The games industry needs sales figures

A call for a weekly top ten sales charts for the US games industry is something that is easy to echo here in Australia.

Entertainment Software Association (ESA) president Michael Gallagher was quoted by gamesindustry.biz as saying "I do think that the movie industry has a significant advantage over other forms of media because on Monday morning… whether you are driving, or looking at the newspaper, what's there: the top ten movies. What's next to that? Numbers.

"I think there is thought, because you now have significant revenue, and growth and investment and where that flows you tend to get better information. Reporters ask for it, investors certainly do and then there are consumers. There is an advantage to the companies to figure out a way to report that," he added.

It is something that has been available to the Australian market in the past. Although it didn't publish specific figures, research firm, GfK, published top 10 lists for all major gaming platforms through to the end of January, 2010.

A falling out with major retailers then led to those retailers withholding data, enough so that sales figures were no longer accurate, and GfK subsequently stopped producing the reports.

It is something the Australian games industry desparately needs - as a resource for publishers (both mainstream and indie), marketers, media and consumers.

Furthermore, Gallagher was quoted as pushing for digital sales statistics to also be provided. Given the interest growing amongst the industry in digital distribution, this would appear to be an equally sound request.