Impulse & GamersGate Demand Respect

Some people aren't at all happy about those NPD charts listing the most successful digital distribution services. Those people being, specifically, the bosses of two of the biggest services, which rather oddly didn't make the top five - it instead being dominated by Valve, EA, Blizzard and Direct2Drive. Impulse and Gamersgate think something is rotten in the state of down-chart....

Big Download - which is one of those names I feel I would have to bellow in a deep voice whenever spoken aloud - did the digging, eliciting comments from important, but upset men:

Brad Wardell, Stardock/Impulse boss: "NPD's numbers on digital don't tend to have much reflection on reality. As much as I would love digital distribution to take over the world, I can't think of a single publisher (including ourselves) that sells even close to a majority of its units digitally. I am a big believer in the future of digital distribution but the numbers we typically hear from publishers is that it's about a third (which is pretty darn good, by the way)."

CEO Theodore Bergquist of Gamersgate: "We did read the report and were actually quite surprised. We do not disclose our sales numbers and we were also not contacted during the research period of this study. That being said, from our numbers and most importantly our conversations with the leading publishers in the industry, I know we are easily one of the top retailers."

It's an odd'un. NPD aren't exactly greenhorns when it comes to stat-gathering, but then again they've been incredibly slow to encompass digital sales in their methodology, plus there's no way in hell they have access to Valve or Blizzard's sales figures. Then again, neither do Stardock or Gamersgate.