The Truth About Nexgenwars.com

A video feature that claims to bring light to why Nexgenwars.com is not necessarily the best place to get sales numbers.

[TheMART]

Uhm... Everybody knew this already, right? He takes salesdata that is known the latest and calculates how much are then sold every second.

He lets the time run and calculate the extra sales with it, untill the time that the latest sale data is out again.

Obviously NO ONE can show realtime sales. Not even VGA Charts.

BUT this guy has tuned down the numbers also. He did it with the 360, which he first had scaled to high. But still. If he calculates back to a second from sales data known, I don't see the problem. Yep it won't be completely accurate, but on the other hand it's the closest you get probably.

Because 600k PS3's sold in Europe. Says who? Sony? Analysts? real number?

Take that in mind

[Blasphemy]

you believe this guy over the bbc LOL! the guy uses a auto counter for gods sake LOL!!!

[SmokeyMcBear]

ahahahahahahaha.. wait..wait..hahahaha..oh man.. classic.

[DJ]

Yup, it's all about VG Charts.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

10/9, reasons, one opinion and a reminder why your sales numbers websites are not to be trusted.

1. Notice there is no contact information available other than an e-mail, I mean if these numbers were official there would be legal information so not to be sued by mega corporations
2. Why do these number sites have discussion forums? And why do these sites lead to advertisements? Wouldn’t these “official legal serious business’s” that provide people with “supposedly” accurate information be unbiased, considering it would benefit all business?
3. Why no information boasting about how accurate there information is? Wouldn’t they want to advertise there accuracy so there “competitor” wouldn’t take there jobs?
4. Why does the site “page layout” look as if it were made on myspace? If it where so important to have such numbers you would think there page would look like something not made by a child.
5. Provide some reliable links and why do the links they do have lead to fanboys?
6. Uh why do PS3, Wii and 360 fans post the one that makes them look good but disapprove of the other?
7. These are used as a sort of recruitment tool for some members, they use it on noobs to score more fans.
8. The best why to track these numbers is wait for the “Company making the product” to release official numbers and subtract a bit for hype (be honest about subtracting don’t be liars, lies hurt everyone) You see unlike us gaming addicts it would hurt them if they were to break international business laws for lying to much to its costumers (fans)
9. If there are people putting up numbers this accurately, then why do they not advertising there genius to world and predict business sales of more then just gaming? And I would love to take these guys to Vegas and ask them to run my company.
10. The PS3 fanboys site of choice makes me laugh the most, it reminds me of when someone erases letters from a sign for form a dirty word or when they write bad sh*t about people on the bathroom walls. And IMO Its obviously the one with the most jealousy written on its face (There are discussion forums where fanboys argue).
One more W?TF is there spyware and ads on these sites?

To the guy below me that last one is the fanyboy in me rubbing it in. If you have a hard time with that seek help or medication.

[fenderputty]

Everything sounded good until your last commment. Then you just sounded like and idiot.

[Torch]

primarily because the graphs were completely disproportionate to the sales figures.

For example, numerically, the 360 had significantly less than fifty percent of the sum of all three console sales. Yet, the graph portrayed respective 360 sales as hovering above around seventy to eighty percent of total sales for the longest time. So there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that SOMETHING was inaccurate about that site, bogus or not.

I noticed today that they uh, "enhanced" the site by adding dynamic number changes, a line graph, and an ever-so-soothing baby-blue background. The graph representations appear to have been corrected (rounded up to the tenth):

Current graphical proportions:
360: 56.1%
PS3: 14.7%
Wii: 30.3%

These are the current numerical representations:
360: 55.44%
PS3: 14.25%
Wii: 30.30%

I still think the site's bogus, though.

[kewlkat007]

you really can't be exact on the DOT, not even that VGcharts site is and his website seem to be somewhat accurate. Maybe that code does a good job of what its suppose to do. you can't argue the numbers, it's not like they are off by so much millions...

[Black Republican]

the truth is
that only microsoft, sony, and nintendo know how they are doing.
Yes we can learn or be provided certain numbers each month or weekly.

BUT

when it comes down to it only Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo really know how all of their numbers are, and of course all of them have ppl crunching down the numbers very frequently.

[Bigmac573]

www.vgcharts.org

[fenderputty]

VGcharts is more forgiving but, what makes it more accurate? What methods does VG use that this sie doesn't?

[TheMART]

Indeed. Has VGA charts a calculating employee in every shop that sells a console to count the number of persons walking out with it?

haha DJ again also in defense of VGA. Why? Because the 360 is stated for less sold there and the PS3 more.

That's the Sony's fanboys only defense.

Too bad dudes, VGA is just as good/bad as nexgenwars.com

[techie]

vgcharts lists their information from NPD, Chart track, Media chart...and then adds them when they arrive, rather than uploading a bigger number every hour. Plus it cites its sources rather than a random site with numbers. There must be other sites right? If not vgcharts is the best to be offered. I prefer to use vgcharts as a reference for the listed weekly and monthly sales as reported by NPD...it's handy for that.

And themart...what was your defence in aid of? The site that underestimates ps3 sales? Hmm...surely not.

