NexGenWars.com vs. VGCharts.com

[R-iZZy]

Seriously, there's like two sites tracking the next-gen console war that I know by heart, but I don't know which one is more reliable.

NexGenWars.com (http://nexgenwars.com) was the first site I came across, but then someone referred me to VGCharts.org (http://www.vgcharts.org). The latter is nicely designed, but how reliable is it? I heard the 360 only sold 180k units in Japan, yet this site says different. It is more informative (assuming its true). But I question whether the 360 really did sell under 6.5 million units worldwide, especially since i've heard them reaching up to at least 8 million.

Anyone know?

[Peanut]

The 360 has factually sold over 6.5 million units world-wide. Whatever site says they haven't is a lie.

[R-iZZy]

Then VGCharts.org it is!

Thanks a bunch for that clear-up, Peanut!

[Barkworm]

According to NPD the 360 has sold 3.800.000 units in the US alone. European numbers should be pretty much the same, the Japanese numbers are correct however.

[R-iZZy]

Seriously, I'm gonna start doing research before I ever take "facts" by word of mouth, again.

[Peanut]

What needs to be realized is that none of this is right. The NPD doesn't even get full numbers. Wal-Mart, the biggest seller of video games in all of North America, doesn't even report their numbers to the NPD. And they aren't the only ones either.

Therefore, none of those sites are accurate. At all. Just think about this, if combined there are 100,000 separate stores that don't report to the NPD, there are hundreds of thousands by the way, but let's just say 100,000 for arguments sake. Now, if those 100,000 stores sold only one console per store, that's over 100,000 consoles not accounted for. What if those stores sold 10 consoles? That's a million consoles not accounted for in NPD sales numbers.

Basically, what I'm saying is that both those sites are wrong. The NPD is just a small look into real sales, and no one really knows how much has been sold except the companies who do the selling. You can't rely on anything but official press releases. Even then, companies like Sony tend to used the term "sold" very loosely. Like when they say they "sold" 500,000 PSP's in a month, that number is more like 300,000, because in reality they shipped 500,000. That doesn't mean they sold.

Anyways, long winded post, but there you have it.

[R-iZZy]

This basically sounds like the music business, with certifications and "sales" being based on the shipment figures rather than retail purchases. Ugh.

But that explanation's definitely given me a better look into this. I can't understand why retail stores wouldn't want to report the figures. Is it too much work or something? Every retail store is able to send in figures for album sales to Nielsen for the SoundScan projections, can't imagine why it would be so difficult for video game tracking.

[Jed]

Even then, companies like Sony tend to used the term "sold" very loosely. Like when they say they "sold" 500,000 PSP's in a month, that number is more like 300,000, because in reality they shipped 500,000. That doesn't mean they sold.

Aren't Nintendo the only ones who don't do that?:-?

[Peanut]

Every company is guilty of it. When they want to make things seem more rosy to investors and partners, they put a spin on the words to make it look better. I mean, if you had a couple million invested in a company, would you be more willing to drop some more cash in there if you heard they sold 500,000 units, or 800,000 units?

It all depends on how things are going financially within the company, which is why Sony is usually the one that tends to use the units shipped in accordance with units sold. Because they've been losing money for five years now, and all of their divisions have been attacked in their weak points for massive damage.

Microsoft is going to make billions a quarter anyways, so they don't really care too much about making everything sound pretty, that doesn't mean they don't do it though.

Nintendo makes money hand over fist, so they almost always use the term "units sold" as actual units shipped and then sold to consumers. When you've got a product walloping your opposition by the millions anyways, it doesn't seem to make much difference.