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Forums - Sales Discussion - Official Software Adjustments Thread

SuperNova on 13 January 2018
Machina said:
SuperNova said:

So for a lot of Switch software you're basically waiting for official sold through numbers as a reference point to adjust tracking?

I initially came here to see if you were planning on adjusting any Switch numbers since Splatoon 2 seems very undertracked, but (after reading OP and) seeing the mammoth project you have on hand here I can only give cudos to you.

Thanks for your hard work!

The problem is that doesn't help me identify which specific countries/regions are undertracked, so while we can be pretty sure xxxxx game is undertracked overall, the question I then need to ask in order to make an adjustment is in which countries or regions and by how much? I can't just add phantom numbers to the overall to make up the numbers, I need some solid evidence of where I should be increasing the figures, and that will then filter into the overall figure.

Taking the specific example of Splatoon 2 however, I haven't gotten to it in my list of titles to adjust in the US yet, so there may be an increase pending there. In terms of Japan we're slightly over compared to MC and Famitsu but within the margin of error; the UK and Germany is spot on; and France is maybe a touch under, though I'll obviously need to wait until all of our figures are up for 2017 before I can check against the recently revealed figures there. The rest of Europe is also slightly under and will be adjusted up if/when I make changes in France.

That covers the major markets but as you can see it won't really amount to a huge increase. Unfortunately we don't do any tracking in the RoW, and data is hard to find for it, so either the game has a surprisingly high digital attach rate or Switch is doing better than expect in the RoW, in which case the solution is an adjustment to our extrapolation for it, but like I said in the previous post I need some evidence for that before I'd be able to make a successful case for changing the calculations to Brett.

 

@Poweranimals - Keep in mind the Nintendo figures include digital. But yes, some of them are undertracked (and iirc from when I last checked, one or two are also overtracked). They'll be adjusted as and when I get to them, while I'm going through each region making changes.

Thanks for the in-deph explanation! Obviously you can't just add sales willy-nilly, but it must be a touch frustrating to see a big discrepancy in tracking and not be able to adjust accordingly because you don't know where the sales went. I imagine it would help a lot if you found a way to reliably track digital.

As for Splatoon 2, the gap looks huge at first, leading to my impression that it must be undertracked, but it might not need big adjustments if it does have a high digital ratio.



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Machina on 13 January 2018
SuperNova said:
Machina said:

The problem is that doesn't help me identify which specific countries/regions are undertracked, so while we can be pretty sure xxxxx game is undertracked overall, the question I then need to ask in order to make an adjustment is in which countries or regions and by how much? I can't just add phantom numbers to the overall to make up the numbers, I need some solid evidence of where I should be increasing the figures, and that will then filter into the overall figure.

Taking the specific example of Splatoon 2 however, I haven't gotten to it in my list of titles to adjust in the US yet, so there may be an increase pending there. In terms of Japan we're slightly over compared to MC and Famitsu but within the margin of error; the UK and Germany is spot on; and France is maybe a touch under, though I'll obviously need to wait until all of our figures are up for 2017 before I can check against the recently revealed figures there. The rest of Europe is also slightly under and will be adjusted up if/when I make changes in France.

That covers the major markets but as you can see it won't really amount to a huge increase. Unfortunately we don't do any tracking in the RoW, and data is hard to find for it, so either the game has a surprisingly high digital attach rate or Switch is doing better than expect in the RoW, in which case the solution is an adjustment to our extrapolation for it, but like I said in the previous post I need some evidence for that before I'd be able to make a successful case for changing the calculations to Brett.

 

@Poweranimals - Keep in mind the Nintendo figures include digital. But yes, some of them are undertracked (and iirc from when I last checked, one or two are also overtracked). They'll be adjusted as and when I get to them, while I'm going through each region making changes.

Thanks for the in-deph explanation! Obviously you can't just add sales willy-nilly, but it must be a touch frustrating to see a big discrepancy in tracking and not be able to adjust accordingly because you don't know where the sales went. I imagine it would help a lot if you found a way to reliably track digital.

As for Splatoon 2, the gap looks huge at first, leading to my impression that it must be undertracked, but it might not need big adjustments if it does have a high digital ratio.

