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Forums - Website Topics - Changes to Software Tracking – 2019 Onwards

HylianSwordsman on 29 January 2019
Machina said:
HylianSwordsman said:

So regarding these legacy features, does this mean we'll have access to every sales estimate chart ever produced in the history of the site, forever? Because I'll miss them if they go away, and there's just so much data there, even if it isn't perfectly accurate, that it would just be a horrible shame to lose it all, or any of it for that matter. I'm sure there's still plenty of use we can get out of it.

Yes of course :)

I spent countless hours doing them, I'd be well pissed off if they just got deleted!

Glad to hear it. I've a few more questions, regarding the hardware charts. How do I look at specific hardware charts now that they aren't going to be paired with the software charts? I see we have the hardware numbers for January 5th already, and they're displayed on the front page. Normally if I wanted to see hardware numbers for a specific week that wasn't on the front page, I'd look at the global software chart for that week and check the accompanying  hardware, then check the different region charts for that week if I wanted a regional breakdown.

Speaking of which, since regional software is gone, how do I see hardware for the different regions? I mean the chart on the front page summarizes it well enough, but where will that chart go once the next week's data arrives? Do I just have to check the weekly hardware comparison tool? Because don't get me wrong, it makes some pretty graphs and the data is all there, but I'll really miss the presentation of the chart for past weeks if only the current front page chart is visible. Not to mention the front page hardware chart links to December 29th 2018's chart, so that needs to be changed to something else at some point.

Since you're not tied down to pairing the different regional hardware breakdowns with a software chart, perhaps you could have a central location for all the previous front page charts? Again, the presentation of that front page chart with a breakdown of every platform's sales in every region and their global totals for a given week all in one place is really nice and not something you can replicate with the weekly hardware comparison tool, and in general a chart as opposed to a graph is just easier and more straightforward to read.

TLDR; You said in an earlier post that the hardware charts aren't going anywhere, so what's going to happen to the actual hardware charts that used to appear alongside the software charts? And the front page chart once a new one replaces it? Where will they go? Because there doesn't seem to be a place for them yet, unless I'm missing something.



mjk45 on 29 January 2019
TalonMan said:
kirby007 said:
About the system that did the software charts planning on making it publicly available?

I'll answer that one:   No.

 

It's Brett's software, his algorithm - and no, it stays locked behind the door.

 

mjk45 said:
I would like to ask a question, it might be a silly one but that doesn't stop them popping into my mind, have you thought about approaching Sony for sales data that includes digital, now i'm not talking up to date sales, more along the lines of getting historical data from PS3 and PS4, and if that succeeds then convincing them to do periodic updates of Sony games since anything on a small time scale ain't happening.
Then you just have left the super easy task of getting Sony to convince 3rd parties to add their games.

I've mulled this over myself, because frankly it's just too damn easy for MS, Sony, and Nintendo to, at the very least, know and release digital sales numbers - there's no possible way on any planet, they don't have this basic information readily available...      ...and yet, neither one of the three has ever been forthcoming with releasing those numbers to ANYONE. I don't know why - I don't know what the big secret is all about. But I just don't see them giving that information over to us (or anyone else) without somebody forking over $$ for the data.

 $$ for data is why rather than trying for the latest data, I mentioned trying for Historical data for PS3 and PS4  and maybe convincing  Sony to expand their updates to include more games than the one game hitting a milestone update they usually do, a Sony game sales state of the nation address sounds good, also the reason I mentioned just Sony is I feel in their current position they would be the most likely ones to give data, plus if you don't ask!

Last edited by mjk45 - on 29 January 2019

Research shows Video games  help make you smarter, so why am I an idiot

HylianSwordsman on 30 January 2019
Machina said:

You're right, there isn't one yet. We'll be adding a new index page to display all of the historical hardware charts - it's on the to-do list. I'm sure we can display it by region too (heck we actually track hardware for more places than we show, such as smaller European countries, so maybe we can display some of those too).

That sounds awesome! Final question, I promise. The US pre-order charts, are they done? I know a lot of people found them less exciting, but I liked to use them to gauge hype for titles and track pre-order trends, but I recognize they are software related and probably weren't the most accurate numbers either.



tak13 on 30 January 2019
Machina said:
HylianSwordsman said:

Glad to hear it. I've a few more questions, regarding the hardware charts. How do I look at specific hardware charts now that they aren't going to be paired with the software charts? I see we have the hardware numbers for January 5th already, and they're displayed on the front page. Normally if I wanted to see hardware numbers for a specific week that wasn't on the front page, I'd look at the global software chart for that week and check the accompanying  hardware, then check the different region charts for that week if I wanted a regional breakdown.

Speaking of which, since regional software is gone, how do I see hardware for the different regions? I mean the chart on the front page summarizes it well enough, but where will that chart go once the next week's data arrives? Do I just have to check the weekly hardware comparison tool? Because don't get me wrong, it makes some pretty graphs and the data is all there, but I'll really miss the presentation of the chart for past weeks if only the current front page chart is visible. Not to mention the front page hardware chart links to December 29th 2018's chart, so that needs to be changed to something else at some point.

Since you're not tied down to pairing the different regional hardware breakdowns with a software chart, perhaps you could have a central location for all the previous front page charts? Again, the presentation of that front page chart with a breakdown of every platform's sales in every region and their global totals for a given week all in one place is really nice and not something you can replicate with the weekly hardware comparison tool, and in general a chart as opposed to a graph is just easier and more straightforward to read.

TLDR; You said in an earlier post that the hardware charts aren't going anywhere, so what's going to happen to the actual hardware charts that used to appear alongside the software charts? And the front page chart once a new one replaces it? Where will they go? Because there doesn't seem to be a place for them yet, unless I'm missing something.

You're right, there isn't one yet. We'll be adding a new index page to display all of the historical hardware charts - it's on the to-do list. I'm sure we can display it by region too (heck we actually track hardware for more places than we show, such as smaller European countries, so maybe we can display some of those too).

Would you be eager to adjust historical software sales data? 

Last edited by tak13 - on 30 January 2019