Hypothetical:
Guy has a small, constant amount of disposable income: enough for, say, 2 games a month. Every month he buys those two games, based on games that he has downloaded and enjoyed. In addition to these games, he downloads other games that he did not enjoy as much, and thus did not spend his small, constant income on.
Are the companies still losing sales because of his downloading?
Yes, because they put the games out for people to buy and play. Not just play.
I don't get what we're arguing. It's stealing. It's plain, and it's simple. It's stealing.
How is his downloading games that he wouldn't be able to afford either way causing the company to lose sales? Forget the morality argument for a second. If Guy wouldn't pay for these games in any situation, how is his pirating of them causing the studios to lose potential profit?
Here's an easy way to tell whether something is right or not.
Examine what you (or your friend) is doing. In this case, that is downloading games, playing them to completion, and not paying for them. The situation is worsened if his income is limited to the point that he can't purchase every game he liked after completing it.
Now, imagine if every other person in the world operated in the same way. If everybody pirates games then we all lose because development houses start closing down, big studios introduce more and more invasive anti-piracy measures, and we get less innovation because, well, if we take a risk people might not like it and pay for it after pirating it. I mean, we know they like replaying WWII, right?
Wait, you mean people actually still believe VGCharts? I thought that was quoted as an inaccurate source a long time ago?
Anyway, PSP sales overall in US aren't really bad, but if the figures from the past few months are any indication, it's not doing so hot at thi particular time. At least, not nearly as hot as the DS software is moving.
Don't they get their US figures straight from the NPD? If so, it's about as accurate as you're going to get. I'm not sure how their Japanese figures are though, from what I understand Media Create only show the top 30 selling games each week (which leaves a lot of room for other titles below that).
As for last month, look at the full figures again. While the DS has a few games in the top 10, the PSP has a lot of titles in the mid-range which end up boosting its numbers a lot.
Edit: In an interview with mtv, Phil Harrison had this to say about the PSP:
Our achievement has been to deliver console-quality gaming in the palm of your hand. But that could also be considered a missed opportunity — that we have yet to really deliver PSP games that speak with their own voice and stand for what the machine can do on its own. There are, however, some great indications of that coming through. Have you seen the latest Metal Gear Solid game?
I suppose since there's no 'arrogance' in that, it'll be ignored? Or will it turn out to be "he thinks Portable Ops is a great game?! The arrogance!" ?
Actually, you'll find that PSP software sales aren't that bad in the US and Europe. It's Japan where they sell really badly (I believe Monster Hunter and MGS:PO are the only PSP games to sell a pretty good amount). If you have a look at vgcharts.org, you'll find that while the PSP doesn't have many huge selling games (like Nintendogs or Animal Crossing), it has a lot of decent selling games.
Can anyone actually find data on the total shipped software units for the PSP since launch?
Last month, Nintendo announced that they had sold 26.8 million DS units and 103.6 million software units, so we can be pretty confident that the worldwide sales ratio for the DS is around 4:1.
But I can't find any information on total PSP software sales. I'd be surprised if it was lower than 3:1, but can anyone actually find this info?
I'm pretty sure this is wrong. According to Bloomberg Nintendo is expecting to sell 26 million DS's in this fiscal year alone. I'd expect that all time sales are much higher.
Nope. There have been no changes at all. I got with eToychest's editor last night and massaged out a few of the grammatical errors that had worked their way in as well as fixing the comment about progressive scan, but those changes haven't been posted yet (no surprise, those poor guys keep extremely busy).
As for PSP sales, software sales were incredibly front-loaded. The PSP's launch lineup kicked ass, and initial sales showed that. But since then, numbers have been pretty uninspiring. As my editorial mentioned, GTA LCS sold 125,000 copies in November. That's good enough for 23rd on the sales charts and number 1 on the PSP charts, and it came out at the very beginning of November, so it had an entire month to pull those numbers in. There's no other PSP title in the top 50. Madden 07 is next at 54. The DS has 12 of the titles in the top 50 and 2 in the top 10. And of course its worth noting that with backwards compatibility, its likely that quite a few GBA games are being played on the DS as well. The GBA I might add has 1 top 10 game and 10 of the top 50, giving Nintendo handhelds 30% of the top 10 games and 44% of the top 50. Going back further, NCAA Football 07 sold 300,000 copies its debut month between the 360, PS2, and Xbox versions. 48,000 on the PSP. That's why I put such a heavy emphasis on trends. The PSP launched with massive hype, and even though the initials shipment of 1,000,000 didn't sell out before follow-up shipments hit (I don't think there's ever been a PSP shortage), early on the system did great. It had a fantastic launch lineup, and sales reflected that. Since then, despite a steady stream of good-to-great games, the trends have been flat in the US and downward in Japan. Total cumulative sales don't show that, because the PSP was so heavily front-loaded. Conversely, the DS got off to a fast start in terms of hardware sales with a pitiful attach ratio (<1 in its first month, guess people found that Metroid Prime Hunters demo pretty compelling), and was in a decline until the DS Lite hit, and then it hasn't looked back sense. The DS has been incredibly BACK loaded, so while the cumulative sales make things look relatively close, the trends are in exactly opposite directions.
