Market research company NPD Group has announced that it will begin providing a version of its Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend Service to track consumer spending for games content in several European countries.

The NPD Group’s U.S. Total Consumer Spend Service provides sales estimates across all video game channels and media, including new physical formats sold at retail, social network gaming, used video games, rentals, subscriptions, digital downloads, downloadable content, and mobile games.

MyGaming often looks at the NPD results as a way of observing overall health in the video game industry. The expansion into Europe will likely give a better overall global view of the video game industry.

The service in Europe will focus on measuring channels that are not currently tracked in Europe – namely those occurring outside of new physical retail sales.

“Designed to address the demand for broader global insights and market comparisons across different geographies, the initial rollout will report on Europe’s largest video game markets: United Kingdom, France and Germany. The launch of the service in Europe will then be followed by further expansion in major Asian markets,” states the NPD

The service is scheduled to begin with the tracking of fourth quarter 2011 (Oct.-Dec.) sales. Utilizing its existing pan-European market research capabilities and established methodology, the market estimates can be harmonized with The NPD Group’s U.S. tracking services, for insights into and across the world’s most influential global markets.

“The new digital distribution channels in video games are not country specific. They are global in nature, which is why NPD is taking its proven, proprietary methodology, developed over a number of years, and applying it to a global perspective,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group.

NPD group expands game industry tracking service to European market << Comments and views