The NPD Group has been pursuing a strategy to provide a complete picture of the games business, including digital, for some time now. Although never publicly announced, EEDAR's intentions to cover the scope of the digital market have been somewhat similar, and now the two firms are teaming up to bring their respective strengths to the table. The companies are calling it "a strategic collaboration aimed at improving the measurement and analysis of the evolving video game industry."
Although NPD already publishes a quartery total market report that includes digital, the goal of NPD's and EEDAR's combined efforts will be to further develop a total market tracking service for interactive entertainment, including both physical and digital transactions in all mediums (console, mobile and online). And one of the immediate results of this blossoming partnership will be that clients of The NPD Group and EEDAR will see The NPD Group’s point-of-sale (POS) video games data integrated into EEDAR’s GamePulse analytical service.
“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, President, Games, The NPD Group. “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.”
“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,” said Greg Short, President & CEO, EEDAR. “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.”