Wait, you mean people actually still believe VGCharts? I thought that was quoted as an inaccurate source a long time ago?
Anyway, PSP sales overall in US aren't really bad, but if the figures from the past few months are any indication, it's not doing so hot at thi particular time. At least, not nearly as hot as the DS software is moving.
Don't they get their US figures straight from the NPD? If so, it's about as accurate as you're going to get. I'm not sure how their Japanese figures are though, from what I understand Media Create only show the top 30 selling games each week (which leaves a lot of room for other titles below that).
As for last month, look at the full figures again. While the DS has a few games in the top 10, the PSP has a lot of titles in the mid-range which end up boosting its numbers a lot.
Welcome to VG Charts
VG Charts is the premier source for videogame sales charts on the Internet.
Despite this, the data on VG Charts is unofficial and in some cases incomplete. How can it be the premier source on the Internet then?
Well, videogame sales data is a very difficult commodity to come by. Each territory has different systems by which data is collected and this data is often in conflict with data released directly from game publishers themselves. Attempting to assemble all these scraps of information has been a mine field that has, until today, been avoided.
VG Charts is the first internet website to attempt to, as meticulously and accurately as possible, collect together in one place all the available videogame sales data from across the world and provide users with a one-stop location from which to find out how there favourite game is performing, gain a better understanding of the market as a whole and compare the performance of different games.
A number of different sources and methods are used to produce the data on VG Charts.
From where does the data come?
VG Charts uses a proprietary system to produce our data which takes into account data from a number of sources - our own internal tracking, public tracking data, publisher information, analyst data, historic trend fitting and a little bit of insight and interpolation. You can rest assured that the data found on vgcharts is as accurate and up to date as possible.
I don't know, sounds to me like their 'data' is mostly a bunch of guesses mixed in with some educated estimates. Certainly not an accurate source if that's what you're looking for...
I don't know, sounds to me like their 'data' is mostly a bunch of guesses mixed in with some educated estimates. Certainly not an accurate source if that's what you're looking for...
The Japanese information comes from Media Create, a tracking company which releases weekly data. We can expect those numbers, at least, to be accurate, but as mentioned, doesn't include all titles (however, if memory serves, they typically release an end-of-year chart with everything). As far as I was aware, the American data came from NPD, which - while useful, is relatively inaccurate as it also doesn't give all software numbers and what numbers are released publicly are rounded (as they've been cracking down on said leaks since they want a crapload of cash from people to get to see their numbers. Hence, the people who leak them round them, as there are minor discrepancies purposely injected into the numbers to track who is doing the releasing).
As for the numbers for anywhere else, I have no idea where they pull it from. But the rule of thumb I use there is that the hardware numbers are pretty close to accurate, the software numbers I wouldn't expect to be.
And the one which you're thinking of which has been generally discredited is http://nexgenwars.com/
I thought Sony released the number of units shipped, not sold.
To the general public via future sales estimates and celebratory press releases. I think NPD is able to wrangle the actual sales data, so the numbers do get out there. Eventually.
I don't know, sounds to me like their 'data' is mostly a bunch of guesses mixed in with some educated estimates. Certainly not an accurate source if that's what you're looking for...
The Japanese information comes from Media Create, a tracking company which releases weekly data. We can expect those numbers, at least, to be accurate, but as mentioned, doesn't include all titles (however, if memory serves, they typically release an end-of-year chart with everything). As far as I was aware, the American data came from NPD, which - while useful, is relatively inaccurate as it also doesn't give all software numbers and what numbers are released publicly are rounded (as they've been cracking down on said leaks since they want a crapload of cash from people to get to see their numbers. Hence, the people who leak them round them, as there are minor discrepancies purposely injected into the numbers to track who is doing the releasing).
As for the numbers for anywhere else, I have no idea where they pull it from. But the rule of thumb I use there is that the hardware numbers are pretty close to accurate, the software numbers I wouldn't expect to be.
And the one which you're thinking of which has been generally discredited is http://nexgenwars.com/
They could not have gotten their data directly from NPD because NPD data is closed data. If VGCharts was indeed getting its US info from NPD and decided to share it with the general public, I'd expect NPD to shut it down rather swiftly. After all, NPD finally got around to stopping leaks of its data from GAF, electing instead to provide certain data directly.
Still, VGCharts does seem to at least try with their data. However, I wouldn't use it as a source in any real argument, as the numbers seem way too guesstimated to me.
I'm pretty sure this is wrong. According to Bloomberg Nintendo is expecting to sell 26 million DS's in this fiscal year alone. I'd expect that all time sales are much higher.
