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[gcubed]

What are you going on about? Why would they be risking their company by doing that? There's no lieing or fraud if they leave exact shipment numbers out of their reports for a quarter or two. It'd actually be a really smart thing to do for the company image as the only way to eventually extrpolate it is a year or two down the road on that rare occasion when these companies state their LTD's.

they have to report profit and loss for their divisions... if they didnt sell as many consoles, you would notice it in their games division P&L numbers. Simply hiding the "shipped" total does nothing and has no benefit. If you are releasing your financial report, there is no reason to not release your shipment numbers. You can't "hide" missed sales by just omitting shipment numbers.

These companies state their LTD's at LEAST once a year, if not every 4 months.

Sony was getting embarrassed for 2 straight years in the US after launch, all of a sudden they want to hide their sales?

 

[Patriotsbball5460]

I'm speculating that they'll at the very least change the format. Look at the top 10 we got today ... that's what I'd expect for the top 20 tomorrow. It's the natural extension, no?

Sales-age makes me sad now

 

[Psychotext]

Next month's top 10 will be presented in a Flash application consisting of a sphere, constantly rotating, with the axis of rotation constantly shifting.

Titles will be color coded, in order of NPD's top ten favorite colors.

:lol

 

[donny2112]

It's the natural extension, no?

The natural extension is that Chart-Track said, "Hey, yo! You be giving out way too much info and getting leaks. Looksie at us. We got the best ninjas killing leaks and made 'em suck a Top 40 combined SKU chart for years. We got them eating out of our hands with a separated SKU chart, booyyyyyeeeee!"

NPD combining with Chart-Track was a horrible thing, and I'm greatly concerned that the fact they are also in collaboration with Enterbrain/Famitsu means that Japan data is just waiting to be screwed, too.

Oh, wait. That wasn't your question.

 

[jvm]

NPD combining with Chart-Track was a horrible thing, and I'm greatly concerned that the fact they are also in collaboration with Enterbrain/Famitsu means that Japan data is just waiting to be screwed, too.

Given the "Global Sales" reports that have happened in the past, we know there is some sort of relationship. It's definitely worth watching. :|

 

[TheRipDizz]

they have to report profit and loss for their divisions... if they didnt sell as many consoles, you would notice it in their games division P&L numbers. Simply hiding the "shipped" total does nothing and has no benefit. If you are releasing your financial report, there is no reason to not release your shipment numbers. You can't "hide" missed sales by just omitting shipment numbers.

These companies state their LTD's at LEAST once a year, if not every 4 months.

Like i said before, you can definitely channel stuff, MS did it a few years ago, but it was immediately followed up by a horrific next quarter.

R&D bro, among many other excuses. They don't have to explain their losses. Why would these companies overship to begin with? It's all about perception and image. Get a clue.

And so what the they release their LTD's every year. That's my point, six, seven months from now, a year from now when they release them, the only people who are going to know about it are the people who kept all this data in mind and are able to extrapolate it. So basically no one. :lol Their job and "hiding" that overshipment will have been executed perfectly.

 

[gcubed]

R&D bro, among many other excuses. Why would these companies overship to begin with? It's all about perception and image. Get a clue.

its really not worth arguing anymore, we will see in a few weeks when Sony has their quarterly reports. I don't think i should be the one getting a clue.

you overship to meet numbers you are in danger of not meeting. 4 months before your numbers are due you don't go out and make a statement to the business world that you will be BEATING your numbers that supposedly you are going to have to overship to just meet... but thats right, its a dick wagging contest.

 

[Chrange]

Well, if it's all but confirmed that one of the big 3 was the impetus behind this, then evidence points to Sony.

In the US they'd have most reason not to show their figures.

Given they haven't put out their figures/PR where MS and Nintendo have.

Where there's smoke.

Maybe it was Microsoft and they released their numbers to throw suspicion off them?

Classic Microsoft.

 

[jvm]

Maybe it was Microsoft and they released their numbers to throw suspicion off them?

Classic Microsoft.

 

[clashfan]

This kid makes me not want to buy a psp.

 

[gcubed]

This kid makes me not want to buy a psp.

the kid and the price, at least they fixed one of them in Europe.

 

[Regulus Tera]

I hadn't noticed, but he looks an awful lot like David Tennant.

 

[chubigans]

Microsoft obviously knows Kinect sales will crash after the holidays, and got NPD to pull public figures on a date where they knew it would be easy to blame Sony for, and hide amazing Move sales at the same time.

I'm on to you, MS.

Also JVM...no more Gamasutra article breakdowns? I really look forward to those each month.

 

[Zoe]

the kid and the price, at least they fixed one of them in Europe.

US is getting the drop too.

 

[TunaLover]

I hadn't noticed, but he looks an awful lot like David Tennant.

not really

 

[jvm]

Also JVM...no more Gamasutra article breakdowns? I really look forward to those each month.

