OMG.. plz tell me you're joking. I bolded the important part, it's the crucial one. He's being sarcastic because it's a well known fact that VGC is reliable....

im not being aggressive. i am being logical. you are not, as evident by whats bolded. 

Bartel went on to say there is no reason to believe Halo 5's digital sales were higher than what they were modeling, based on conversations with Microsoft. "We are in constant discussions with all publishers and platform-holders and we believe that all major full-game titles launched in this quarter were in line with previously announced digital download levels," he said.

its from the article. but hey, apperantly logical conversation isnt anywhere to be found in this thread. so lets question Gamestop, a retailer whos business is to sell video games, that has conversations with microsoft about sales. to an "analyst with sources". 

I wouldn't be surprised, MS stated it was the best selling digital Xbox game ever.

My question is why are people salty in here when they hear news like this. Its only sales, who cares.

I smell a bit of desperation 😜

Leaving aside my natural skepticism of anyone that feels the need to claim they are using logic...

Both parties in this debate have cited sources. We cannot truly understand the validity of these sources.

However, we can identify intent. Gamestop has a fiduciary responsibility to downplay the significance of digital sales at all costs. There is absolutely no logical reason that Microsoft would reveal internal data about digital sales to Gamestop.

For all we know, this investment consortium may have investments in Microsoft, and therefore a reason to talk them up. But even then, analysts can (and should), simply recommend against purchasing a stock if they are hearing bad things about that stock.

So the information available to us is equivalent in its validity (that is, unproveable). However, it is clearly Gamestop's motivations we should be skeptical of

Its obvious sarcasm depending how you feel about VGC's reliability.

Even if they are undertracking, maybe its 100K - 200K? Not too shabby.

If you don't care why do you post in this thread? I mean, if someone makes a thread about something I don't care about I won't post in this thread, simple isn't it?

or do you just don't care because Halo 5 underperformed so bad?

Bolded (1): Can you link me those comments with people being salty about it in this thread?

Well technically MS did not state that. Here´s the original :  
"This resulted in a spike in digital sales of Halo 5: Guardians, leading to it becoming the best-selling digital game ever in the Xbox Store for an opening week"
According to gaf the bolded is what´s important. Appearently the old marketplace was renamed to the store, thus it can be translated to:
"This resulted in a spike in digital sales of Halo 5: Guardians, leading to it becoming the best-selling digital game since we renamed the marketplace for an opening week"

However I´m not gonna search the whole thread over at gaf so feel free to do so yourself http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1134803

I guess it´s because SOME show an utter lack of logic and reason and come up with the most ridiculous theories just to make others believe the game sold better. Others might be invested or as you say "salty" because they don´t like halo and want it to fail.

Also, this is a sales site. People mainly come here because they are interested in sales..so there you have it.

While i'm not saying Halo 5 sold 50% digital, why should anybody believe Gamestop?

Really, growing digital sales are the biggest threat for that company. If they go and tell their investors that they think one or even two of the most important titles sold great digital those investors and stockholders might rethink if they really invested in the right company.

So, unless we're getting numbers i'd prefer believing none of them, but for sure not Gamestop.