It definitely is! The ever increasing digital share makes matters worse because, like you say, this can make games that are probably only slightly undertracked look absolutely massively undertracked, and games that are being tracked fine to look undertracked too. 

If it were possible for us to track digital sales that'd be awesome, but I think it unlikely. A more realistic possibility (well, actuality; it's on the pending 'new features' list) is having a section on game pages in the database which will detail official shipment data, and we'll allow regular users to submit that info to the database, effectively crowdsourcing and covering much more ground than I alone can.

Last edited by Machina - on 13 January 2018

SuperNova on 13 January 2018
Machina said:
SuperNova said:

Thanks for the in-deph explanation! Obviously you can't just add sales willy-nilly, but it must be a touch frustrating to see a big discrepancy in tracking and not be able to adjust accordingly because you don't know where the sales went. I imagine it would help a lot if you found a way to reliably track digital.

As for Splatoon 2, the gap looks huge at first, leading to my impression that it must be undertracked, but it might not need big adjustments if it does have a high digital ratio.

It definitely is! The ever increasing digital share makes matters worse because, like you say, this can make games that are probably only slightly undertracked look absolutely massively undertracked, and games that are being tracked fine to look undertracked too. 

If it were possible for us to track digital sales that'd be awesome, but I think it unlikely. A more realistic possibility (well, actuality; it's on the pending 'new features' list) is having a section on game pages in the database which will detail official shipment data, and we'll allow regular users to submit that info to the database, effectively crowdsourcing and covering much more ground than I alone can.

That sounds like an awesome improvemt to the site! It might also help us users to better gauge if we should pester you with an adjustment request or not (down the line when you've gotten your pile of adjustments out of the way), because we would be able to see if the data has already been added or not.

Would you consider putting a category for officially confirmed digital sales/ratios in there?



Machina on 13 January 2018
SuperNova said:
Machina said:

It definitely is! The ever increasing digital share makes matters worse because, like you say, this can make games that are probably only slightly undertracked look absolutely massively undertracked, and games that are being tracked fine to look undertracked too. 

If it were possible for us to track digital sales that'd be awesome, but I think it unlikely. A more realistic possibility (well, actuality; it's on the pending 'new features' list) is having a section on game pages in the database which will detail official shipment data, and we'll allow regular users to submit that info to the database, effectively crowdsourcing and covering much more ground than I alone can.

That sounds like an awesome improvemt to the site! It might also help us users to better gauge if we should pester you with an adjustment request or not (down the line when you've gotten your pile of adjustments out of the way), because we would be able to see if the data has already been added or not.

Would you consider putting a category for officially confirmed digital sales/ratios in there?

Sure, would have to put some thought into how it would fit onto the page though.



Machina on 14 January 2018

I needed to test something out with the sales tools this week and it means the adjustments I made throughout the week won't show up on the charts until next week, so no list this week. Next week's adjustment list should be twice as long as normal though.

Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon was adjusted up in Japan (hat-tip to Tak); that's the only change that was made before the test, so the only one that's filtered through to the game pages.



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Machina on 22 January 2018

This fortnight's changes (all US and NA):

Increases
MLB 15: The Show (PS4)
MLB 16: The Show (PS3)
Need for Speed (2015) (PS4)
Need for Speed (2015) (Xone)
Need for Speed Rivals (PS4)
Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS)

Net Neutral Changes:
Disgaea 5 (PS4)

Decreases
Street Fighter V (PS4)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (Xone)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4)
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (X360)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS3)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (X360)
Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash (3DS)
Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS)
Devil’s Third (WiiU)
MLB 16: The Show (PS4)
Need for Speed Rivals (Xone)
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition (Xone)
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 (PS4)
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 (Xone)
Fantasy Life (3DS)
Brain Age: Concentration Training (3DS)
The Wonderful 101 (WiiU)
Life is Strange (PS4)
Life is Strange (Xone)
Life is Strange (PC)
Resident Evil Zero/Resident Evil Origins Collection (Xone)
Resident Evil Zero/Resident Evil Origins Collection (PS4)
Tearaway (PSV)

Last edited by Machina - on 22 January 2018

Symbios63 on 24 January 2018

Thank you for your hard work. It is great to know that software sales can now be adjusted when official numbers come in.

