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Aquamarine on 19 May 2015
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SpokenTruth said:
Aquamarine said:

I know...and it's absolute nonsense. If it's a legitimate source you should be allowed to incorporate it into the article given proper framing and context.

 

And in general, GamePro wasn't 3rd-rate...but that online "feature" Wikipedia so desperately relies on sure was.

Numerous sales figures in that article, including the Sega 32X figures and Virtual Boy figures they list...do not match sales data from the time period.

Rather, that feature seems to have sourced its numbers from hearsay and numbers taken out of their original context decades ago.

Notice how he (the author) didn't bother to cite any data sources. Nope...just "770K" like we're all supposed to take that number at face value.

Doens't matter how you feel about the article or where they got their nubmers from (I've personally seen that 770,000 figure since before the 5th generation even launched).  What matters is that is considered a reputable source.

The 770K was originally the VB's shipment figure at the end of a quarter as originally announced on a news flash handed down to investors / clients...which has been erroneously distorted over the decades through hearsay into Virtual Boy "lifetime sales."

But if you look at the data, Virtual Boy continued to sell-through an existing inventory of GREATER than 770K units through 1999.

In fact, with a clearance ASP of only $27.75, Virtual Boy sold-through more units in 1997 from its large inventory than in 1995 and 1996 combined.

 

Another bizarre tidbit from the 770K Virtual Boy article:

"The 32X was the epitome of Sega's hardware failure. Launched in November 1994, this second Genesis add-on left gamers even more confused in light of the previously released Sega CD. Just how many 16-bit attachments did one need? All in all, if you were one of the unlucky souls who completely bought into Sega's add-on frenzy, you would have spent a whopping $650 dollars for something that weighed about us much as a small dog. The real problem, however, was that Sega of America (which developed the 32X) had no idea the Saturn was being developed in Japan until it was too late. As a result, the 32X was half-heartily supported for only a few months selling an unthinkably low 200,000 units."

 

Utterly nonsensical. The Sega 32X sold-through more than three times that figure.

Wikipedia's own article on Sega 32X shows 665K:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_32X

 

Now if any of the "editors" over on Wikipedia noticed this discrepancy, maybe they might actually start to doubt the other bizarre figures in that list and delete that source.

Or hey! Maybe the fact that the random Gamepro editorial with no sources and nothing even remotely indicating that all of these numbers are factual....should raise some eyebrows in the first place!

Or maybe the Wikipedia editors are hypocritical. Can't allow official Sony ranges to give context to Vita sales numbers, but a sketchy GamePro editorial is totally fine? Okay guys.