Do you believe sales are indicator of quality?

[ZenfoldorVGI]

Here is what I mean with my real estate example:

Uncharted 2 is a fantastic game.

If you were to rely on an incomplete equasion like sales = quality, you would say that, for instance, Halo 3 is better than Uncharted 2. It might not necessarily be true.

To help determine the quality of a game, by using sales as a factor, you need to use sales relatively.

Uncharted 2 vs Another adventure game exclusive to the PS3 with similar marketing. Preferably a sequel released around the same time on the console.

The only game that comes close to fitting that bill is MGS4, however even then, it is not a valid comparison.

In that instance, sales are not a valid indicator of quality, because you don't have a control game to compare it to.

However, a game like Modern Warfare 2 can be compared to similar games, such as CoD:WaW. If MW2 vastly outsells WaW, then those sales could be used as ONE factor in determining the quality of a game, if your opinion was inclined to do so.

Afterall, we vote for our favorite games with sales. Reviews are only opinion, and all too often, incomplete opinions from people the game was not designed to appeal to.

So absolutely, sales can be used as a factor in one's opinion of quality, and it's very valid, but it is difficult to use that information correctly, and attempts to oversimplify the equation will result in incorrect analysis.

This is the exact same method used to determine the relative value of houses, except the "sales" factor is actually the "prices of similar homes in the neighborhood that have sold recently" factor. The only difference is that it is much more imporant in real-estate apprasial, than it is in the formation of one man's opinion about a videogame's quality.