Before anyone gets frisky, this doesn't only apply to VG Chartz - it applies to most sources that log this kind of data for a living.  However, seen as game charts are the main purpose of this site, I think it is a valid discussion to have here.

Over the last week or so I have spent most of my console gaming time playing PixelJunk Eden, Warhawk, Bionic Commando Rearmed, and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue - all of which are either download only or users have the option to download them as opposed to buying the boxed product.

I'm sure I'm not the only person in this situation.  The Wii, 360, and PS3 all have some kind of service for the sale of downloadable games.

However, no data for downloadable games is tracked by this site.

Every now and again someone will post news about dowload figures for Xbox Live titles, but even so these figures aren't added into the main sales charts.  Why not? 

Now I know that actually getting the sales data for such downloadable games is probably very difficult without going via the hardware manufacturers themselves, but at the same time it's not as if the figures for boxed product games are 100% accurate either - they are just estimates based on data samples from vendors in the supply chain.  If you can't get the figures direct from the manufacturers, surely they could be estimated via some other method?  For example, most of these games have online ranking, so you should be able to tell the number of players with the game based on the ranking data.

So, the question is, how much longer is it before we start to see data from download games in the charts here?

I'm pretty sure that none of the major tracking firms include dl games in their charts. NPD, GFK, Famitsu, MC, etc...(somebody correct me if I'm wrong)

Correct.

A point that I made in the first line of my original post.

How is it possible to track PSN titles, apart from info right from Sony

I dont understand why XBLA data is not added

Yeah, I don't know why Mrstickball's Xbox Arcade numbers are not added to the arcade game pages. There's no point in making pages for arcade games if the sales that are available aren't added to them.

I agree

I figure that the reason why the Live Arcade and WiiWare/VC games aren't added into the full charts is because of the relative inaccuracies of the tracking methods. Don't get me wrong but I think that ioi wants to keep the integrity of the site by having the actual charts being as close to the real data as possible.

But I agree with you. I'm all for having it added, or having a separate main page chart with the sales data displayed. They just need to find a way to track PSN info.

Currently they are working on how to add the XBL and VC/WW chartz data into the game database, but I'm pretty sure they are going to stay seperate charts.

DKII made this post about it in another similar thread

Both my charts and mrstickball's XBLA charts will end up in the games database someday, we're working on exactly how to manage that and trying to hopefully verify some of our numbers first.

Go check the news articles. I've been posting XBLA sales numbers for almost a year now. VGC is the ONLY place in the entire world, aside from MS HQ that your going to get any XBLA numbers.

Digital download sales are virtually impossible to track unless you are an insider at every studio that sells games, and you get to see their finances, or work with the DD service itself, and work either as an exec, or sales team member.

Outside of that, no one has numbers. No one. Ever seen a Steam sales chart with numbers? Stardock? PSN? It's rare that companies would give out this information, since their rivals may use it against them. Most use vague numbers and figures that lack any hard data to explain how certain titles are doing 'Steam goes over 15 million members' 'Nintendo says 10 million VC titles sold' - Figures like that, that have no real weight in the world of sales analysis, since there's no data for individual games, or statements made over a specific time period.

NPD, GTK, Chart Track, nor anyone else actually has access to these numbers. They're virtually powerless, since there is no retail store that can give them sales numbers - there is only 1 retail store per distribution point, and it's owned and operated by whomever runs the service (Valve, MS, Nintendo, Sony, ect).

Heck, I'll give you an easy one: Go find sales data for InstantAction.com, which is a browser based DD service that I work for. I'll give you $20 if you can find ANY quotes about actual sales for the service. Chances are, your not going to get my $20.

I'm not sure about PSN and XBLA but I would bet NPD has some estimates on how "big" the WiiWare and VC market is since alot of people buy Wii Points from retail stores.