MS&Nintendo who control if they get released.

Also, if that is the case....I suspect we are going to start to see very slanted reports coming out of the 3 camps. As in, Sony sold XXX units in the month of Sept. but no mention of competitors numbers and to be honest they may even elimnate the numbers. Say Nintendo takes top spot again but only by 5k units. I am sure they will report they were the top selling hardware console in Sept. but not bring up exact units as they wont want to give credit to the others.

All else fails, hopefully Major Nelson from Microsoft will spew them all given he loves to talk them up on his podcast.

[lightningsax]

The answer to your "manufacturers" question is in the article. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and software publishers - right at the end.

[jcgamer]

Now they REALLY are going to go plum dumb crazy with the numbers...

lol :)

[OC_MurphysLaw]

They just got their dream wish... No matter what people say here, the NPD numbers and hardware rankings have been extremely hot topics this generation. I think it is in large part due to Sony struggling out of the gates and people becoming very polarized over where the great Sony would finish combined with the upstart Microsoft getting an early jump and Nintendo coming out of left field. It's all added up to a bit of a hardware soap opera that the fanboys and even non-fanboys have taken interest in.

[ElementX]

I enjoy reading sales numbers, it's a guilty pleasure.

[Hades1337]

Great, now fanboys will be able to pull sales numbers out their arse and get away with it.

[lightningsax]

Calm the frack down, people. This isn't a "victory" for anyone but big businesses in general. This announcement isn't "for gamers," it's for giant corporations, and it's only about shareholders.

If you read the article, it shows that NPD says this is a change in "corporate publishing guidelines." What this means is that NPD just got away with not revealing *why* there was a change in the guidelines.

Basically, guys up top in console manufacturing industries didn't want independent organizations releasing numbers without their seal of approval. The reason for this is to protect a company from outside information reaching shareholders before they can explain themselves. They must have thrown a nice big litigious threat out there, and NPD clammed up.

In a way, I get why. NPD hasn't done a very good job with online sales, and non-US analysts may have been mistaking NPD numbers for global figures, which look very different. In another way though, this is awful. It's a win for industries that want the company itself to be the only source of information for what it does.

[Anon1974]

NPD group is a market research company. People pay for their reports, and pay well. They used to give away bits of their reports every month, but this isn't the first time NPD has considered making all their information regarding market research a "subscriber only" service.

In this respect they're no different than any other market research firm on the street. They don't accumulate this data for their health, they do it to get paid. While other research firms release bits and pieces of their reports, no one gives their data away for free. Why should they?

The idea that the industry didn't want independent firms releasing figures is ludicrous. Analysts and market research firms like NPD group are multi-billion dollar industries. The idea that this is pressure from company's to not compile this information just shows a complete lack of understanding of how the market research industry works.

People should have to pay for this information. It takes a tremendous amount of man-hours to compile this information (unless you're VGChartz and you just make stuff up). I'd want to be paid for my work, why shouldn't NPD?

The manufacturers are were we should be getting this information from in the first place. They're the only ones who have accurate numbers as to how many units are leaving the factories and where they're going and they're required to keep that information and these figures are subject to audit. Anything else, including NPD numbers, have always only been their "best guess".

[bobdog626]

I think we all know who is The Winners and who are the Losers and really to me there are no Losers just Winners.All 3 Systems are the Best this Gen Case Closed

[Clarence]

Now the fun begins. 360 fans can stop thinking NPD is the world.

[tatotiburon]

hahaha lol so it begins they will stop reporting sales before Kinect...sony and ps3fanboys now can be in peace...but not for too long, vgchartz is around the corner hahha

[SyphonFilter]

kinect is garbage and will fail life hd-dvd,bet you thought hd-dvd will win right?ahahaha... vgchartz is fake,they recently put ps3 at 38 million when they hit that back in june.

[wissam]

Not good news for x360 fanboys.lol.

[Renodefend]

Xbox 360 is selling so much that Sony has paid Npd for not release the sales data.
It's so obvious .....

[wissam]

and the ones agreeing with you must have a serious issues.

[Chrissy]

1st glimpse of sunshine for sony fanboys after 2006..........or are they going to keep pretending they still have that imaginary library full of AAA games that for some reason doesnt exsist on metacritic or any ratings based site on the whole internet?

[Omega Zues]

Ever since NPD has been listing numbers its been hell for the gaming community. Sale figures is possibly the worst tool used every month on pointless arguments.

Now, that comes to a stop. The light...I can see the light..

...finally.

[shutupandplay]

Absolutely hilarious. I love watching Sony and their fanboys squirm, it`s so amusing. Regardless of whether NPD posts or not, we all know the 360 is holding the PS3`s head under water, drowning it slowly, worldwide I might add.

The gap is 6 million and growing rapidly, but just pretend like that`s not true, just pretend like the PS3 is actually doing well. LOL.

[Lucreto]

How can it be 6 million if the year to date the PS3 is only 4 million behind.

