Every month, The NPD Group releases sales figures of video games that were sold at retail. Their data lets us know how many units a game or console sold. The problem with The NPD’s numbers is that they don’t cover games that are sold digitally. The digital market is huge and not counting it creates an inaccurate representation of videogame sales. Thanks to a new partnership between The NPD Group and analyst firm EEDAR, digital sales will no longer be left out.

The PS3 has come a long way since its release in 2006. Once seen as an expensive console with questionable validity, the PS3 has grown into the perfect complement to anyone’s home entertainment center. Following numerous price drops, Sony has seen sales of the PS3 steadily rise. Now that PlayStation Move is out, Sony expects to attract more consumers who purchased the Wii. The holiday season is the perfect time to capitalize on potential sales. EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich thinks the PS3 install base is reaching a point where it will outnumber the Xbox 360 by 2012.

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero has been immensely successful for Capcom. The Xbox 360 downloadable episode was purchased over 300,000 times for $5. Case Zero gave gamers a taste of Dead Rising 2, while allowing them to earn transferable experience and items. It’s no secret Case Zero was one step up from being a demo, but this may be something other game developers will adapt in the near future.

We’ve gotten a lot of information regarding the 3DS today. In addition to the game announcements and new console features, analysts are now offering their opinions on the 3DS. EEDAR released its comments to us outlining the firm’s predictions on the 3DS’ North American price point, and what a 2011 release date may mean for Nintendo from a business perspective.

According to an analyst for research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR), next generation consoles are likely to stress digital download sales and eschew the traditional retail model.

The July NPD’s were released last week. The one thing we can take away from the results were that software sales saw a slump and the Xbox 360 S helped consoles sales tremendously. As we approach the holiday season, more big name games are scheduled to released. Before the end of the year we will see Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and LittleBigPlanet 2 all released very close to each other. However EEDAR (Electronic Entertainment Design and Research) analyst Jesse Divnich believes it will take more than software sales to recover from the sales slump of the summer.

When Microsoft first announced that Kinect will cost $150, many were not surprised, but others felt that the price is a too steep. In fact, one of our writers believes that it may lead to its downfall. However, an analyst from think tank Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) believes that Kinect is priced appropriately.

A post-E3 report issued by EEDAR shows that purchasing intent for Kinect and Move is low among hardcore gamers. Even though the hardcore are fully aware of the products and their capabilities, chances of purchasing are still rather slim.

With folks having fewer dollars in their pockets to spend overall, a report from Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) indicates there are more games coming out at lower prices. The research group suggests publishers may have to continue that trend, at least in the short term, as the economy gets hit harder.

According to analyst Jesse Divnich, from the EEDAR’s report:

“As the Xbox 360 and the PS3 hardware continue to decline in price, more non-traditional, casual, family, and price sensitive gamers (noting these demographics sometimes overlap) will likely adopt these systems, which will increase the demand for cheaper titles.”

Another important issue is…

Nothing can stop the Mario-driven money train known as Nintendo.

The company proved that at the end of 2008 when the Wii sold more than 2 million units in the month of November alone.

Before the NPD numbers for December 2008 are released, Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) analyst Jesse Divnich is predicting the games industry has made $2.7 billion in sales in December 2009 with the Wii and DS accounting for half of that number. Simply put, if it weren’t for Nintendo the video game industry would have taken a brutal beating compliments of the weakening economy.

Divnich believes those sales prove a…