In an interview with MCV, UK retail research firm Chart-Track takes a shot at Steam's recent statement that it would not cooperate with research firms in providing data on sales. Last month Steam’s Jason Holtman told MCV that the digital distribution platform considers the idea of tracking it sales data is "old" and that it "isn't super important for a company to know how well everyone else is doing."
Today Chart-Track's managing director John Pinder fired back at the PC download giant in a letter to MCV, saying that holding back data would be a "backwards step for the games industry."
"Is Jason Holtman really advocating a return to the ‘90s, when key retailers refused to pool their data, claiming it was better to supply sales direct to publishers?," asked Pinder in its letter to MCV.
"We know from years of experience with publishers, retailers and developers that the ability to benchmark every aspect of their business, to monitor competitor titles, to track market developments and to identify new trends are all key requirements.
Retreat from mutual co-operation back to isolationism would be a truly retrograde step – I urge Jason to join us in the 21st Century."
Source: MCV
Comments
Re: UK's Chart-Track Takes Shot at Steam
Hrm. So is anyone familiar with the value of this type of data collection and marketing?
My old company did not utilize it at all... so my initial though here was that this is a marketing service trying to justify its own existence and being scared that publishers might not want what they offer.