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Killiana1a on 11 November 2010
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I am not going to delve into whose numbers are right argument of Microsoft's official shipment data vs. VGChartz estimates.

Looking at this: http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/82684/initial-kinect-sales-revealed/

It is a sloppy piece of work, plain and simple. Not in the way the numbers were found, but in the way it was COMMUNICATED. I apologize for the caps, but caps get points across.

There is a paragraph followed by the numbers ended by a "Stay tuned..."

Where is the explanation paragraph from Brett Walton on how they arrived at these numbers. And don't site the "Methodologies" page because it is a weak argument. Let's go over the "sales estimates" on the methodology page:

All sales estimates on VGChartz are arrived at via a number of proprietrary and ever-developing methods:

  • Polling end users to find out what games they are currently purchasing and playing
  • Polling retail partners to find out what games and hardware they are selling
  • Using statistical trend fitting and historical data for similar games
  • Studying resell prices to determine consumer demand and inventory levels
  • Consulting with publishers and manufacturers to find out how many units they are introducing into the channel

http://www.vgchartz.com/methodology.php

1. What end users are you polling and when and where?

2. Who are your retail partners for the Americas, Japan, and the EMEAA?

All very basic questions that the "Methodology" page does not answer, nor are they brought up in the article.

Kinect has just been released and if you are putting out the numbers before Microsoft then each reader, laymen on up to Greenberg, should know exactly each and every source of how you arrived at your estimates. Just linking the "Methodologies" page creates distrust between the reader and site because we all know VGChartz is not some massive corporation with an "Industry Relations Department" where they can get the initial sales data the first week in.

VGChartz is estimating and they need to be up front and honest IN THE ARTICLE when they put the numbers out. Otherwise, for all Greenberg knows, the numbers can be pulled out of your ass.

I don't mean to come off as a hater, but I am a hater of sloppy communication. Trust requires communication and this situation with the reaction from Greenberg conveys to layest of laymen that there is a lack of trust between VGChartz and Greenberg at the moment.