| Darth Tigris said:
3. Why do defenders of the 1.5 million number keep avoiding the elephant in the room? It is IMPOSSIBLE to get an install base from that figure. 1st of all it most likely is a SHIPPED number and not SOLD to consumers. 2nd he didn't state what those figures represent (bundles? ps eye? move and nav controllers?). And, most importantly, 3rd he can't state how many of these are individual move purchases. Now I do agree that we don't know what the interviewer asked. We can only go by the select quotes chosen for the article (which rarely give the whole picture). But that's all we have so that's what my comments are based upon. For the record, I just want Sony to upfront about the numbers they report. This approach attempts to give the impression that Move sold 1.5 million in its first month of release just in Europe. I don't see how that's defensible unless you just want to see Sony 'win'. I guarantee that publishers will look at that and not be fooled, especially when software sales are so much lower. |
First of all, it is not Sony that says "we sold 1.5mio starter packs in a month", it is some essentially random guy in an interview telling a number (with random guy I mean somebody who is not working in the distribution chain so he got a nice number to tell just in case anyone asks). And let's not get into the shipped vs sold debate again and again and again, of course it it sold into the distribution chain.
There are a few misconceptions that people carry like a bag of stones on their backs:
1. Move sells with software. This is patently false (as observed by me and reported from Spain/Italy numbers). Many buyers are satisfied with beating each other with swords (that's what they see at the demo stations). It is like the Wii where people would play baseball/bowling all the time and look for software weeks after they had enough.
2. "Units" = Starter packs or Dildos or Navs 1:1:1 (no eye pets or cameras were shipped at all). Sony shipped a lot more Starter packs than individual components (in Switzerland it is about 10:3:1-2). Due to this, most people buy starter packs and _maybe_ another dildo if they are available at all.
3. There are various messages/sites reporting that Pachter estimated 300'000 moves sold in NA. That obviously clashes with vgchartz 470'000 units for both areas in a major way.
4. It's the hardcore gamers that buy Move stuff. Again, by my observation, this is false. I saw all ages and gender at the demo stations and at the cashier.
5. All those people who yell "Sony lies".. get a life!
All in all, nobody knows or has the magic formula on how many "Move-enabled" PS3 units there are now, but a reasonable guess would be
Real number = current vgchartz number * 1.5 - 2.5
