Everybody loves the monthly NPD sales data, because how many copies a game has sold in the last cycle is obviously more important than whether or not you like it. This is elementary gamer psychology.
EA’s corporate communications executive Tiffany Steckler isn’t convinced, though. The problem is that NPD data excludes sales through digital platforms, including Steam, PSN, Xbox LIVE, and others.
“Using NPD data for video game sales is like measuring music sales and ignoring something called iTunes,” she told CNN. “We see NPD’s data as a misrepresentation of the entire industry.”
Which is an interesting point, except for the part where NPD data does actually represent a huge part of the industry – sales of physical copies.
Industry analyst Michael Pachter was quick to dismiss the criticism, calling it a “gross overstatement”, and explaining (with no apparent sense of irony whatsoever) that “EA saying physical game sales don’t matter is like Best Buy saying television sales don’t matter.”
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