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Forums - Sales Discussion - Does VGC report console sales figures too often?

 

Does VGC report console sales figures too often?

Yes 30 25.00%
 
No 68 56.67%
 
Unsure 4 3.33%
 
Why are there no cookies in this thread? 12 10.00%
 
Total:114
kirby007 on 03 July 2014
Fusioncode said:
kirby007 said:
Fusioncode said:
kirby007 said:
I just realised since Sony is actually paying for the data and microsoft isn't, could that be a possible cause for better ps4 tracking?

How many times has XBO been overtracked? 

its not about overtracked or undertracked but about accuracy... stop being so focused on those marginal issues


Yes and they've been horribly innacurate for Sony too. Look at how poorly the Vita and even the PS4 have been tracked. You're letting your own bias get in the way of critical thinking. 

Sony pays vgcharts thus vgc tries tracking the product that is interesting for sony also known as the ps4 the best...

stop occusing me of bias if you can't see this



 "I think people should define the word crap" - Kirby007

Join the Prediction League http://www.vgchartz.com/predictions

Instead of seeking to convince others, we can be open to changing our own minds, and seek out information that contradicts our own steadfast point of view. Maybe it’ll turn out that those who disagree with you actually have a solid grasp of the facts. There’s a slight possibility that, after all, you’re the one who’s wrong.

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Dark_Feanor on 03 July 2014

I would love if VGChartz works with a margin of error and just stop using single unit precision for sales.

It´s impossible to know if a console or game sold 34.545 units one week or 34.546.



Fusioncode on 03 July 2014
kirby007 said:
Fusioncode said:

 


Yes and they've been horribly innacurate for Sony too. Look at how poorly the Vita and even the PS4 have been tracked. You're letting your own bias get in the way of critical thinking. 

Sony pays vgcharts thus vgc tries tracking the product that is interesting for sony also known as the ps4 the best...

stop occusing me of bias if you can't see this

Did you not see how far off their tracking for the PS4 was last month? Their tracking isn't awful because they're being paid off, it's awful because they're just not good at it. 



Sigs are dumb. And so are you!

kirby007 on 03 July 2014
Fusioncode said:
kirby007 said:
Fusioncode said:

 


Yes and they've been horribly innacurate for Sony too. Look at how poorly the Vita and even the PS4 have been tracked. You're letting your own bias get in the way of critical thinking. 

Sony pays vgcharts thus vgc tries tracking the product that is interesting for sony also known as the ps4 the best...

stop occusing me of bias if you can't see this

Did you not see how far off their tracking for the PS4 was last month? Their tracking isn't awful because they're being paid off, it's awful because they're just not good at it. 

yes based on one month totally proves your point...



 "I think people should define the word crap" - Kirby007

Join the Prediction League http://www.vgchartz.com/predictions

Instead of seeking to convince others, we can be open to changing our own minds, and seek out information that contradicts our own steadfast point of view. Maybe it’ll turn out that those who disagree with you actually have a solid grasp of the facts. There’s a slight possibility that, after all, you’re the one who’s wrong.

Fusioncode on 03 July 2014
kirby007 said:
Fusioncode said:
kirby007 said:


 


Yes and they've been horribly innacurate for Sony too. Look at how poorly the Vita and even the PS4 have been tracked. You're letting your own bias get in the way of critical thinking. 

Sony pays vgcharts thus vgc tries tracking the product that is interesting for sony also known as the ps4 the best...

stop occusing me of bias if you can't see this

Did you not see how far off their tracking for the PS4 was last month? Their tracking isn't awful because they're being paid off, it's awful because they're just not good at it. 

yes based on one month totally proves your point...

Basic logic proves my point. But continue to ignore that and make everything a conspiracy theory. 



Sigs are dumb. And so are you!

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kirby007 on 03 July 2014
Fusioncode said:

Basic logic proves my point. But continue to ignore that and make everything a conspiracy theory. 

if you say so it must be true



 "I think people should define the word crap" - Kirby007

Join the Prediction League http://www.vgchartz.com/predictions

Instead of seeking to convince others, we can be open to changing our own minds, and seek out information that contradicts our own steadfast point of view. Maybe it’ll turn out that those who disagree with you actually have a solid grasp of the facts. There’s a slight possibility that, after all, you’re the one who’s wrong.

