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Forums - Gaming - So Before Next Gen Arrives, Can We Agree On The "Sold/Shipped" Dispute ?

786_ali on 29 May 2011

In my opinion the shipped numbers should be the ones used. Much more accurate, and makes more sense to use them.



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chocoloco on 29 May 2011

As the sole voice of mankind, I say we can agree on sold numbers.

Apex of man out.



binary solo on 29 May 2011

It's always noobs who get all pissy about things when they see a shipped number and think it's sold. So there's about as much point in trying to get agreement about next gen now as there is in trying to guess the tech specs and functionality of the next gen now.



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thismeintiel on 29 May 2011

I think we can agree that using either is fine.  However, some need to realise that these numbers are not 100% or concrete.  VGC, like NPD, uses estimates to achieve their numbers, and are usually adjusted to be more accurate when shipped data is released.  So people shouldn't get so defensive when people question these numbers, nor should they call people who use shipped numbers fanboys.



 

TheBardsSong on 29 May 2011

Sold makes much more sense to me.



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Yakuzaice on 29 May 2011

Both figures are useful, I'm not really sure what the point of this thread is.  It's usually pretty easy to tell the difference between something like Fallout 3 shipping 4.7 million day one, and when some game hits a couple million after a year.  We don't really get reliable WW sell through numbers, so we pretty much have to rely on shipped numbers sometimes.  Like the PS2.  It is obviously selling somewhere since they keep shipping more, but it isn't Japan or the United States, so VGC numbers are way off.



Killiana1a on 30 May 2011
osamanobama said:
Killiana1a said:

Sold = NPD and other third party estimates on data from select retailers massaging it with "shipped" numbers from releases from the video game companies.

Shipped = Release of numbers from the video game companies themselves.

There is a reason why we have this debate. Phanbois tend to take every "shipped" release of data from Sony, Nintendo, and/or Microsoft as the "truth" for what was "sold" during that month or quarter.

Those of us with half a brain would place more trust in the 3rd party sources like VGChartz and NPD, taking into account the biases of each 3rd party, because it is not a PR release from Nintendo, Microsoft, and/or Sony of "shipped" numbers to a bunch of middle-aged, yuppie investors who don't know a damn thing about video games, much less what "shipped vs. sold" really means.

Sold, if you want to get down to it is what every single retailer sells of a particular piece of hardware or software. Having this data would be perfect, but it is not reality because no one has the information from every retailer on every unit that is sold. The best we can do is dress it up in "estimates" with fancy graphs, statistical analysis, regression analysis and so on.

Shipped, is basically a "Hey look at me old white guy! I am doing just swell! Please pump more money into my company!"

So until we have a universities with statistic departments specializing in electronic entertainment market research and better tools from the point-of-sale to track every unit sold regardless whether it is sold in Timbuktu or Akron, Ohio, then we cannot agree.

you know, companies like MS, Nintendo, and Sony can NOT lie about their numbers they are 100% fact/correct

They are correct as a "shipped" number is sold to a retailer. This is 100% correct.

Where it breaks from a black/white and right/wrong perspective is sell through of the shipped to the consumer at the point of sale. Some games ship and sell through from day 1. Others, the games sit on retailer shelves for months if not years.

The disagreement is that no 3rd party analyst (NPD, VGChartz, and others) has the tools to track every sell through and may never will due to the sheer number of retailers in the different markets, not enough insitutional capacity to create and sustain a cordial relationship to get sell through numbers from every possible retailer in any city in any country, and on.

As for the big 3 or any software developer not being able to lie, of course they are not because the current laws regarding financial disclosure only pertain to shipped to retailer, not sold through to the consumer. They are not lying per se under the law, but whether or not that "shipped" number accounts for 100% of every unit sold through to a consumer is not what is required under the law.