Consoles Monthly Profile Prototype

[dmillos]

HigHurtenflurst said:

Very nicely presented. I presume the plan is to have one of these per month per console?

For visual aesthetics, and possibly for ease of reading it, I think the main "total sales" graph would be better with a taller ratio. Like 50% if not 100% taller... if you are trying to make the whole "profile" fit into a space maybe just move the graph key to the side.

Also you say 84th month but if launch month November is month 1 (or technically month 11 as you are aligning months), then the most recent November should be 85 afaik... your graph also goes up to month 86, but I presume that is because you have to have some data in for December (even though it's incomplete) due to the month aligned nature?

And not sure I fully understand the "trend" column in your gaps table... specifically what's a "retraction", and in general what is it comparing with what?
If i'm reading it correctly the top 9 consoles are the difference in LTD sales to the PS4s 84th (85th?) month, so it's 34mil behind DS but ahead of everything else at the equivalent point in it's life... then the final 3 consoles will just be comparing The LTD at their most recent November, to the equivalent PS4 November (probably need to separate them more visually somehow , maybe put in something to note which year is being compared)

Actually come to think of it, how does the gaps table deal with staggered launches... the 4th November for Switch was it's 45th month on the market, but the 4th November for PS4 was only it's 37th month, comparing the equivalent months is fine but when bringing LTD totals into the equation I presume you are adding in the other months of the 4th year for PS4?
So the comparison is: (Switch LTD to Nov2020) VS. (PS4 LTD to Nov2016 + PS4 Mar-Oct2017) ???
Please let me know if I got that correct, if so then it's just the "trend" column I still need explaining.

Hi @HigHurtenflurst Thank you very much for your wonderful feedback, I will try and respond to each part:

a) My plan would be to post this profile for all the active consoles every month.

b) I have made as much of an adjustment possible for the large graph, hopefully it is easier to read now. I though of other options, but for now this was the best version.

c) The 84th month is a mistake I made, it is actually like you mention, the 85th. The 86th is showing due to it being partial right now, but it is not being considered for comparing the Gap.

d) The trend refers to the past 5 months, what I look for is how much the gap has grown or fallen in the past 5 months. Depending on the amount I label it as fast, medium or small. You may notice that the 360 shows a retraction, here is the Month Aligned graph between the two consoles:

as you can see, the PS4 was growing this gap for a long time, but recently the X360 is starting to shrink this lead, "Retraction" is the word I came up with, but I am open to any ideas you might have.

e) You are correct in how you are reading the gap, basically up to month 85, only the DS was ahead of PS4, the other consoles are compared based on how long they have been released. I made the adjustment based on your suggestion, I think it is much better to show the WiiU with 0s instead of truncating it.

f) The way I calculate the offset of months is just comparing a month that both consoles have. Here is a color coded version of what I compare:

Everything in color will be compared, the rest won't because both consoles don't have a value for that month. Therefore for the PS4 vs Switch only 45 different months are compared. You may notice that month 38 (december for PS4) is not being considered yet but months that came later are being considered.

Thank you again for such a wonderful feedback, if something is wrong with my explanation or you need more details I will very gladly keep adjusting the profile.