They are quoted directly from a press release that Nintendo made on December 1 (but which is no longer available on their press site). I doubt they would intentionally understate their figures, but it is possible that they just used old ones for some reason.
Posts
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1545619/index.jhtml?source=TLD_multiplayer.mtv.com
Wii U - 'Nocero'
XBox ID - therealmasume
PS4 ID - realmasume
Here's an easy way to tell whether something is right or not.
Examine what you (or your friend) is doing. In this case, that is downloading games, playing them to completion, and not paying for them. The situation is worsened if his income is limited to the point that he can't purchase every game he liked after completing it.
Now, imagine if every other person in the world operated in the same way. If everybody pirates games then we all lose because development houses start closing down, big studios introduce more and more invasive anti-piracy measures, and we get less innovation because, well, if we take a risk people might not like it and pay for it after pirating it. I mean, we know they like replaying WWII, right?
As for last month, look at the full figures again. While the DS has a few games in the top 10, the PSP has a lot of titles in the mid-range which end up boosting its numbers a lot.
Edit: In an interview with mtv, Phil Harrison had this to say about the PSP:
I suppose since there's no 'arrogance' in that, it'll be ignored? Or will it turn out to be "he thinks Portable Ops is a great game?! The arrogance!" ?
As for PSP sales, software sales were incredibly front-loaded. The PSP's launch lineup kicked ass, and initial sales showed that. But since then, numbers have been pretty uninspiring. As my editorial mentioned, GTA LCS sold 125,000 copies in November. That's good enough for 23rd on the sales charts and number 1 on the PSP charts, and it came out at the very beginning of November, so it had an entire month to pull those numbers in. There's no other PSP title in the top 50. Madden 07 is next at 54. The DS has 12 of the titles in the top 50 and 2 in the top 10. And of course its worth noting that with backwards compatibility, its likely that quite a few GBA games are being played on the DS as well. The GBA I might add has 1 top 10 game and 10 of the top 50, giving Nintendo handhelds 30% of the top 10 games and 44% of the top 50. Going back further, NCAA Football 07 sold 300,000 copies its debut month between the 360, PS2, and Xbox versions. 48,000 on the PSP. That's why I put such a heavy emphasis on trends. The PSP launched with massive hype, and even though the initials shipment of 1,000,000 didn't sell out before follow-up shipments hit (I don't think there's ever been a PSP shortage), early on the system did great. It had a fantastic launch lineup, and sales reflected that. Since then, despite a steady stream of good-to-great games, the trends have been flat in the US and downward in Japan. Total cumulative sales don't show that, because the PSP was so heavily front-loaded. Conversely, the DS got off to a fast start in terms of hardware sales with a pitiful attach ratio (<1 in its first month, guess people found that Metroid Prime Hunters demo pretty compelling), and was in a decline until the DS Lite hit, and then it hasn't looked back sense. The DS has been incredibly BACK loaded, so while the cumulative sales make things look relatively close, the trends are in exactly opposite directions.
I don't know, sounds to me like their 'data' is mostly a bunch of guesses mixed in with some educated estimates. Certainly not an accurate source if that's what you're looking for...
The Japanese information comes from Media Create, a tracking company which releases weekly data. We can expect those numbers, at least, to be accurate, but as mentioned, doesn't include all titles (however, if memory serves, they typically release an end-of-year chart with everything). As far as I was aware, the American data came from NPD, which - while useful, is relatively inaccurate as it also doesn't give all software numbers and what numbers are released publicly are rounded (as they've been cracking down on said leaks since they want a crapload of cash from people to get to see their numbers. Hence, the people who leak them round them, as there are minor discrepancies purposely injected into the numbers to track who is doing the releasing).
As for the numbers for anywhere else, I have no idea where they pull it from. But the rule of thumb I use there is that the hardware numbers are pretty close to accurate, the software numbers I wouldn't expect to be.
And the one which you're thinking of which has been generally discredited is http://nexgenwars.com/
3DS: 1521-4165-5907
PS3: KayleSolo
Live: Kayle Solo
WiiU: KayleSolo
To the general public via future sales estimates and celebratory press releases. I think NPD is able to wrangle the actual sales data, so the numbers do get out there. Eventually.
They could not have gotten their data directly from NPD because NPD data is closed data. If VGCharts was indeed getting its US info from NPD and decided to share it with the general public, I'd expect NPD to shut it down rather swiftly. After all, NPD finally got around to stopping leaks of its data from GAF, electing instead to provide certain data directly.
Still, VGCharts does seem to at least try with their data. However, I wouldn't use it as a source in any real argument, as the numbers seem way too guesstimated to me.
The numbers are at N-Sider:
http://www.n-sider.com/newsview.php?type=story&storyid=2543
They are quoted directly from a press release that Nintendo made on December 1 (but which is no longer available on their press site). I doubt they would intentionally understate their figures, but it is possible that they just used old ones for some reason.