More projected numbers moving forwards
Microsoft no longer shares digital sales data with US analytics firm Circana, meaning the company will now be forced to project numbers for games under the Xbox, Activision, and Bethesda umbrellas.
Circana, formerly NPD, has been a trusted source of sales information in the US for many years, providing monthly breakdowns of hardware and software sales.
Publishers like Sony and Bandai Namco provide the company with their digital sales data, which it then combines with information from retailers to compile charts showing the best-selling games.
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This data is then aggregated and sold to clients within the industry.
However as of today’s July report, Microsoft has stopped sharing the digital sales data for its games. The Redmond firm joins Nintendo and Take-Two, who haven’t provided digital sales data for many years.
Circana recently started introducing estimated or predicted digital data for non-participating publishers, which does ultimately introduce a margin of error.
On a related note, Microsoft has also stopped sharing its information with a similar European tracker named GSD.
It’ll be interesting to see whether other publishers, like PlayStation, decide to lock down their data in the future too.
At the end of day, while not a big deal, this means less accurate sales information for us, as the industry continues its cloak-and-daggers approach to everything.