I am still expected to write a column. You guys can judge on Monday, I suppose.

 

[Vic]

...may as well just make NPD a bannable meme at this point. Seriously pointless.

"NPD" should be taken off from the thread title.

 

[Rhindle]

BTW, you could derive a pretty good estimate of Move sales from the numbers given in the OP. Even a rough estimate of PS3 sales.

JVM, something for you to write about.

 

[The Technomancer]

You know, I never got why publishers or console makers would need NPD data. Wouldn't internal tracking be far more accurate, simply because as the company you know exactly how much revenue you took in, how many objects you manufactured, how many you shipped to retailers etc? Does Gamestop not have to tell Nintendo "we sold 150k of Metroid: Other M, and after our cut we're sending such and such money to you?"

Just...the idea of being a company and not knowing exactly how much you've sold of something doesn't make any sense to me. It seems like it would be inherent.

 

[cuevas. PhD.]

No, Halo Reach is a full fledged game, but it is not Halo 4. Halo 4 will certainly have a different perception in the minds of people. I know a lot of people who think Reach is just a new campaign like ODST.

Well I hope you corrected them.

 

[Megadragon15]

Microsoft obviously knows Kinect sales will crash after the holidays, and got NPD to pull public figures on a date where they knew it would be easy to blame Sony for, and hide amazing Move sales at the same time.

I'm on to you, MS.

Also JVM...no more Gamasutra article breakdowns? I really look forward to those each month.

This must be it. If there were amazing Move sales, SCEA would suppress the data at Microsoft's urging.

 

[Fredescu]

None.

Seriously? Wow.

 

[TheRipDizz]

its really not worth arguing anymore, we will see in a few weeks when Sony has their quarterly reports. I don't think i should be the one getting a clue.

you overship to meet numbers you are in danger of not meeting. 4 months before your numbers are due you don't go out and make a statement to the business world that you will be BEATING your numbers that supposedly you are going to have to overship to just meet... but thats right, its a dick wagging contest.

Their numbers never made sense though. That's what's letting this scenario play on a little more in my mind than it should. What are YTDs for the US and Japan combined this year? US has got to be about 2 million 9 months in. Japan maybe 1.5? Does this fiscal year include last christmas season? Dunno, but even so, where the hell do 11 million PS3's get sold at if the majority is not in the US and Japan? Europe? C'mon. Not even when the Wii was at its hottest was it doing those kinds of numbers anywhere.

 

[TunaLover]

Does Gamestop not have to tell Nintendo "we sold 150k of Metroid: Other M, and after our cut we're sending such and such money to you?"

:lol

 

[Zoe]

You know, I never got why publishers or console makers would need NPD data. Wouldn't internal tracking be far more accurate, simply because as the company you know exactly how much revenue you took in, how many objects you manufactured, how many you shipped to retailers etc? Does Gamestop not have to tell Nintendo "we sold 150k of Metroid: Other M, and after our cut we're sending such and such money to you?"

Just...the idea of being a company and not knowing exactly how much you've sold of something doesn't make any sense to me. It seems like it would be inherent.

shipped to retailers != sold to customers

Once it's in the retailer's hands, they've already gotten their cut. If they didn't see the NPD numbers, they wouldn't know whether they've over shipped something until probably months down the line.

 

[chubigans]

I am still expected to write a column. You guys can judge on Monday, I suppose.

Good luck man. I can imagine how hard it's going to be now.

 

[_Xenon_]

So whom shall we blame for ruining our fun? Microsoft (potential Kinect bomb)? Sony (laughable sales)? Nintendo (begin to lose steam)?

 

[iammeiam]

So whom shall we blame for ruining our fun? Microsoft (potential Kinect bomb)? Sony (laughable sales)? Nintendo (begin to lose steam)?

Is there any way this can be Kotick's fault? I'm willing to think outside the box on this one.

Otherwise I blame the PSP Go. Not Sony, the Go itself. It sold so badly NPD felt releasing hardware sales data was giving the poor thing a complex, and took pity.

 

[Kusagari]

So whom shall we blame for ruining our fun? Microsoft (potential Kinect bomb)? Sony (laughable sales)? Nintendo (begin to lose steam)?

Activision. Kotick didn't like seeing Guitar Hero fail.

 

[WrikaWrek]

Nintendo saying "Who cares", Sony saying "Water is cold!"

 

[bigtroyjon]

I love it, instead of crazy posts by fanboys citing silly reasons why various console's npd numbers are inflated, we get crazy posts talking about why the illuminati is causing the npd to stop publishing numbers.

You can take the numbers out of an NPD thread but you can't take the crazy out of an NPD thread.

 

[Fredescu]

Is there any way this can be Kotick's fault? I'm willing to think outside the box on this one.

