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[C- Warrior]

Is it through company name/title, or by the specific SKU each title is given. And speaking of SKU (a term thrown around a lot at GAF) what is that exactly. Is each title given a number that reprsents what it is, and that number is consistant throughout the region (NA), regardless of store or location?

 

[Tarazet]

The SKU, as far as I know, is the designator that an individual retailer gives to a game. Since those vary by store, I believe NPD tracks by UPC number. The only time that's a problem is if two distinctly different items have the same UPC, like Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters, or Ridge Racer Type 4 and the RRT4 w/Jogcon Collector's Edition Pack.

 

[Community Forum]

^^^
Correct! Acronym for StockKeeping Unit.

 

[Mario]

SKU = stock keeping unit

In videogame game terms, a SKU refers to a specific version of a title broken down by platform.

For example, King Kong for PS2 and King Kong for PSP are two different SKUs.

I'm not sure exactly how the numbers are collected and calculated. Presumably different retailers have their own inventory designations for each title/SKU.

 

[Andrew2]

Also inventory sheets and whats reported back to distribution.

 

[C- Warrior]

Interesting.

I only ask if there is some 'mechanical / numerical /universal' form to track a video game for a system like NPD, simply because I was at Best Buy the other day getting an idea for some MP3 player pirces, and I stopped by to see if they had Pheonix Wright. Without even really paying attention, I noticed they had appropiated wrong names, platforms, companies etc., on the stickers they put on the game shelves. Got me thinking in addition to how NPD obviously messed up with RE4 (see cvxfreak's thread) that actually messes things up. But if it's tracked via UPC or SKU (still don't understand the difference between those two) it wouldn't be a problemt to track.

 

[cvxfreak]

Fairly sure the retailer's computers produce specific number of units for each game sold, and then they fax it over to the NPD or something. They add that with other retailers, do whatever calculations they need to do, and voila, we get a number. I'm sure it's much more complicated than that, but that should be it in a simplistic way.

 

[C- Warrior]

Another question.

To a publisher, where do they make a profit? Do they make thier money when a game is shipped to retail, or when it is sold to the consumer. If it's one or the other, is that how it works for all retail stores, universally in North America?

 

[C- Warrior]

In shame, for one more attempt at answers, I give a bump straight from gamefaqs



don't hate me, for I am alone...

 

[ChennehCis]

Well, I'm not so sure about how publishers make money, but according to this article:

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/03/2230252

EB/Gamestop seem to only make money from used games sales. When a new/sealed game is sold, it probably goes directly back to the publisher. Hence, if you go up to the counter with a new console game and attempt to purchase it, 9 times outta 10 the cashier will ask if you want a used copy.

 

[Rhindle]

Another question.

To a publisher, where do they make a profit? Do they make thier money when a game is shipped to retail, or when it is sold to the consumer. If it's one or the other, is that how it works for all retail stores, universally in North America?

They get paid when they ship to retailers. However, if the game if retailers have to discount slow-moving stock (or if the game is officially marked down while in stock), retailers will usually get credit from the publisher.

 

[sonycowboy]

Fairly sure the retailer's computers produce specific number of units for each game sold, and then they fax it over to the NPD or something. They add that with other retailers, do whatever calculations they need to do, and voila, we get a number. I'm sure it's much more complicated than that, but that should be it in a simplistic way.

FAX?? In today's world? Retailers are ass backwards when it comes to technology, but it's not that bad.

Retailers provide an export file to NPD that has varying bits of information, much of which is not actually provided via NPD, but gives them some nice data (Days out of stock, weeks of supply, etc).

Retailers provide NPD with the games, hardware, and accessories at a UPC level, a designation which is unique for each item and determined by the publishers (or manufacturer). There are some game bundles and generic skus which get used at some locations for budget stuff, but it's small potatoes.

Another question.

To a publisher, where do they make a profit? Do they make thier money when a game is shipped to retail, or when it is sold to the consumer. If it's one or the other, is that how it works for all retail stores, universally in North America?

Well, that's a loaded question. Publishers don't always ship directly to stores, but to distributors, especially for smaller chains and mom and pop stores.

The publisher sells games to retailers and distributors and that's when they "book the sale". They might not get paid for quite awhile, depending on the terms they have with the purchaser. That's when corporations accounting departments get involved to take care of the accounts receivable and accounts payable.

But, in the most basic form, publishers get "paid" upon the shipment to a retailer. Of course, they have to hold some of that money in a seperate account, or reserves, to cover returns from a purchaser and price protection in the case the price drops while a retailer still has supply.

It's NEVER when the product is sold to a customer except in consignment situations, which are extremely rare in this business.

 

[Barry Lightning]

not all stores report to NPD!

 

[Archie]

not all stores report to NPD!

Which includes Wal-Mart, correct?

 

[polg]

I was wondering... if both 360s packs have different skus... why aren't both packs reported separately? Can we know how many tard vs premium packs have been sold?

 

[Fuzzy]

I was wondering... if both 360s packs have different skus... why aren't both packs reported separately? Can we know how many tard vs premium packs have been sold?

If we had access to the actual NPD report for hardware sales then we'd see all HW broken down by the different packages. The numbers we get for HW are all of them grouped together.

 

[cvxfreak]

FAX?? In today's world? Retailers are ass backwards when it comes to technology, but it's not that bad.

C'mon, I didn't mean it literally. I meant in general just sending it over via how they do it.

That said, Media Create actually still faxes (i.e. real fax) their statements to news outlets or whoever. :lol

 

[C- Warrior]

Sonycowboy, can you tell me if this is correct? (or anyone else for that matter)?

I take it SKU is what a retailer gives to a particular game, so it's easy to track how much do they have left etc., while UPC is a universal numerical designation given to the game/hardware from the manufacturer/publisher, and this is what NPD tracks.

Also, I've seen on too many occasions when a particular retailer (like Best Buy for instance) has games incorrectly labled. I.e, designating a particular game being developed/published by the wrong company, etc etc, on price lables / information lables. If NPD did track via UPC, small retailer related 'human errors' would be irrelavent right?