NPD Delays May Sales Results By 'Up To Three Weeks'

The NPD Group will miss its traditional release day for monthly U.S. video game industry sales results next week, as it delays its May report to accommodate "a significant upgrade to the IT architecture," the company said today. NPD traditionally releases sales and revenue data covering the retail U.S. console game industry on the second Thursday of each month, but NPD told Gamasutra it will be "delayed by up to three weeks." Analysts will be waiting anxiously for those results, particularly as they come after one of the largest year-on-year declines ever. Overall monthly revenue was down 26 percent in April, and the industry is down 11 percent on a year-to-date basis. According to NPD, the delay in May results is purely due to the company's internal infrastructure plans. "This is long overdue, and is being done to better serve all of our clients and research partners," an NPD representative told Gamasutra.