Wow, the NPD data is... very odd. VGC's numbers seem the more believable of the two, but of course NPD has a bigger sample size, but that doesn't guarantee better results.

Unfortunately it'll be a long time before we'll be able to establish who's more accurate here. If NPD's numbers are right, then kudos to Sony!!

But what the hell happened with DS numbers?? This is all so... weird.

 Yet my local Best Buy was sold out of Arcade sku's 3 hours ago when I was there. There were 4 other 360's on the shelf though. I decided to check if they had any Arcade sku's, on the off chance that I might splurge and buy one. I was a bit surprised that the Arcade was out of stock while the others weren't, since it's always reported that the more expensive models are the big sellers.

Wii is still sold out in the local Wal Mart and Best Buy as of tonight. Recently, I've noticed certain Wii games(Zelda, RE4, Mario Party) sold out at that same Wal Mart as well, which rarely happens there with popular titles(some of this was during the holidays, some right after, some recently). DS was actually sold out at our Wal Mart last week(didn't check tonight), along with New Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart DS(tonight).

What I'm getting at is that when you see stocked shelves in your area, that doesn't mean the city, county, or even region or state next door isn't facing supply issues. Supply can vary from store to store, area to area, as can tastes in games.

I'm not against the PS3 having it's day in the sun(more power to it), but I don't understand why people fight so hard to disbelieve shortages for systems. For crying out loud, there were even periods when the Game Cube was facing shortages. The PS2 had shortages in the middle of it's lifespan. Shortages happen and other consoles often benefit from it. That's not to say that I think the PS3's January success relied too heavily on 360 and Wii shortages. I'd be surprised if it sees an unnatural decline in Feb. The PS3 has a shot at making a run at the 360 this year; the Halo storm has already hit for the 360, Metal Gear and the gang should help make a difference, and Sony has much more room for an effective price drop than MS does.

I'm not entirely sure what is wrong with the DS sample.  It comes from the same places as the other hardware.  But considering what we cover, what NPD covers, and the fact that the two were over 100% off, its pretty obvious the DS sample produced awful results this month.  With PS3 and the other consoles, 0-30% errors are scaling and sample size related.  With only estimates from Walmart and Toys R US, a 30% error is right on the edge of reason if NPD was completely wrong in their estimates (I'm sure they weren't, but their estimates are not going to be 100% accurate either).  So in terms of distance from real sales, our sample somehow missed the general trend boat for DS, while for the other platforms we are anywhere from 5-25% different from what really sold when taking into account a 3-5% margin of error for NPD's coverage.

wow, vgchartz is pretty far off from npd this time.

 The problem is that manufacturers compare NDP data with their own sales and they seem to agree with NDP this month (at least MS was full of excuses).

It seems VGC sample produced worse results than in previous months. Normally you guys pretty much on the ball (within 10-15%). I guess you just need to work on your data it a little bit more and get back to the amazing predictions we got used to :) But I think 2008 will be a pretty hard to make predictions :(

Also, I believe some adjustments might be due. Not to NDP data but somewhere in the middle. It's obvious NDP data is not 100% exact but it can definitely be used by VGC to produce better results :) 

I think he was trying to mimic crazzyman.

 How is saying the DS results were "awful" spinning it?

I'm not saying I like the big discrepencies; something does need some obvious tweaking. But are you familiar with Media Create and Famitsu charts? Things like this do happen with different data trackers. Ever read highly-paid professional analysts' projections and predictions? Same thing happens with them.

Unfortunately there are going to be bumps in the road like this. Vgchartz is still young, and as those behind the scenes gain more experience and sources, it will smooth out. But like the MC/Famitsu and analysts examples show, it's not always going to be a smooth ride. 

Or maybe it was because he said it "beated it" which isn't proper English, it's something a 4 year old says. Then he said "Fixed" when he really made a mess of the sentence.

This is correct.