Blood_Tears on 03 July 2014

If Sony is paying off this website, maybe they can fix the god damn Last of Us sales please? It's undertracked by a pretty sizable amount.



Nadwki on 03 July 2014
Hedra42 said:
Nadwki said:
Hedra42 said:

You said that the main point of the site was for weekly sales that may or may not be right, and users discuss it. I inferred from that, that you meant that the main reason VGChartz provides weekly numbers is so that users can discuss them on the forums. I may have misunderstood.

That is a large part of it, and it creates a lively community that is interested in it, but VGChartz offers a paid service which includes much more than is seen and discussed here (as implied by the second exerpt I posted). They don't compete with NPD and the like, and they offer a service which is completely different.

"VGChartz offers a professional data service called VGChartz Pro. If you require any custom analysis, preview data, forecasts or any other bespoke service outside of the scope of what is offered publically on VGChartz, or want to know more about the website then please contact us" http://www.vgchartz.com/methodology.php

There was a page with the logos of some high profile users somewhere on this site but I can't seem to find it...

Just scroll down for the logos VGChartz Pro

Yeah, there is a separate 'Pro' service, this has been available for about the past 4 years? To be clear this part of VGC provides estimated numbers for hardware and software and it then gets discussed in the forums. Take those away and the non 'Pro' part of VGChartz has no reason to exist. And imo moving them to bi-weekly would dilute the weekly vibrancy around here and still they would only be estimates, the discussion about accuracy would not stop. 

Thanks - couldn't see for looking!

But Pro or not Pro, the figures still come from the same raw data, from which - as the second excerpt in my first post suggests, VGChartz could even provide a rough estimate of software sales within a couple of hours after business end if a paying customer required it.

The main point of VGChartz is to provide a tracking service that is completely different from any other, both as a free service to the public, and as a paid, professional service.

I agree with your last sentence in part. In my opinion, it's because VGChartz's service is different, that the purpose of its figures is so widely misunderstood. To me, moving to bi-weekly in any of their reports would seem to be against what they're trying to achieve.

VGC do say they can track pretty much in real time but it needs to be taken as an estimate. So yeah I agree going to a bi-weekly update is moving away from what makes this site different to NPD, GFK etc. The great thing at the end of the day is they make this data available for us to discuss, just hope it remains weekly :) 



starcraft on 03 July 2014
Fusioncode said:
starcraft said:

Apologies I thought this was general knowledge, maybe I should have outlined it more in the OP.

VGC: http://www.vgchartz.com/methodology.php

NPD: NPD market research is based on responses from nationally representative samples. Our Research Science team’s extensive expertise in sampling and weighting techniques ensures return samples are demographically balanced to reflect the total population.

VGC uses slightly different language to say the same thing - that is that the majority of their data set is retail and user-polled data that is extrapolated based on an understanding of the historical trends in market size. The reason that NPD is held to be more accurate is that it has a (substantially)  larger sample size, meaning that using the same tecniques, they'll normally (but statistically, not always) arrive at more accurate 'guesses.'

That is such a vague statement that I"m not sure how you equate it to being the exact same methodology that VGC uses. Sounds like you're making up a bunch of BS to make VGC's horrendous tracking look better. And yes it's horrendous. Defend it all you want but that doesn't stop the numbers from looking like a joke every month.  NPD is taken as *fact* by some of the largest corporations in the world. If it's good enough for billion dollar corporations to base their entire market strategy around then I'm not sure why it's not good enough for you. 

It is not a vague statement at all.  They both explicitly use retail and end user data, sampling and historical trends to extrapolate numbers.

The OP and several of my posts since make it abundantly clear that due to a larger and more representative sample base NPD is more accurate. Indeed, at no point in this entire thread have I (or anyone as far as I can see) critcised NPD. You're arguing with thin air buddy!



starcraft - Playing Games = FUN, Talking about Games = SERIOUS

starcraft on 03 July 2014
Dark_Feanor said:
I would love if VGChartz works with a margin of error and just stop using single unit precision for sales.

It´s impossible to know if a console or game sold 34.545 units one week or 34.546.

Thats been discussed before. I can sort of see your point. The counter-argument is that they should use their best estimate.



starcraft - Playing Games = FUN, Talking about Games = SERIOUS