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[Jokeropia]

Well goddamnit. I wonder if it's for real this time.

 

[Anerythristic]

Why do I have a sense of deja vu? Was this same announcement made in the past but nothing ever came of it?

 

[B-Rad Lascelle]

Time to release NeoGAF+. $50 a year, with access to NPD numbers on a private sub-forum for subscribers. Only need 200 members to break even!

With anyone caught leaking numbers via PM or post permabanned?
I like this... I like this a lot.
Where do I PayPal my money? I will pay as much as $100/year.

 

[itxaka]

It's ridiculous that this industry, which either has or soon will surpass the movie industry, doesn't have a freely reported sales data. Can you imagine if the weekly box office numbers were unavailable? "We think Avatar probably had the number 1 spot again, but that's just based on foot traffic into theaters).

Maybe I am mistaken, but doesn't Box office numbers are provided by the MPAA? They don't life by selling them, where NPD group actually does so it kind of makes sense.

Of course, they should release just the console numbers and top 5 software without numbers and then provide the complete reports with all the details to subscribers.

 

[VAIL]

This is funny, stupid and pointless all at the same time...but mostly funny.

 

[Gravijah]

Why do I have a sense of deja vu? Was this same announcement made in the past but nothing ever came of it?

something similar, yes.

 

[edbrat]

this is sad, sales age threads are potentially epic. I bet the manufacturers will release lots of data in PRs etc but the metronomic, month in month out NPD day will obviously be no more.

 

[subversus]

:lol :lol :lol :lol

 

[VinZuku]

Yes, having fewer facts in hand often makes for more elevated discourse.

I heard Yale is burning their library just so that things can be more pleasant on a day-to-day basis on the campus.

Yeah, I just love coming to these boards to read all the "elevated discourse" about how many copies the new Madden sold.

 

[Boney]

That's what we get for making fun of Marcus

 

[Strike]

 

[Road]

Amazon has already released the September best sellers: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2010-09/videogames/ref=zg_bs_cal

Quick, someone make a thread...

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I also dislike direct PR from corps, where they can claim something sold XXX and no one would be able to prove them wrong with corporate ballwashers trumpeting behind them.

What do you mean?

I am quite certain that Fallout 3 sold-through 4.7 million copies in fall of 2008.

Yeah, I just love coming to these boards to read all the "elevated discourse" about how many copies the new Madden sold.

Funny you should say that. Sales threads were a lot livelier when got the full top 20. With top 5 only, the discussion digresses to only the chart-toppers, like Madden. With no numbers, the discussion digresses to "number of games on the chart" and then to "weighted number of games on the chart." (see PAL Charts, 2009 edition). If we didn't get software numbers in 2007, based on this methodology, it would have been pretty easy to assume that the 360 was kicking the crap out of the Wii.

I will always prefer transparency over obfuscation. But in an industry run by blind man-babies, the one-eyed keeper of all data is king.

 

[LegendofJoe]

Someone on this forum needs to take on the mantle of 'Internet Hero' and find a way to leak the numbers anonymously.

 

[gcubed]

so basically besides in each companies quarterly reports we won't know any kind of hardware numbers besides Japan? The 3 months between is going to be awesome

 

[Gravijah]

Yeah, I just love coming to these boards to read all the "elevated discourse" about how many copies the new Madden sold.

I'm not sure what your point is.

 

[olimpia84]

just before Kinect releases...hmm

 

[dragonfart28]

Once the public becomes aware of sales trends and figures they can better predict the true demand for a product and may have some insight into that product's intrinsic quality. Take away these figures from the public and people regress back into fanboyism.

If we need to make $1 donations monthly, to get access, I'll do it.

 

[jvm]

This should be interesting.

 

[Threi]

out of curiosity, why would this be something for the average forum user to cheer about?

 

[Pureauthor]

I think the most pertinent question will be what will NeoGAF's policy on leaked numbers be going forward?

 

[confuziz]

This should be interesting.

In what way?

 

[Wyndstryker]

now the question is, will gaf go back to releasing leaks?

 

[DMeisterJ]

Awesome! Now we only need Japan to stop giving numbers and we'll all get back to just playing games and not justifying our various systems of ownership by the amount they sell!

 

[Pureauthor]

Awesome! Now we only need Japan to stop giving numbers and we'll all get back to just playing games and not justifying our various systems of ownership by the amount they sell!

You are incredibly ignorant or incredibly optimistic. I'm not sure which.

 

[Gravijah]

Awesome! Now we only need Japan to stop giving numbers and we'll all get back to just playing games and not justifying our various systems of ownership by the amount they sell!

Uhm. Fanboys existed long before sales numbers... they'll continue existing even after.

 

[SonOfABeep]

Disappointing. I always liked seeing the numbers.

 

[confuziz]

Awesome! Now we only need Japan to stop giving numbers and we'll all get back to just playing games and not justifying our various systems of ownership by the amount they sell!

You just say that because you love sony mister james :lol

 

[B-Rad Lascelle]

The real solution to this is for GAF to create its own market research firm and simply do NPD's job better than NPD does.

Then we can branch out like Google did and start building cars that drive themselves and the like.

