NPD to include digital sales data in future reports

The NPD Group has confirmed it's looking to include digital sales data for future monthly sales reports in the US.

NPD's Anita Frazier told GamesIndustry.biz that it's looking to increase the output of its digital reports from quarterly to monthly.

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

"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)."

She also admitted that she expects that publishers and digital distributors will be more open with its digital sales figures in future.

"We expect it to happen, especially as digital grows to become a larger portion of the consumer's overall spend," said Frazier.

"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."

Earlier this week, EA called the data released monthly by NPD "a misrepresentation of the entire industry."