Chart-Track: Industry is at risk of losing its best research and PR tool

GfK Chart-Track has warned the games industry that it might lose its best PR tool if it fails to share digital data.

The firm, which operates the UK Top 40, says it is ready to support downloads in its chart, but that it’s up to the games industry to want it.

The controversy and speculation that a certain game would have topped the charts if digital sales were included highlights the need to address the issue of the supply of digital sales towards the industry’s charts and research data,” said GfK Chart-Track’s business group director Dorian Bloch.

We’re ready to include digital sales, either alongside physical sales or separately, but the ball is in the industry’s court to recognise the need for measuring the complete market and supply their data.

With a critical mass of digital retailers we could reveal as little or as much as the players in the market feel comfortable sharing.

There are issues, such as how local this combination of physical and digital can be and whether various companies are interested in digital supply or prefer anonymity, or even whether publishers truly want Steam, PSN, Xbox Live and so on, included in their UK totals.

The current UK game research project has been in existence for decades and perhaps because of this, it’s somewhat taken for granted that market intelligence of the packaged goods market is so accurate, so meaningful and therefore so useful. But with the growth of the digital sector the industry risks losing its best research and PR tool – a chart that paints a true picture of the overall games market.”