Don't forget Dragon Quest XI 3DS and a mainline Final Fantasy.

Fair enough but highlighting its poor sales isn't your job. Sony is trying to sell its handheld and how good of a job its doing is its own concern, that doesn't mean people can't speak positively of the system, including you. Word of mouth is an important part of marketing, it's just hard to witness all the active attempts to discredit a system when it is indeed a very solid device. Those people tend to try and use sales data as ammunition against the system, but I suppose they would use anything against them, even Cross Buy is being twisted into a negative despite it being identical to PSone games, Minis, and a few PSN titles. Imagine the stink if you had to rebuy PSone games on Vita. Anyway it would be nice if sales weren't brought up when someone is deciding to buy a Vita as that is self fulfilling and that goes for every new system. Consumers shouldn't be so skeptical of new hardware and Sony especially doesn't need fuel on the fire right now. The Vita needs more support from gamers saying it is a great system and to purchase it rather than spread sentiments that it isn't popular so it shouldn't be bought, too much attention to sales will paint it that way. 

I know this is a sales site and it is good to analyze and discuss the data but it seems like you might be doing it just so you can highlight Vita's poor sales rather than discuss them. The bad sales are already there, the way I see it the only thing left to talk about is how to bring them up. I'm a PR/marketing type guy so encouraging sales is in my nature so excuse me if I do see the point in not doing so. If you are doing this as an investment type person I would have thought you might entertain possible scenarios of the Vita starting to sale well as oppose to just encouraging others to think that the system will not sell. This might sound like I'm shooting the messenger but people views and opinions are effected by the information they are fed.

I know Kowen, and that's not why he does it. He does it because he likes things said as they are, and not sugarcoated like too many people do. As such, many people were claiming that the Vita would destroy the 3DS, and look at what happened. That's why we're here, because we are baffled by the numbers and it's so fun to see the data truthfully above all else. That's why graphs like those in OP are so precious.

The only information Kowen gave us was the cold hard facts. That peoples' opinions are fed on that, I am all for it.

Another great thing about this thread goes beyond the Vita. Many people think that the 3DS is performing poorly, but will say that the DS did amazing. However, when you look at the curves he made, you can see that the 3DS is kicking the DS' ass! So, it goes to show that this data needs to be out there so misinformation can be purged and thoughtful discussion can breed.

Kowen has gotten anxious and stepped inside threads to point out poor sales when it wasn't called for though, granted only a few times but as Sony's financial situation gets worse he becomes more upfront about it. The lines between simple fact gathering and cheering are blurring as time goes by. Maybe he is just sick of people who defend the company, but finding silver lining and supporting a company on the downturn isn't a terrible thing. If everyone abandoned companies at the first sign of weakness there wouldn't be any competition as it would all just boil down to a series of monopolies as consumers only buy the number 1 company.

I haven't seen anyone argue the 3DS is selling poorly ina long time, maybe in the US but everyone can see those sales. As for Vita I don't see anyone arguing that the sales are good. After selling this low for an extended period of time it is pretty clear. I still expect a decent holiday turn around but tht doesn't erase the last few months. People are using the facts about Vita's sales as a means to speak bad about the system and claim that it will be discontinued and justify saying misinformation about its software lineup. Lower sales than other consoles doesn't mean the system is "dead" like many say and people can't hide behind facts to justify misleading information which many are doing, though not Kowen. Kowen could have easily ignored Mmmfishtacos comment but instead brought it to attention in a defensive manner and I am just trying to check him.

@Chark: So what we should do, only say good things about the Vita? AFAIK, this is a SALES oriented site, it's natural to talk about SALES, and tell our opinion about them. There are tons of other sites not SALES oriented, and if we can't talk SALES in a SALES thread in a SALES oriented site, then what are we doing here?

PS: We aren't here to sell a company product, I don't get paid to do so.

When did I say anything like that? I was originally placing context on a phrase referencing the anti-consumer sentiment of the Vita after Kowen acted defensively in an assumption Mmmfishtacos was referrring to him. The you don't get paid to do it is a straw man arguement and just as one isn't paid to support a system they aren't paid to speak against it in same. If we are talking sales lets talk sales but there is little to talk about without considering future speculation which can either be good or can be bad, but I find very little courtesy in that as those who view it negatively tend to strong arm the conversation and use sales data as the end all and be all as if any possibilty of improved sales sucess is the ravings of a mad man.

That's why I stepped in when Kowen went defensive and I referrenced his own input on Vita/Sony threads. He has no doubt been targeted as anti-Sony and though his input might be historical data and neutral itself others are using it in another fashion so in fact him posting on threads that aren't discussing sales is serving as a catalyst of negativity.

As for the post that started this whole aside it was a response to someone's concern on whether to buy a Vita or not because of slow sales and worry over future support. Someone is more than entitled to argue that the sytem is going to receive support and even that sales will improve. Kowen responding in the way he did points to a degree of bias, which is fine but people can't firmly hide behind neutrality as outside forces will also tug and pull your statements one way or another. You can only stay neutral for so long, in reality you are just leaning back and forth due to forces outside of your control. The "don't beleve the haters" statement is not the best wording to explain a much bigger picture and there is definitely reason for Kowen to jump on him for it but since he did I felt all implications should be more thoroughly discussed.

Man, if you don't like Kowen's posts? Don't read them. Rather simple.

To be completely frank, I'd say the discussion has been surprisingly civil as of late. I'm used to threads that even if you MENTION something bad about someone else's preferred product, it's asking for a flame war. These statistical threads seem to have a fairly decent level of conversation and nobody has been screeching at each other. It's kind of peaceful for a change. Pretty much everyone has agreed that the Vita could be doing a hell of a lot better and that we'll see if Sony's attempts at working it out end up functional or futile. I'm not seeing this percieved negativity that you seem intent on pointing out. There's a lot worse opinions of the Vita than are being stated in this thread.

Even if Kowen was intentionally trying to sabotage people's perceptions of the Vita here (which frankly would border on the paranoid)...well, so what? How many people on this site don't like Nintendo or Microsoft? Lots of people slag the other consoles all the time. Does it affect people's perceptions? Has there been entire swaths of console purchases falling to the wayside because one person has an opinion on this particular site? I'm just saying you're making an awfully big deal out of what is basically nothing.

Let people discuss the sales on the sales site.

I'm not trying to stifle discussion and I don't mind Kowen's posts. I'm just trying to fully feel out Kowen's reply. Threads like this are a good thing but it shouldn't be based on highlighting the shortcommings of a system alone. Atleast debate something from the data, what went wrong, what can they do to fix it, are the numbers really that bad, how bad do they have to be for "X" to happen? Would it be best to have this thread so one can say, "Look at these terrible numbers", and have everyone else in the room say "Yes, those are pretty bad". Doesn't make for good conversation.

Speaking of good conversation, anyone want address Esmicksee's question besides Mmmfishtacos and myself?

Esmicksee said:
Objectively, what do you think the chances are that the Vita will have decent software support over the next 2-3 years? 
Thinking of buying one... but I'm not parting with cash if the system's going the way of the dodo.

That's how I mostly feel about you, I found your response odd so I addressed it. I actually can only think of one, maybe two, situation where you said something negative regarding sales out of nowhere and it caused a big fuss. Did someone get banned then for overreacting? I don't know what thread it was in, could have easily been a Sony thread and not specifically Vita. Sony's financials have been bad for a while but sometimes it just seems that's all you see and can treat them as if everything they touch turns to sh*t...so to speak. It was just weird that you address Mmmfishtacos for that generalization and it turned this into a long winded topic.

Yeah I get it now.

Partially because of the Mario Kart analogies.