donathos said:
Right. They're not exact numbers. But exact numbers, for our purpose, don't exist--NPD, in this month and every other, releases some estimation, based on whatever data they've access to and the formulas they use to extrapolate that data.
If we're going to assign a "winner," or a first, second, and third place... it ultimately has to be based on whatever numbers NPD comes out with, at the end of their calculations. Do the NPD estimations necessarily match the "reality" of the situation? If NPD says that PS3 sold more than 360, does that mean it's necessarily so? Of course not. But we'll never find out if they're wrong, because nobody seems to be in a better position to tally the sales.
What we *do* know is this: by whatever process NPD uses, for better or worse, PS3 calculated to have a higher number of sales than 360. And that *is* victory, in this context, because there's no more sophisticated or more precise calculation to appeal to.
Consider: in an election, votes are tallied. Mistakes are made during these vote tallies, and the final vote counts aren't 100% accurate; there's a margin of error. And yet, the candidate with the higher vote tally--even if by one solitary vote--is declared the "winner," even if its within whatever margin of error, because that's the only system available to count the votes.
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