I have been doing this thread (http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=231643) for a while and I have noticed few things from last time I posted here :

- There are three switch games (- Lumo, -Let's Sing 2018, - Nobunaga no Yabo : Taishi) that can be found in the overall ranking list (as switch games) with numbers but do not appear in the switch best selling list. (http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/83/nintendo-switch/)

- There are two switch games (-Dynasty Warriors 8, - Samurai Warriors : Spirit of Sanada) that appear in the switch best selling list as 3DS games (- Miracle Tunes! Game de Tune Up! Tabun!, -Cake-ya San Monogatari: Ooishii Sweets o Tsukurou!). If you look for the two switch games in the database, you will find them but I don't know if the associated sales are for the switch or the 3ds games... Does it make sense ?

- And finally, here are the released games for which we have no numbers (some are in the database with the right release date, some are not in the database at all). - Syberia 2 (01/12/17 EU), - Aqua Moto Racing Utopia (24/11/17 EU), -Snow Moto Racing Freedom (24/11/17 EU), -Super Putty Squad (01/12/17 EU), - Retro City Rampage DX (19/10/17 NA), - Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII (03/03/17 JP).

If you look at my previous post in your thread (December 14), you will notice we had somewhat similar problems for other games earlier. Those are gone. If someone did fix it I say thank you, if not, that would mean the problem did sort itself somehow with time and this could be the case again for the games I mentionned in the present post.

Keep up the good work !



Machina on 25 January 2018
Symbios63 said:
Thank you for your hard work. It is great to know that software sales can now be adjusted when official numbers come in.

I have been doing this thread (http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=231643) for a while and I have noticed few things from last time I posted here :

- There are three switch games (- Lumo, -Let's Sing 2018, - Nobunaga no Yabo : Taishi) that can be found in the overall ranking list (as switch games) with numbers but do not appear in the switch best selling list. (http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/83/nintendo-switch/)

- There are two switch games (-Dynasty Warriors 8, - Samurai Warriors : Spirit of Sanada) that appear in the switch best selling list as 3DS games (- Miracle Tunes! Game de Tune Up! Tabun!, -Cake-ya San Monogatari: Ooishii Sweets o Tsukurou!). If you look for the two switch games in the database, you will find them but I don't know if the associated sales are for the switch or the 3ds games... Does it make sense ?

- And finally, here are the released games for which we have no numbers (some are in the database with the right release date, some are not in the database at all). - Syberia 2 (01/12/17 EU), - Aqua Moto Racing Utopia (24/11/17 EU), -Snow Moto Racing Freedom (24/11/17 EU), -Super Putty Squad (01/12/17 EU), - Retro City Rampage DX (19/10/17 NA), - Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII (03/03/17 JP).

If you look at my previous post in your thread (December 14), you will notice we had somewhat similar problems for other games earlier. Those are gone. If someone did fix it I say thank you, if not, that would mean the problem did sort itself somehow with time and this could be the case again for the games I mentionned in the present post.

Keep up the good work !

Awesome look to your thread, nice work.


I'll have to ask Talon about your first two points. 

Regarding your third point. Anyone can add games not in the database to the database now, so if they're not in there feel free to submit them yourself. Same goes for inaccurate release dates - do please correct them if you spot one that's wrong, it will help with sales data. If they ARE in the database and the dates are accurate, but I've posted no figures, then it's because I didn't get any data for them, or not enough to make a good stab at an estimate. Unfortunately they're likely to remain untracked.


Yes, Talon made a bunch of changes which seem to have had the side-effect of fixing those older issues.



Symbios63 on 25 January 2018
Machina said:
Symbios63 said:
Thank you for your hard work. It is great to know that software sales can now be adjusted when official numbers come in.

