The latest industry figures show why video game companies are the worst sources of their sales info.

An industry analyst, in chiding me for using information from a competitor, once told me to use figures from the video-game companies if his firm couldn’t provide the data. I laughed in reply. Here’s why.

Consider the NPD Group’s February video-game sales report, which was released Thursday night. Overall, the report shows that, after adjusting for an extra reporting week, 2008 sales so far are up 26 percent over last year. It also shows these hardware stats:

• Nintendo had the two top-selling systems, the DS (587,600 units) and the Wii (432,ooo).
• The PlayStation 3 (280,800) outsold the Xbox 360 (254,600).
• The PlayStation 2 was actually No. 3 with 351,800 units, outselling both the PS3 and 360.
• The PSP was last with 243,100 units sold.

But then here come the press releases from the companies involved. Nintendo correctly touts that it had the top two systems, whose combined sales were nearly half of all hardware sold. Microsoft blames a “supply constrained situation” for its unmentioned poor showing, as it points out that 360 sales took in more money than the PS3 or the Wii — ignoring the more telling unit sales and the total trouncing by the PS2. It cites the PS3’s and lower-priced Wii’s monetary sales, but it lists only the 360’s unit sales — rounding up to 255,000 – when talking about that aspect of the report.

Things were much better on the software side for Microsoft, where the 360 had five of the Top 10 games, including the No. 1 seller, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Neverthless, Microsoft distorts things in its press release by claiming that it had “six out of the top 10 best selling console games.” The catch? The No. 6 game, Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games, was for the portable Nintendo DS, not a console system. The next console game outside the Top 10 (not listed in my NPD data) must be a 360 game. Sneaky!

But then Nintendo does something similar in its press release: “Three games in the top five sellers for February play on Nintendo systems, including two from third-party publishers.” Nintendo actually only has two games for its systems among the Top 5, Wii Play and Guitar Hero for the Wii. But even though the top seller, Call of Duty 4, was No. 1 in its 360 version, that game also is available for the Wii — which explains Nintendo’s convoluted wording that some could infer to mean something different. Double sneaky!

I don’t have a problem with Sony’s interpretation of the NPD sales data, because it rarely sends me press releases as soon as the figures are released, nor does it post anything on its press site. Would you tout that your old console consistently outsells its new replacement?

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 9:17 am and is filed under Video games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.