[shutupandplay]

Lol, 4 million? It was 4 million before the slim launched. Since then, the PS3 has never outsold the 360, and not just that, but has been slaughtered by the 360. Look up the numbers, the 360 has been doubling PS3 in America and winning in Europe too. The only place the PS3 is winning is Japan, and even then it can only muster a puny 70K gap. Face it, the PS3 is getting pummeled, and the 360 keeps selling like a beast.

The gap is around 6 million, and probably closing in on 7, just wait until the official numbers.

[P_Bomb]

@shutupandplay

http://www.techradar.com/ne...

Your "7 million lead" theory is flawed. In June the 360 outsold the PS3 by around 140,000 in America. By around 220,000 in July when the slim launched. August the 360 sales came back down and it only outsold the PS3 by like 130,000 in America. 500,000 is not 3 million.

[Lucreto]

@shutupandplay

Not true the PS3 has sold more this year than the 360. But it will pass it before christmas. Hardware sales don't matter it is the attach rate which is more important. The PS3 is selling as much software as the 360 even with a bigger hardware difference. It looks more like people rebuying the 360 after all the major problems than new customers. Developers still make more money on the PS3 than 360 look at the former crown jewel known as Mass Effect 2. That would still be exclusive if it wasn't for lower sales.

I wonder what the true figure of 360's if globally if the RROD machines were removed from the total.

I just

[snp]

Absolutely hilarious. I love watching Sony and their fanboys squirm, it`s so amusing.
------

If you have a look at previous page the vast majority of the quickest comments are conspiracy theories regarding Sony paying to hide the figures. This is hardly 'Sony and their fanboys squirming'.

-----
The gap is 6 million and growing rapidly, but just pretend like that`s not true, just pretend like the PS3 is actually doing well. LOL.
-----

And where did the extra 2 million suddenly come from? Last reports of official numbers from either had it at ~4 million. NPD had Xbox doing quite well since 360s vs PS3 (but that's only a couple of months, and amounts to a few hundred thousand), while Japan's ps3 numbers continue to hold sway over the 360 by a fair margin (and naturally pull back a bit of US gap).

Europe is an unknown. Anecdotally - top 10 lists of game sales of like versus like - the PS3 would seem to be comfortably ahead, but how weekly sales of each system are going is completely unknown. The only source 'claiming' to know is VGChartz - which invariably puts the 360 slightly ahead; as they demonstratively always have/will when given the opportunity of a vacuum - but no one being sincere about it gives them any credibility (they've been caught out revising figures (on the sneak), posting big headlines that prove later to be nonsense, posting preorders that then don't match up with first week sales (eg. 400k pre-orders, then amounting to 450k first week total sales - not likely!), being millions off for one console while using excuses that should see them millions off for both - but doesn't etc etc. - the list of dodgy behaviour/numbers goes on and on. Only people who like their quite obvious and repeated bias give them any credibility, and even they in the heart of heart probably know it's crud.).

[Lucreto]

Look at all the fanboy comments above saying Sony paid them to stop. What rubbish. The PS3 fanboys could say MS stopped paying NPD for inflating the numbers and decided to do it themselves.

[PirateThom]

Microsoft definitely paid them off, meaning when the numbers come out they can inflate them (as they have been doing with their world wide sales for years) and no one will know.

See how stupid that sounds while "Sony paid them off" is perfectly acceptable?

Weird.

[bobdog626]

Some one did and it wasnt the Big N.Microsoft is doing well so you do the Math LoL

[PirateThom]

It doesn't make any sense for any platform holder to hold them back, though, because the people who matter, their investors, have access to these numbers as well as raw hardware numbers.

[skrug]

Microsoft paid because they didnt want the public to know the sales of kinect. LOL

[lelo2play]

strange... very strange.

[Achemki]

Glad it's gone. All this did was fuel the nonsense on here. Just look at all the 360 shills saying that Sony paid NPD to go away. Wow. Sony controls Microsoft AND Nintendo's business relationships now?

Don't worry, I'm sure Aaron Greenberg will still drop in from time to time, reminding his junior employees that every time a ring goes red, a fanboy gets his wings. It's a privelege to buy team green. Preferably, 3 or 4 times. May the sales be with you.

lol, good riddance

[SyphonFilter]

rrod fanboys are mad they will end up in lat soon.M$ payed so people can't see rrod be in last place soon. 3.6 and getting smaller.

[Homicide]

I see a certain group is happy about this. Wonder why?

[SyphonFilter]

why you need to be subliminal? you think u.s is the world. i am sure 1 year headstart and costing less every time doesn't have to do anything with it.

[The_Zeitgeist]

I bet this is all because the Game-Industry as a whole is slumping big time. So rather than have the real numbers released (the bad one's), the big 3 decided they would rather inflate their numbers in order to please stock holders.

[forum_crawler]

I think numbers don't really matter, well, not to the consumer anyway. I think everyone who buys consoles, buys games and enjoys them wins, regardless of the platform they choose.

[Pledius]

just before GT5...

I wanted to see the sales for that game...

always been top3 sales game from all the way PS to PS3