Unless you're actually making and marketing games, what good does that information do you? It can be interesting to see what people like, and see games surprisingly bomb or rip up the charts.
*spin-off* NPD to no longer release HW/SW sales numbers
- Thread starter NavNucST3
- Start date
Unless you're actually making and marketing games, what good does that information do you? It can be interesting to see what people like, and see games surprisingly bomb or rip up the charts.
Having data is never a bad thing. Sure it can lead to fanboy wars but really, these people will fight over anything. Worse, they'll just make up numbers if official figures are not available. That actually makes things a lot worse. For the rest of us, atleast we have industry accepted data.
As for what it does, I'd say it does a lot. It adds an element of industry analysis and trends that would otherwise not be possible. After all, it's just stats. Is it bad to get Xbox Live's most played games list? I don't think it hurts anyone but it certainly lets me know what games are being played and which communities are going to be active.
You'd never wants stats to go away in a sport you follow right? Having stats for football doesn't hurt ones enjoyment of the game. Same applies to video games. Your fun won't be dictated by the fact that additional info is avaiable for those interested.
It's entirely different with football. Having those stats actually helps many a men's enjoyment of the game that way they can keep track of their favorite teams, players, coaches, blah blah blah, etc. Those numbers really do enhance the enjoyment of the game and not take away. Sorry to burst your analogy there...
I would like to see sales figures for the consoles and games but realize that is has no bearing on my enjoyment of said console. If that were the case then I would have some psychological issues that I need to work out.
Regardless, I do expect the numbers to be posted somewhere at some point in the future, and fully expect holiday sales numbers to be released when all is said and done.
Actually, it's exactly the same. Seeing your favorite console sold more again releases the same endorphins as seeing your favorite team is at the top of the league. It validates your choice and increases the enjoyment of your console. Perception changes experience (if you perceive your console is "winning", you are happier with the console, and subsequently enjoy the games more). If you don't believe that, you should read a Dan Ariely book sometime.
Same can be said for most of the discussion on this board! Few of us need it as relevant occupational data. We're just curious.
They're not mutually exclusive, however they always seem to come hand and hand with"quality" in the minds of people who froth at the mouth over sales numbers.
i.e. "well yea, maybe it was a decent game, but it didn't sell well at all".
Why this has any place in any conversation OUTSIDE of a sales thread is beyond me...yet it happens so regularly that it's become accepted.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
It's interesting to me to see the numbers. As noted by others it's a fair indicator of trends in console gaming. Are gamers tastes in games evolving and in what direction? Are certain consoles more or less attractive to certain types of gamers. Are gamers liking or not liking tweaks to existing genre standards?
As well it's an indicator of how management and marketing are doing. If a new management team is installed, has it had any impact? Has the new marketing blitz resulted in a boost to sales? Are new peripherals doing anything to boost sales of games or consoles? Over time was management wise to purchase X studio?
It's also an interesting data point on where a company may be with regards to future intentions. Are sales starting to slow? Could indicate that a company will then be increasing and/or starting serious developement on a new console for example. A surprise hit in a non-traditional top 10 gaming genre may indicate a company will be more willing to earmark additional developement funds for that genre. Likewise, disappointing sales of former chart topping titles may indicate a de-emphasis on those types of games and potential experimentation with other games.
It's a fun form of speculating using known, concrete, solid, and valid data.
Obviously there's also going to be people taking things too far. Console X is better than Console Y. Or Game A is better than Game B. Or Game Z has sold out to the masses, or whatever. Noise from people mistaking that sales numbers only indicate what the general public "generally" likes, versus any quality or merit justifications.
Things such as whether a game is good or not, or a console is good or not are always purely opinion based. There is no stat, or number, or study, or anything that will ever be able to show that Game X is better than Game Y for everyone. Or that console A is better than console B for everyone.
The sooner people realise that. The sooner there'll be more signal than noise in forums. Unfortunately, I don't see that ever happening. And whether NPD numbers are available or not, isn't going to impact that in the slightest.
Regards,
SB
As well it's an indicator of how management and marketing are doing. If a new management team is installed, has it had any impact? Has the new marketing blitz resulted in a boost to sales? Are new peripherals doing anything to boost sales of games or consoles? Over time was management wise to purchase X studio?
