But there is no consistency with a 30K-40K difference. Those small differences are rare, indeed, not the norm. In regards to an earlier statement re. how the Big 3 don't have faith in NPD numbers, what zhit are you zmoking? Hey, ioi, if there was any truth to the fact that you regularly speak with the Big 3, then why aren't they supporting you? If they hate NPD that much, why do they always source them?

Your true colors are showing, and it's sad. Sad indeed. Grow up or get out.

Famitsu, Media Crate and NPD numbers have been known to conflict, and these are huge conglomerates we're talking about.
This is more or less ioi's hobby, and with that in mind; Vgchartz accuracy is at times deserving of all accolade and praise, he's doing a top job with a fraction of the resources the "big dogs" have.
Numbers are known to differ between this site and some of the bigger and official estimates, but "bigger" and "official" are key words here and again I must commend ioi for doing a terrific job with such a small sample and so few resources.

PS: I'm not sucking up to the big guy, I'm just a little tired of people questioning his efforts and belittling the numbers every time they swing a little of course from others (and every analyst will operate with margings, usually 10% or so).

Where in God's name does this 10% everyone keeps falling back on keep coming from? Rarely am I seeing a normal discrepency of 10%. It's not even an average of 10%. It swings anywhere from 5% up to 35% or more on Vgc, but it doesn't average 10%. And @Mummelmann, Famitsu, MediaCreate (not Crate) and NPD don't track the same countries. Fam and MC do, NPD tracks US and Canada, not Asia.

In my opinion, VGC should do estimates like now, but constantly update with MC/Famitsu for Japan, NPD for US and GFK for Europe.

With that, you will be sure to be the most accurate possible. I can't understand why ioi you are having more faith in your own estimations than NPD, who is not cheating their numbers or anything... Of course, it can be 1-5% error, but same for mediacreate for Japan... There should'nt be a so big difference by 40k in a month :s

In my opinion people shouldn't sign up for the site just to come in and question how Ioi runs things. But, as they say, different strokes for different folks.

@tenet:

While I know this is obviously a troll account and I shouldn't bother responding, I'll use you as an example.

Do you pay ioi for these numbers? Because if you don't, you better stfu and get off our site if you're going to act this way because you have ABSOLUTELY no right to tell him how to run things. You do not pay for anything. If you don't like the numbers, f**k off.

People with this attitude blow me away. What right do you think you have to tell someone running a free private website how to do things? Who gives a s**t that you think he's wrong? If you don't have something constructive to say, keep it to your bloody self.

As for people saying he should adjust his numbers based on NPD, he's already explained exactly why he doesn't. He's never once claimed to be the most accurate estimation and he certainly didn't claim to be 100% accurate. Please, just give it a rest. He (and his team) do this out of good will. I very much doubt the site makes much if any money because of advertising that isn't spent on server maintenance and bandwidth. If you want NPD numbers, go ahead and pay them for the service.

tenet said: But there is no consistency with a 30K-40K difference. Those small differences are rare, indeed, not the norm. In regards to an earlier statement re. how the Big 3 don't have faith in NPD numbers, what zhit are you zmoking? Hey, ioi, if there was any truth to the fact that you regularly speak with the Big 3, then why aren't they supporting you? If they hate NPD that much, why do they always source them? Your true colors are showing, and it's sad. Sad indeed. Grow up or get out.

You know, VGC is the worst thing ever happened to NPD:s videogame tracking. Why do they trust NPD more than VGC? NPD has bigger sample size. Why they would use NPD as a source for their PR even if they wouldn't trust it? They trust it being "accurate enough", and what's more important, people, who they target their PR, trust NPD, it's the authority. Besides, even if they wouldn't trust NPD, doesn't mean that they would trust VGC either. Look, NPD is the only tracker for NA with comparable sample size. iois point was, that NPDs numbers shouldn't be taken as somekind of absolute truth, but "as they are", including an error margin. No one is claiming that NPD wouldn't be the most accurate source to what NPD tracks. And VGC did use NPD numbers until NPD told VGC not to.

Jandre002 said: Wait ioi still has 360 outselling the PS3 in January?

 Yes.

Aprisaiden said: Hey ioi -- i understand the difficulty of coming up with the data for VGC ( and i wouldn't be here if i didn't trust it ). I was just basically curious as to why VGC has 360 outselling PS3 in NA while NPD has the opposite. I just assumed that with Microsoft's recent claims of shortages and NPD data that VGC would have atleast 1 of the months with PS3 ahead of 360 ... but as you say it is possible to come to different answers due the lack of data avaliable ( damn Wal-mart and other retailers whom don't give out there sales figures) ohh and thanks for the reply ioi

 

Bescause the "lead" isn't statistically substantial and within the margin of error.

Seriously, it's not like even NPD knows for sure if the PS3 outsold the 360 for sure. They just "guess" it did.

Both VGchartz and NPD are trying to extrapolate the true number of consoles sold. As such this is going to mean the two vary a lot. If VGchartz was trying to guess what NPD's numbers were, it would be more consistant... but that isn't what they are trying to do.

This would even be the case if Ioi had exactly as much market coverage and NPD.

No two companies trying to do this will be consistantly apart by nearly the exact same percentages every month.  

ioi said: The thing is that we are not "consistently" over or undertracking something, this is two months. Have you looked back over the last year or two? Over time, the data evens out. If we suddenly start adding 10% to all our PS3 figures arbitrarily to "match" NPD then we could end up 20% higher next month or something and just keep yo-yoing back and forth. I have confidence in our data over time and monthly discrepancies do and will even out. The only reason a thread exists about this is because people are making such a huge deal about PS3 vs 360 (which of course I understand) and are claiming a 30k difference here or there is suddenly a victory. As I stated before, within all margins of error things are essentially tied or tipped slightly in favour of 360 (according to us) and PS3 (NPD) but not by enough to be conclusive either way. We don't moan like this about DS sales every month or PSP sales. I understand there is a lot of significance being put on these numbers at the moment but what I am trying to say is that there isn't a clear "winner" one way or another. The reason we have 360 higher than NPD is because that is how our samples work out - calibrated to shipment and other estimated sell-through info. This happens to put 360 higher than NPD are which is just how it is. It is not a bias or an inaccuracy, simply that historical calibration between the data we get and data we use for reference positions us higher than NPD in this case. There have been many months where NPD have been a lot higher than us on Xbox360 numbers, it is just a manifestation of these margins of errors and differences in marketshare estimations that exist. It is not some conspiracy against Sony, guys. Sorry to disappoint. The comment of Microsoft "supporting" NPD. They have no choice. It amazes me that companies release their PR at all - this doesn't happen in any other country as far as I am aware. I think the combination of monthly figures, the way NPD guard it all and America being the biggest market in the world make it a huge focus. I’m not entirely sure when commenting publically on NPD first started or who started it (fairly recently) but the “in thing” at the moment is to release their articles and it is all part of the pr game. MS released a statement saying they expected to be behind PS3 because they get NPD data much earlier than it is released to the public and they wanted to pre-empt it with a counter statement explaining shortages. Simple as that. Speaking to people at MS, Sony, Nintendo – as we have – many have less faith than you’d think in the accuracy of NPD figures but until there is an alternative they have no option but to accept it and comment on it with their spin – it is all just a marketing exercise for shareholders and investors.

 This post is full of ownage haha.  Congrats haha.  Making the lunatic fanboys be quite for a moment.