NPD and EEDAR to collaborate on complete US sales data

NPD and analyst firm EEDAR said today that they're to collaborate on providing "expanding video game tracking" to the US market, after complaints earlier this year that a lack of digital data in NPD reporting was giving a skewed view of the industry.

The partnership is "aimed at improving the measurement and analysis of the evolving video game industry," said the pair in a press release.

EEDAR will exclusively work together and collaborate with The NPD Group in North America to support the development of "a total market tracking service for interactive entertainment."

Physical and digital transactions "in all mediums" - with console, mobile and online) - will be tracked by the venture.

“The NPD Group and EEDAR have always shared a common goal of providing information and insights to our clients in the games industry,” said David McQuillan, NPD's games boss.

“The growth of the digital channel within the games industry presents numerous challenges and opportunities that we believe are best addressed for our clients through a formalized, collaborative effort between The NPD Group and EEDAR. We expect that this synergy of resources and vision will result in greater transparency into the total games market including digital forms of distribution as well as the established physical format.”

EEDAR head Greg Short said: “With the rapid growth occurring on digital platforms, the importance of measuring and understanding the factors which contribute to the financial success of a product is a key initiative EEDAR is developing solutions for.

"EEDAR has always sought to embrace relationships that provide strong value to our clients and improve accessibility to key data for decision makers. Our collaborative efforts with The NPD Group will help ensure that our research services will continue to evolve for the needs of the industry while specifically addressing transparency and the identification of success criteria for emerging markets.”