 

[Mr. B Natural]

Great now Console Gaf can totally make stuff up like PC-Gaf. Holding back PC sales really eased that pain didn't it? No. It didn't. It made it worse by making PC gaming more shadowed and obscure to investors than it needs to be.

PR is one thing. Basic sales numbers is another. PR control is one thing. Not giving the potential public investors incentive or disincentive to invest in gaming is another.

Hollywood doesn't hold back their numbers (even when things aren't super) and it helps them. They constantly show every week that despite things not going as well as before, there are millions of dollars to be made here. Rest assured.

 

[Chris1964]

*Looking at Media Create*
Why can't we have something like that here?

Because NPD doesn't have competition.

It's not such a big deal. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft will keep providing nunbers at their PR, and Famitsu magazine gives numbers for US 1-10 when NPD gives numbers only for 1-5 so maybe we'll get something from there too.

 

[Indyana]

Time to release NeoGAF+. $50 a year, with access to NPD numbers on a private sub-forum for subscribers. Only need 200 members to break even!

You have my sword.

 

[itxaka]

This should be interesting.

What would we do without your awesome dissection of NPD? I loved it... :_(

/Salutes

 

[Sadist]

In what way?

Gamasutra has access to numbers. So JVM's reports will get more clicks

 

[jkanownik]

We stopped doing them about 15 months ago (and stopped paying attention to what NPD said completely about 4 months ago) because the reports were becoming increasingly useless.

Given the site's content I can see how you would find real facts increasingly useless.

 

[Boney]

Gamasutra has access to numbers. So JVM's reports will get more clicks

But how open can they be?

 

[entremet]

This really dumb and it shows why video games can never be taken seriously.

Books have the NYTimes Bestsellers and other lists. Movies have Box Office receipts. DVD and the like have their respective lists. LOL @ this industry.

 

[(._.)]

No big deal, members on here and posters across the internet will still manage to pull a few numbers out of their ass when in a heated argument over which console is better.

 

[VGChampion]

Thank god. No one here. Literally no one here should care about sales numbers.

 

[szaromir]

I remember one user whosenick started with b(?) used to leak NPD datalike crazy, we were getting unit and dollar sales of most obscure games out there. Maybe we may come back to those days?

 

[Windom Earle]

Sales-Age is really creepy, but the OPs were always interesting at least.

 

[Pureauthor]

Thank god. No one here. Literally no one here should care about sales numbers.

Several members of the video game industry post here. (Members as in they develop games.)

Should they not care about sales numbers?

 

[entremet]

Thank god. No one here. Literally no one here should care about sales numbers.

Why?

For those who hate NPD threads, why click on the thread? You're not forced to read it or participate in it.

 

[jvm]

Gamasutra has access to numbers. So JVM's reports will get more clicks

This is incorrect. I work from (a) public data (b) comments made by analysts (for example, our good friend Mr. Pachter) and (c) specific data provided to me by NPD upon request, when such requests are fulfilled.

 

[PSGames]

I hate to sound like I'm ranting, but this is just a symptom of the bigger disease of the game industry's immaturity. TV is transparent with numbers. Movies are transparent with numbers. Books are transparent with numbers. Sporting events are transparent with numbers (attendance and PPV). Music is transparent with numbers. That so many companies feel it is in their best interest that as few people as possible know what's actually selling is very telling, particularly in an environment where many have run themselves into the ground (or massive debt) in the last 5 years.

Spoiler

Meh, Gaming-side had a good run, I'll see you guys in the OT.

You hit the nail on the head right here man. It also sucks that this happened right when sales were starting to get interesting with the holiday season and the Kinect launch. Not to mention 3DS and PSP2 coming next year.

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

I wonder who paid NPD to shut up... hmm...

 

[D4Danger]

This should be interesting.

just starting making things up. You have enough credible work behind you that it could take months before people find out. And by the time they do you'll have enough bribe money to retire on.

 

[charlequin]

The only people who have the real numbers are the platform holders and publishers. Everyone else is just using estimates.

The only people who have "real numbers" are no one, because there's no industry-wide tracking apparatus except NPD, whose biggest subscribers for video game sales data are the platform-holders and publishers. If a company reports sold-through numbers in the US, and they're not made up from whole cloth, they're NPD figures.

Every NPD thread ever proves this wrong. The second one of those goes up you see a lineup of gifs and snide comments used only to troll.

NPD threads include such minimal information that there's really very little to talk about except who punk'd who this month. Japanese sales threads are much higher signal-to-noise and the reason is we have enough info to actually meaningfully discuss a relatively broad swathe of the market.

It's ridiculous that this industry, which either has or soon will surpass the movie industry, doesn't have a freely reported sales data.

Yep. Definitely reflects the immaturity of the industry, and the degree to which all the big companies in gaming have to massage their numbers to keep their shareholders from revolting.

Can anyone more knowledgeable than me on the matter (insert eight-bit-dog-on-spotlight-stumpokapow-signal.jpg here) explain why exactly the information is so free and open for films? It's not a matter of competition....

 

[kswiston]

Thank god. No one here. Literally no one here should care about sales numbers.

This is like saying that people should stop caring about sports stats, and just watch the game for the fun of it. For a lot of people stats/sales/whatever are half the fun.

 

[Infinite Justice]

So NPD finally did what i thought they would do.