It's also an interesting data point on where a company may be with regards to future intentions. Are sales starting to slow? Could indicate that a company will then be increasing and/or starting serious developement on a new console for example. A surprise hit in a non-traditional top 10 gaming genre may indicate a company will be more willing to earmark additional developement funds for that genre. Likewise, disappointing sales of former chart topping titles may indicate a de-emphasis on those types of games and potential experimentation with other games.
It's a fun form of speculating using known, concrete, solid, and valid data.
Obviously there's also going to be people taking things too far. Console X is better than Console Y. Or Game A is better than Game B. Or Game Z has sold out to the masses, or whatever. Noise from people mistaking that sales numbers only indicate what the general public "generally" likes, versus any quality or merit justifications.
Things such as whether a game is good or not, or a console is good or not are always purely opinion based. There is no stat, or number, or study, or anything that will ever be able to show that Game X is better than Game Y for everyone. Or that console A is better than console B for everyone.
The sooner people realise that. The sooner there'll be more signal than noise in forums. Unfortunately, I don't see that ever happening. And whether NPD numbers are available or not, isn't going to impact that in the slightest.
Regards,
SB
Aaron Greenberg:
@NPDGroup might not be sharing, but I can tell you that Xbox 360 was the #1 selling console for the 4th month in a row!
Silent_Buddha
Legend
And stuff like that is why it's going to potentially generate even more noise without numbers. Was the X360 ahead by 100 units? 1000 units? 10k? 100k? 500k? If the first, it's virtually meaningless. If the last, that's hugely significant.
/sigh...
Regards,
SB
/sigh...
Regards,
SB
Same can be said for most of the discussion on this board! Few of us need it as relevant occupational data. We're just curious.
agreed. Hell the whole site revolved around that
corduroygt
Banned
Coincidentally, that's exactly the same as Halo 3 NPD. Which makes Halo 3 sales look damn impressive...
wot? This is the year of the [strike]ps3[/strike] xbox! Numbers be damned.
/s
Anyway, I'd be more interested in hearing your guys' thoughts on why NPD is doing this rather than whether the numbers are needed. For instance, and to start off the discussion: Nintendo hit panic button, threatened NPD so people don't see the Wii walk into the abyss? Sony/Microsoft don't want people to see KinMove bomb? neogaf is going serious and will compete with NPD? Too much/not enough beer at NPD's HQ?
Silent_Buddha
Legend
That was the first thought that popped into my head. But I don't give it much credence. Either that or Nintendo has a lot more influence than I give them credit for.
Another possibility is that Sony may have been pushing for this for a long time now as NPD this console generation has generally not been kind to them. Then with Nintendo's Wii suddenly having such large drops in sales numbers, perhaps they started voicing something along those lines. And maybe that was enough to get NPD to drop the numbers.
It's doubtful Microsoft would have been asking for this, as NPD this generation has generally been in their favor when compared to Sony's numbers. And on the software front even compared to Nintendo.
Or it could just be that NPD is pushing to try to get more subscribers to their publications.
Regards,
SB
Yeah, I've always figured Sony must hate and dread NPD day basically since PS3 launched. Though there actually are often nuggets of strong Playstation news in there (example last month, Madden almost catching 360 version, strongly increasing YoY PS3 sales in recent times, etc).
Of course on NEGAF they decided it must be evil Microsoft trying to conceal Kinectbomb
But yeah, it always seemed a bit harsh to me for NPD to put the month's losers in a bad position each month. How much mockery was made of Sony's NPD defense press releases for example? I would possibly suspect that (exposing the losers, not specifically Sony) is the reason NPD suspended the numbers. Just a hunch though. On the other hand, it could be just as simple as NPD trying to increase their sales by withholding more data.
Except that the importance of winning is inherent to competitive sports. Enjoyment of video games has nothing to do with comparative sales numbers. At least it didn't when I was a kid playing games.
corduroygt
Banned
I'm sure the biggest thing they've been hating since the PS3 launched is forex markets, since the $ is worth 30% less than it was when the PS3 launched compared to the yen
Euro fared much better being until the end of 2008, but now it's down about 15%.