I have been doing this thread (http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=231643) for a while and I have noticed few things from last time I posted here :

- There are three switch games (- Lumo, -Let's Sing 2018, - Nobunaga no Yabo : Taishi) that can be found in the overall ranking list (as switch games) with numbers but do not appear in the switch best selling list. (http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/83/nintendo-switch/)

- There are two switch games (-Dynasty Warriors 8, - Samurai Warriors : Spirit of Sanada) that appear in the switch best selling list as 3DS games (- Miracle Tunes! Game de Tune Up! Tabun!, -Cake-ya San Monogatari: Ooishii Sweets o Tsukurou!). If you look for the two switch games in the database, you will find them but I don't know if the associated sales are for the switch or the 3ds games... Does it make sense ?

- And finally, here are the released games for which we have no numbers (some are in the database with the right release date, some are not in the database at all). - Syberia 2 (01/12/17 EU), - Aqua Moto Racing Utopia (24/11/17 EU), -Snow Moto Racing Freedom (24/11/17 EU), -Super Putty Squad (01/12/17 EU), - Retro City Rampage DX (19/10/17 NA), - Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII (03/03/17 JP).

If you look at my previous post in your thread (December 14), you will notice we had somewhat similar problems for other games earlier. Those are gone. If someone did fix it I say thank you, if not, that would mean the problem did sort itself somehow with time and this could be the case again for the games I mentionned in the present post.

Keep up the good work !

Awesome look to your thread, nice work.


I'll have to ask Talon about your first two points. 

Regarding your third point. Anyone can add games not in the database to the database now, so if they're not in there feel free to submit them yourself. Same goes for inaccurate release dates - do please correct them if you spot one that's wrong, it will help with sales data. If they ARE in the database and the dates are accurate, but I've posted no figures, then it's because I didn't get any data for them, or not enough to make a good stab at an estimate. Unfortunately they're likely to remain untracked.


Yes, Talon made a bunch of changes which seem to have had the side-effect of fixing those older issues.

Ok, thanks for the answer.

I will try to submit few things to the database. 

I totally understand that some very minor releases can not be tracked efficiently.



TalonMan on 25 January 2018
Symbios63 said:
Thank you for your hard work. It is great to know that software sales can now be adjusted when official numbers come in.

I have been doing this thread (http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=231643) for a while and I have noticed few things from last time I posted here :

- There are three switch games (- Lumo, -Let's Sing 2018, - Nobunaga no Yabo : Taishi) that can be found in the overall ranking list (as switch games) with numbers but do not appear in the switch best selling list. (http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/83/nintendo-switch/)

- There are two switch games (-Dynasty Warriors 8, - Samurai Warriors : Spirit of Sanada) that appear in the switch best selling list as 3DS games (- Miracle Tunes! Game de Tune Up! Tabun!, -Cake-ya San Monogatari: Ooishii Sweets o Tsukurou!). If you look for the two switch games in the database, you will find them but I don't know if the associated sales are for the switch or the 3ds games... Does it make sense ?

- And finally, here are the released games for which we have no numbers (some are in the database with the right release date, some are not in the database at all). - Syberia 2 (01/12/17 EU), - Aqua Moto Racing Utopia (24/11/17 EU), -Snow Moto Racing Freedom (24/11/17 EU), -Super Putty Squad (01/12/17 EU), - Retro City Rampage DX (19/10/17 NA), - Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII (03/03/17 JP).

If you look at my previous post in your thread (December 14), you will notice we had somewhat similar problems for other games earlier. Those are gone. If someone did fix it I say thank you, if not, that would mean the problem did sort itself somehow with time and this could be the case again for the games I mentionned in the present post.

Keep up the good work !

So - I guess I'm confused about terminology first, so maybe you can help me better understand and then I'll be able to figure out whether something is wrong or whether the display is just confusing...  ;)

1 - When you say "Overall Ranking List" - exactly what are you referring to? Link?

2 - When you say "Switch Best Selling List" - again, exactly what are you referring to? The link you gave right after mentioning that, is the game search page filtered to just show all Switch games - not a "best selling" list.

3 - I really don't understand the question regarding Dynasty Warriors 8 - and I'm sure it's just me, but I'm not following what your question is? I see DW8 in the database as a Switch game only - how are you seeing a relation to either of those 3DS games??

 

I'm happy to help - I just honestly don't know that I'm fully understanding the issues... :(