With the surprise release of Activision's new game console, the Bobby Box 5000, due next month, NPD had to seek permission to release the hardware numbers publicly. Mr Kotick declined, threatening to "burn [NPD's] fucking house down."

 

[bigtroyjon]

Their numbers never made sense though. That's what's letting this scenario play on a little more in my mind than it should. What are YTDs for the US and Japan combined this year? US has got to be about 2 million 9 months in. Japan maybe 1.5? Does this fiscal year include last christmas season? Dunno, but even so, where the hell do 11 million PS3's get sold at if the majority is not in the US and Japan? Europe? C'mon. Not even when the Wii was at its hottest was it doing those kinds of numbers anywhere.

They are 6 months into their fiscal year, we should get the latest quarter's numbers in a couple of weeks.

 

[speculawyer]

I'm lost. Channel stuffing == fraud now? :lol

Ask Take-Two . . . the SEC nailed them for it.

You stuff the channel and create big looking revenues . . . never mind that no one wanted to buy those crap games. That management is all gone now. But some, like Ryan Brant even got nailed with criminal problems.

 

[Zzoram]

Considering that Sony is the only one holding out on data right now, it's pretty clear that if anyone is even to blame, it's Sony. Of course it's still more likely NPD withdrew data release to retain customers.

 

[Htown]

Activision. Kotick didn't like seeing Guitar Hero fail.

<conspiracy>No way. Assuming it was a game company that forced NPD to not release detailed numbers, it would have to be one of the big 3, since they wanted NPD to release NO INFO AT ALL on hardware. Only one hardware company failed to release numbers, and that's Sony.

As for all the people asking, "why would Sony not want numbers released when they beat the Wii?", the answer is that it doesn't matter if they beat the Wii numbers by a little bit this month. This month was the Move launch, which was supposed to be Sony's big push into the casual market, and they obviously didn't pull "casual market" numbers. In fact, the only thing we do know is that they sold FEWER units than they did at this time last year. Note the fact that the statement they have released really says nothing at all, other than that Move is selling "well", with no numbers to back that up, and that hey the PS3 can do a lot of stuff did you notice?

It's pretty obvious what happened here.</conspiracy>

 

[SonOfABeep]

it would seem like at least one of them would want to put out the PR release that claims

"Wii/Kinect/Move is the best selling motion control gaming experience of holiday 2010"

 

[Gaborn]

Fucking Luddites. At a time when humanity has access to more information than ever before in our history, where everything is almost instantly available at our fingertips, when an emphasis is placed on communication why can't an industry that prides itself on being the forefront of technology trends have something that presents more monthly sales data rather than less?

 

[Dai101]

"Wii/Kinect/Move is the best selling motion control gaming experience of holiday 2010"

 

[velvet_nitemare]

Shitty NPD.

 

[AzureNightmare]

Looks like Sony emo raged and decided not to let NPD give out sales data for their platform. :lol

 

[Dreams-Visions]

This kid makes me not want to buy a psp.

he's entertaining. but at this point, nobody could convince me to buy a PSP. it's not about a sales pitch anymore.

 

[Gaborn]

Looks like Sony emo raged and decided not to let NPD give out sales data for their platform. :lol

And in the year of the PS3 too.

Spoiler

couldn't resist

 

[Vic]

And in the year of the PS3 too.

Spoiler

couldn't resist

smh

 

[Psychotext]

In fact, the only thing we do know is that they sold FEWER units than they did at this time last year.

In fairness, it would have taken a miracle for Sony to beat last year's September numbers (In September last year the PS3 slim / price cut combo hit).

 

[Chrange]

In fairness, it would have taken a miracle for Sony to beat last year's September numbers (In September last year the PS3 slim / price cut combo hit).

NPD numbers get pulled the month Sony's yoy numbers will plummet? Gotta be Microsoft.

 

[bigtroyjon]

In fairness, it would have taken a miracle for Sony to beat last year's September numbers (In September last year the PS3 slim / price cut combo hit).

Since they trumpeted yoy sales all year, which were cause of shitty 09 sales, then they should suck it up and discuss sales when the easy yoy gains are gone.

 

[Infinite Justice]

Since they trumpeted yoy sales all year, which were cause of shitty 09 sales, then they should suck it up and discuss sales when the easy yoy gains are gone.

well they are just on "momentum" now :lol

"There's no question we're experiencing incredible momentum behind the PS3 this year and this holiday is already stacking up to be another great season of innovation and family fun for consumers.

 

[Mrbob]

Isn't this move by the NPD going to start lending some more credibility to that other sales site? Publishers already pull "data" from that website. I would suspect it will get stronger now that NPD is on lock down.

 

[shinnn]

wow.. those cheap X360's premium/arcade still selling a lot. They never ends. :lol