A Grain of Salt: Sales Figures Edition

A Grain of Salt: Sales Figures Edition


NPD Funworld could do us all a favor here, on the other hand we recognize that business is business.

The NPD assemblage the most prominent compiler of sales records for the American videogame industry, is not a charity. It is in business to make cash and so it guards its numbers carefully, releasing precise software and hardware sales figures for the games biz alone to those who are willing to pay for them.

What this means to you in practical bourns is that the general public not ever sees the whole videogame sales picture. Instead, bits and pieces come up from publishers and hardware manufacturers, who of course have their be in possession of agenda when distributing sales data. The sales figures, shipment figures, percentage increases and decreases, and those other numbers you diocese in press releases and of recent origins stories are carefully calculated to not absent the rosiest possible picture for whoever happens to be making them public.

In the weeks following the holiday season, we're seeing an unusual amount of of the like kind spin. Sony Computer Entertainment America and Nintendo of America have been playing a game of Dueling Pres Releases above the past few weeks, each making its case as carefully as possible to the pres the quiet of the industry, and the public. The latest circular of propaganda hit the wires today, in like manner as a public service, we meditation we'd dissect Nintendo and Sony's releases to explain just by what mode you're being spun.

Nintendo of America

Nintendo's release we can't link to, since it's archived upon the press-only section of its website, on the contrary it is excerpted here in replete

Did You Know?

Nintendo likes to start its pres releases with the phrase "Did You Know?", implying that we don't actually know by what means well it's doing.

If awards were handed without today for the stars of the video game industry in 2003 Nintendo would walk domicile with an armful more than any other company. According to independent retail sales data just released through NPD Funworld, Nintendo was named No. 1 in the following categories by means of the nation's game players...

The strategy here is obvious. Instead of offering a clean picture of the videogame industry in 2003 it's picking on the outside the areas where its performance was ostensibly strongest hoping that the reader will ignore any other "categories."

No. 1 Selling System: Game Boy(R) Advance, with 81 million sold in 2003

No spin here, because none is necessary. The GBA is running uncontest and in like manner its sales success doesn't ne to be aligned up at all.

No. 1 Fastest-Growing System: Nintendo GameCube(TM), with a 40 percent unit sales increase above 2002 (compared to a 25 percent decline for Sony's PlayStation 2 and flat sales for Microsoft's Xbox)

Plenty of spin here, of course. Nintendo makes no mention of this year's unit sales of the GameCube, or last year's unit sales, or the system's installed base overall. Instead, it points without the percentage increase in unit sales above 2002, because the precipitous globule in the GameCube's price in 2003 (which spurr sinewy holiday sales in comparison to a relatively weak 2002) makes that number particularly attractive.

No. 1 Fastest-Growing Game Seller: Nintendo GameCube, with a 77 percent unit sales increase above 2002

Here, the same tactic is busyed to accentuate software sales for the GameCube. In addition, focusing upon software unit sales instead of sales income disguises the effect of gradually falling software prices.

No. 1 Hit Maker: Four of the year's top seven venders played only on Nintendo (Pokemon(R) Ruby and Pokemon(R) Sapphire for Game male child Advance; The Legend of Zelda(R): The Wind Waker(TM) and Mario Kart(R): Double Dash(TM) for Nintendo GameCube)

Focusing upon the top seven software titles (instead of something circular like the top 10 or the top 20 which would not absent a broader picture of the market) gives Nintendo a perceived "majority" of the year's hits, especially since it's decided to number the Ruby and Sapphire versions of the latest Pokemon RPG as separate titles, and for that matter also view Game lad Advance software in the same connection as console software, with which it does not directly strive

No. 1 Sales Growth: Corporate retail receiptss increased 16 percent over 2002

Touting the company's entire receipts picture makes it easy to rayless weak links in the chain -- for instance, the Game stripling Advance's hardware and software sales succes could be making up for weaker GameCube receiptss but it's impossible to number from this number.

No. 1 Landmark: Game stripling Advance just sold its 20 millionth combination of parts to form a whole in America!

Whether that is indeed the biggest landmark in the games industry in 2003 is a subjective judgement Sony which likely sold its 60 millionth PS2 last year, might beg to differ. Nevertheless, the GBA's succes can be relied on for an effective opening salvo and a vigorous parting shot.

Sony Computer Entertainment America

Follow the link above to read SCEA's new press release in its entirety.