True Game Sales Numbers

[WhiteKnight77]

Can one really trust game sales numbers from a publisher? Not unless their business model is consignment sales. Each year we see XXX company state they have sold 4,000,000 copies of a game, but think about it, when a retail outlet is delivered a product, it is already paid for or will be paid for within days. Now there are companies who track sales, but are they of retail sales or of publisher sales to the retailer?

Often, many of us buy games, at least PC games, once they hit the bargain bin or have been marked down, but the only one losing any money is the retailer and not the publisher. The publisher has already made their money on the game and not losing anything. In the case of games that are eventually put on Steam, that are "out of date," sure, the publisher is making money on the sale, even 3 years after it was first released and at a deeply discounted price, but they have already made their money on the initial release.

Until there is complete digital distribution by each publishing company and no retail or brick and mortar store or other e-tailer in the picture will anything we do really hurt a publishers bottom line.

Thoughts?

[Hammer]

Thats a good point you raise But i would point out the decline of retailers that actual still sell PC titles,at least here in the UK. 4 years ago i could go to 1 of a dozen places to buy PC games, tesco, asda, comet and a few toy shops. They all carried at least the top ten titles with some alot more. Now its down to about 3 in my area PC word (were you pay top price). Game, were they only keep 2 copys of the top ten, if your lucky enough to find them hiden away in the corner under the dust. and Tesco who keep a shelf for the top ten games, i say shelf! because i dont think i have ever seen it full !!

But i see were your coming from

[krise madsen]

All major retailers have buy-back clauses, so they only pay for the copies they actually sell. The retailers have usually paid very little for the games you find in the bargain bin.

Publishers usually talk about the number of copies shipped rather than actually sold. These figures tend to be a bit inflated for PR purposes though they do give an indication of the popularity of a particular game.

[WhiteKnight77]

Krise, some at Ubi claim it is actual copies of a game sold, not shipped, case in point: One Million Copies of Far Cry 2 Sold in Less Than Three Weeks.

Publishers want their bottom lines to look and padding sales numbers is one way to do it, but when one really looks at it, sales numbers given by publishers are not accurate. With buy back clauses, publishers do not even tell us how many were returned from retailers as they do not want to embarrass themselves with the numbers returned. The gaming press would rake them over the coals. Maybe they should release those numbers.

[Serellan]

Krise, some at Ubi claim it is actual copies of a game sold, not shipped, case in point: One Million Copies of Far Cry 2 Sold in Less Than Three Weeks.

Publishers want their bottom lines to look and padding sales numbers is one way to do it, but when one really looks at it, sales numbers given by publishers are not accurate. With buy back clauses, publishers do not even tell us how many were returned from retailers as they do not want to embarrass themselves with the numbers returned. The gaming press would rake them over the coals. Maybe they should release those numbers.

Just subscribe to NPD and you can get the numbers.

[WhiteKnight77]

Are those numbers from retailers or the padded numbers from the publishers is the question.

[Serellan]

Are those numbers from retailers or the padded numbers from the publishers is the question.

http://www.npd.com/corpServlet?nextpage=en...tegories_s.html

[WhiteKnight77]

Thank you Serellan.