| shams said: Nintendo CAN'T track "sold to consumer" - all they can track is sold to distributor/retailers. However, if they KNOW that their sell-through is close to 100% - it makes little difference. I think you'll find Nintendo quoting NPD (or other) figures directly when they talk about sales (with comparisons, i.e. "According to NPD, DS sold xxx units in March, outselling our competitors by 3:1"...). But after 12 months, they will have a good idea of total sell-through to consumers - so they can quote those figures as well. Financial docs *always* quote sales to retailers (etc..) as that is who is actually paying Nintendo for the units. |
Actually they can.
Nintendo used to require retailers to track every single unit and report the serial numbers of the systems as they sold (that was how the warrenty was started). I remember on the NES and the Gameboy there was a big white card attached to the box that the retailer removed, filled out, then sent to Nintendo when the system sold. I can't remember the last Nintendo system that I had to give my name and address to the casher but it has been a while. Nintendo has relaxed the requirements but still requires retailers to provide sales data. Nintendo KNOWS how many systems they are selling well before anyone else does.
A few years ago I worked at a regional retailer that sold video games and the Nintendo games and consoles did not come through on a standard truck but were shipped to the store directly from a Nintendo warehouse. Both Microsoft and Sony's games and systems came through the chains distribuition centers only Nintendo's were shipped in directly. Not sure if this is just standard for Nintendo products at most stores or if it was just that chain but that would also provide a lot of information to Nintendo.
