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Forums - Sales Discussion - Questioning VGchartz Numbers?

Thanks :)

I'm aware that shipments numbers are higher than sales numbers. But in our case the sale numbers we received from the client are way lower than sales shown on VGC.

For Hawk: Unfortunatly I don't know where the client sales number came from.



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I'll be honest, I find VGChartz hardware sales to be reliable all around, but unless it's a really significant game, I don't expect much out of VGChartz accuracy. A lot of the games get added by regular forum members, but I'm not sure how it's handled for the actual tracking. There are some games that don't even have numbers, especially with less known or older games.
I'm not sure why the numbers would come out higher though, I'd have to know the specific methods for tracking. It's possible that when they gets teh software sales numbers from companies, some didn't even have the game listed, and so they guessed at the numbers in those stores being similar to numbers in stores that did list the game, but in reality, those stores didn't sell many, or perhaps didn't even carry it at all.



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Ah, I read your initial post incorrectly. I understood it as the client had reported 50% higher than VGC, not lower.

This is more likely an issue with the stores VGC samples from. If your publisher sells to certain distributors more than others (Jack of all Games, Ingram , D&H, etc....) then it's possible they shipped more to certain states or retail chains than others. VGC's sample would then be skewed higher if the sample retailers were among those that received higher shipments.

Even NPD runs into this problem from time to time.



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Evil_Snowman0 said:
Thanks :)

I'm aware that shipments numbers are higher than sales numbers. But in our case the sale numbers we received from the client are way lower than sales shown on VGC.

For Hawk: Unfortunatly I don't know where the client sales number came from.

 I don't mean to be a bother, I just like learning about it all.  Of, course, like everyone, my dream job would be a game designer or programmer, heh.  When you say client, do you mean the publisher?



Tag: Hawk - Reluctant Dark Messiah (provided by fkusumot)

Yep client = publisher :)
Thanks for the answers Grey and Viper1



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Anyways, If I understand the situation correctly, the publisher said they shipped x, while VGChartz says y are sold to consumers. The real number sold to consumers would be less than x by enough to stock the shelves. However, It also depends on when the numbers from the publisher were counted up to. If they only included sales up to Dec 31 07, then there would be a discrepancy, however, I wouldn't expect it to double sales in that time.

Other publishers have made comments about VGChartz numbers. There have been times where the publisher said the numbers have been right on. Then there have been times where a publishers shows VGChartz over tracked (didn't make a comment about VGChartz, just released numbers and when I compared, VGChartz was off)

The smaller the game is, the harder it will be for ioi to track it correctly. Maybe because the game isn't stocked, or possibly there were no sales at the stores he tracks. Say for example, the game sold 1000 copies across the US, and there are 3000 stores that sell the game, It is quite possible that ioi get a 0 for sales, but it still sold. ioi has to come up with a number, and he would probably base it off of previous weeks sales, which could lead to over or under tracking depending on how ioi estimates it.

We don't get a lot of comments on these boards from publishers or developers, so I'm sure ioi would love to hear from you, as it might help him track sales better.

 Edit: I see I took to long to write about the same thing as Grey




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Evil_Snowman0 said:
Yep client = publisher :)
Thanks for the answers Grey and Viper1

 Then I'd imagine their official sales report would be what they sold to retailers.  I doubt they'd estimate numbers sold through to consumers.  So their report would be accurate.  So I'd have to say Viper1 is right on.  Except keep in mind that you need to consider the date the data was pulled for the official sales report.  VGChartz updates weekly.



Tag: Hawk - Reluctant Dark Messiah (provided by fkusumot)

Thanks Nordlead

Just to be clear: Client said X amount were sold and VGC said Y was sold. Y on VGC is way higher than X on client report.

Thanks all.



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Thanks Boss :)



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I hope the game was still profitable for your company. Humagade mainly seems to develop mobile games, so I assume a DS game is a pretty big project for the studio.