14 DAY TRIAL // When things happen over and over for a couple of times without bringing anything new, they're labeled as repetitive and usually shunned by society for their lack of creativity. Bun when they ignore what the world thinks of them and persevere in their cycle, they slowly become traditions. One such repetitive cycle that has become tradition is the monthly report for the US game sales figures from the NPD Group. For some time now, the second or third Thursday of each month has brought the end results of all the work developers have put in their games.
But this month the world seems to shake from its foundations as NPD announced their first delay of this report. "We have just released a communication to our clients, explaining that, due to last minute processing requirements, the NPD Video Games Retail Tracking information for September 2009 will now be released on Monday, October 19," the company statement reads. The earnings release is now scheduled to be published by the media at 3:30 p.m. PDT, as long as they're prompt enough to do it the same moment that NPD releases it.
This may seem like an insignificant delay for the gaming community, but that's only for those of us who don't have our fate decided by how well our last game did. It's not an epic fate that is part of the discussion here, it's more in the likes of whether the small developers will get the money from the huge publishers to pay their bills and buy a glass of milk. And oh yeah, develop their next game.
The other thing it delays is the inevitable parade the winner will put together for their game in front of the competition. It may sound shallow, but it's the foundation from which big companies gather and sharpen their competitive drive. Money is always a nice treat, but this can be cut straight out of the equation and eliminated as the intermediary. The CEO's ego gets a straight boost without them having to remember a lot of numbers. NPD makes things very simple by clearly stating who sold more.