ioi said:
From all the information we get, 360 has been in good supply for about 3-4 weeks now with supply definitely larger than demand so I fail to see where this is really coming from.
As always, I'm sure if PS3 does end up 2,000 units ahead of 360 this month we will be jumped on and criticised by rabid fanboys again. What you all fail to realise is that there is a margin of error on numbers. As far as I'm concerned, the last 5-6 weeks in America have essentially been tied, PS3 ahead some weeks 360 ahead others. I'd expect the two to be close in NPD just as they are in our numbers, and essentially tied (which of course is bad news for MS given their performance through 2007).
Reasons why this is the case - blu ray and general market acceptance / good price point is helping PS3 sales, 360 sales have been low due to lack of Elites / Premiums and will likely remain a little low as many are waiting for a price drop which is just around the corner.
Why VG Chartz gets so much stick in the middle of all this is beyond me, both our figures for 360 and PS3 were within reasonable margins of NPDs last month (don't forget Canada) but at the same time the critical thing that most of you seem to forget is that we are not trying to predict NPD data. We are trying to come up with our own independent figures on how well the various consoles are selling. We intentionally aim to be higher / lower than NPD on certain figures as we feel that when analysing various data sources they have been consistently too high / low on certain figures in the past. You also have to remember that Canada is not simply 7% of America - Canada figures are a different beast in their own right, as are the other small regions that make up the "Americas" figures here on VGChartz.
I do get annoyed when people compare our data to NPD and say "VG Chartz are miles out". That just shows a huge ignorance and lack of intelligence in looking at what the figures actually represent, where differences may come from and the fact that many of the "deviations" are totally "intentional" in that we are not trying to replicate NPD and are of no suprise to me. What many also don't understand is that NPD will make adjustments after they release their initial figures - which are not made public - and those who do see the adjustments will see that often it brings their inital data closer to ours.
ioi |
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