So I decided to google VGChartz to find the first forum topic that pulled up in the results  (I was bored and procastinating).  What I found was something a lot more interesting. I looked through the first 5-7 pages of google results and to my surprise is quite a few of the search results were negative articles about VGChartz.

So I was wondering why VGChartz get slammed so often by other gaming sites, is it beacuse the site doesn't release it's sources?  Has VGChartz earned it's bad reputation? More importantly does it affect the future  growth of the forums, gamrview, and gamewise?  I believe this must of been one of the many reasons Brett decided to seperate Gamreview and Gamewise from the VGchartz brand?

Just wondering what everyones opinion is about this.  

A few articles that have a negative spin on them I found.

 http://www.vg247.com/2011/03/31/gamepro-g4tv-and-vgchartz-busted-content-spamming-reddit/

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2008/06/why-we-dont-ref/

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18919#.ULXYzIdQXJY

http://www.examiner.com/article/why-vgchartz-isn-t-considered-reliable

http://kotaku.com/319679/npd-surprised-at-backlash-hate-vgchartz-real-bad

Most of those articles are pretty old.

VGC is more professional now. It is one source of information. Thrown in with the "official" trackers and company shipping information and you have as good a picture as you can hope for.

Not sue why anyone would have a vendetta against a site that is merely trying to clarify.... unless of course they don't like the numbers. The real problem is fanboys exploding when the result isn't what they want, they then spread the bad word and this is (was) reflected on some websites.

How accurate IS VGC really?? I see a lot of games that MOST be undertracked...

kowenicki said: Most of those articles are pretty old. VGC is more professional now. It is one source of information. Thrown in the "official" trackers and company shipping information and you have as good a picture as you can hope for. Not sue why anyone would have a vendetta against a site that is merely trying to clarify.... unless of course they don't like the numbers. The real problem is fanboys exploding when the result isn't what they want, they then spread the bad word and this is (was) reflected on some websites.

This would be perfectly true, if VGC made adjustments to hardware numbers that are obviously false. At some point last year we had DS sell-through outpacing DS shipments and it took months until this was corrected. The same holds true for the PSV this year.

VGC being off on software (especially smaller games) isn't really that big of a deal. There are hundreds of games released each year, so it's bound to happen. For the majority of relevant games, VGC gets within the margin of error they set for themselves.

I don't mind it either, if VGC is off on hardware every now and then. But in instances like the above mentioned with shipment data and Nintendo's graphs for the European market being available, it shouldn't take more than a week until the figures are corrected.

RolStoppable said: kowenicki said: Most of those articles are pretty old. VGC is more professional now. It is one source of information. Thrown in the "official" trackers and company shipping information and you have as good a picture as you can hope for. Not sue why anyone would have a vendetta against a site that is merely trying to clarify.... unless of course they don't like the numbers. The real problem is fanboys exploding when the result isn't what they want, they then spread the bad word and this is (was) reflected on some websites. This would be perfectly true, if VGC made adjustments to hardware numbers that are obviously false. At some point last year we had DS sell-through outpacing DS shipments and it took months until this was corrected. The same holds true for the PSV this year. VGC being off on software (especially smaller games) isn't really that big of a deal. There are hundreds of games released each year, so it's bound to happen. For the majority of relevant games, VGC gets within the margin of error they set for themselves. I don't mind it either, if VGC is off on hardware every now and then. But in instances like the above mentioned with shipment data and Nintendo's graphs for the European market being available, it shouldn't take more than a week until the figures are corrected.

Yeah, I get the feeling that VGC is slow at correcting errors, or simply just don't care to do it... It's a shame really.

RolStoppable said: kowenicki said: Most of those articles are pretty old. VGC is more professional now. It is one source of information. Thrown in the "official" trackers and company shipping information and you have as good a picture as you can hope for. Not sue why anyone would have a vendetta against a site that is merely trying to clarify.... unless of course they don't like the numbers. The real problem is fanboys exploding when the result isn't what they want, they then spread the bad word and this is (was) reflected on some websites. This would be perfectly true, if VGC made adjustments to hardware numbers that are obviously false. At some point last year we had DS sell-through outpacing DS shipments and it took months until this was corrected. The same holds true for the PSV this year. VGC being off on software (especially smaller games) isn't really that big of a deal. There are hundreds of games released each year, so it's bound to happen. For the majority of relevant games, VGC gets within the margin of error they set for themselves. I don't mind it either, if VGC is off on hardware every now and then. But in instances like the above mentioned with shipment data and Nintendo's graphs for the European market being available, it shouldn't take more than a week until the figures are corrected.

That's a fair point and you don't need me to tell you that I have been quite vocal about the obvious Vita over tracking.  I think VGC may be trying to allow it to happen gradually (face saving?). Trouble is vita sales haven't picked up enough her to allow that tactic.  I'm almost certain that NPD have also used this tactic in the past. 

lol @ the sour grapes from the NPD guy.

NPD is elitist ass.

Credible websites don't use Z's as a replacement for S's in their title.

it doesn't seem to be viewed that well but like kowen said they are oldish,

i thought people agreed the hardware figures were pretty good after the last set of shipments,it seems pretty hard to track s/ware these days i wonder how often they re-jig their calculator thingy and if they'll ever include a digital estimator

Its the best source we got, and its free :)

Plus they tend to correct figures once hard data comes out, so it all evens out