[TylerDurden]

A couple of weeks ago when there was an NPD article about the PS3 having a 3.4 attach rate, I posed basically the same question. Vgcharts had at the time 2 million PS3's sold and 3.4 games sold for an attach rate of 1.7. I asked who to trust and the response was NPD is more accurate and that vgcharts was way off. Although the Feb NPD numbers aligned closely to the vgcharts numbers in terms of game sold, so at least they appeared to be accurate in that sense.

I have noticed that the nexgenwars site will at times correct their numbers. For example when MS or NPD announced 10.4 million sold/shipped at the end of Dec nexgen subtracted about 400K consoles from the xbox total to line up with what the MS/NPD announcement was.

Personally I like the vgcharts site since it does a breakdown of the top 50 games for the month.

[fenderputty]

See ... I go to VG and click on the, "where do the #'s come from" link. It takes me to a page that's rather unclear. They claim accuracy but, I don't see any siting of sources either. Am I wrong?

@ Mart ... I love Sony. I think you know that. The only reason I asked about VG's accuracy is to point out that, most likely, neither site is accurate. Both sites tend to be used by their respective fanboys.

@tylor ... I also noticed a rather accurate jump in the numbers right after the EU launch. I don't know ... I just don't trust information that isn't sited.

[HokieFan]

First let met say that I'm not trying to defend the nexgenwars site, I doubt it is at all accurate. However, the video is not being entirely honest. It says that he sends the current time to the server and gets a response of current sales totals. His sales totals may in fact be based on the current time, but there is no reason to send that to the server...it can determine the time itself.

The method he used (that he stole off Google) is a common practice in web programming. You send a random value through the URL (very often a timestamp) to make routers think that it's a different URL so they don't cache it. That way, the site is always up do date and you don't get outdated information.

Again, the code that the video uses as "evidence" against it is perfectly legitimate and common practice in web development.

This video is as invalid as the site it claims to discredit.

[BIadestarX]

"You send a random value through the URL (very often a timestamp) to make routers think that it's a different URL so they don't cache it" what you are refering to is a technique used to force the [browser] to reload the page intead of using the already stored one. It's usually used for dynamic or server side pages. This is very important specially when using IFrames since there seems to be a bug in some browsers when reloading an Iframe document content. (i.e. if the url is not different the content of the iframe does not get reloaded).

Now, routers can always tell what website is requesting the information by looking at the request ServerVariables specially [REMOTE_HOST] and [REMOTE_HOST] and see what domain (VGcharts) is the traffic comming from. It's very easy to parse the domain and only compare the domain an leave those timestap crap out. I have developed applications and websites and webservices to monitor and restrict access from other sites using my resources. I would like to believe that if I can do it; they can do it.

[HokieFan]

I understand that...I wasn't trying to say that he's using the best programming techniques, or even that they would work. I'm just saying that this is a common technique and doesn't prove that nexgenwars is using the timestamp to update its sales totals.

All I'm trying to say is that the author of this video has no idea why he's using that timestamp...it doesn't PROVE anything. The two arguments in the video are this code and his age. Neither one proves that nexgenwars is inaccurate. As a matter of fact, some of the best programmers out there are teenagers. The guy who cracked DVD encryption was a teenager from Norway.

[BIadestarX]

Got it. It's good to know I am not the only programmer/developer around here. Question what kind of programming do you do (web, database, client/server, etc)? What languages do you use(C,C++,C#,vb.net,Java,etc)?

[HokieFan]

I'm a C++ guy at heart, but there isn't a whole lot of work in that language anymore unless you're at a hardcore software company. I've since moved on to web based database management systems...always in Java. I experimented with ASP.NET (mainly C#), but I work for a small company and it's just too costly. With all the open source software available in Java now, I can do almost anything the client needs for free.

[BIadestarX]

I work in different projects some in Java but most of the using asp.net 2.0 and 1-2 projects in asp.net 2.0 vb.net. .net is a very powerful environments and language independent; makes it easy to manage projects where many developers with their own language preferences.

" With all the open source software available in Java now" you probably already know but microsoft create a few tools for free.

C# Express.
vb.net express.
C++ Express.
Visual Web Developers express.
SQL Server 2005 Express.

visual Web developer even comes with an integrated web server so when developing website you don't have to have a website to test while you work on it.

With these you can pretty much develop any application (for free).
I use Visual Studio Team System which is like $10,000 (I think) but only because the company I work for don't mind paying for it. But any of these tools would do the job. Ofcourse Visual Studio Team System bring a lot more features not only for coding but for developers, architecs, testers, project managers, etc.

[MikeGdaGod]

funny video

[Andronix]

good video.
very interesting.
nexgenwars.com site doesnt have access to figures so is bogus.

[Dusk]

A youtube video claiming whether something is legit or not.

I'm not defending nexgenwars. Actually, neither vgcharts or nexgenwars are all that accurate, since NPD even involves guesswork and it's way more legit than either of those two. There is no real way to know for sure, unless you are MS, Sony, or Nintendo. However, I do find it funny that people think a youtube video is more or less legit than nexgenwars or vgcharts. Or that vgcharts is more or less legit than nexgenwars. Admittedly, vgcharts looks more professional, but looks can be deceiving. In reality, non of it is legit, especially youtube.

[PSN Starfleets]

It's one person's opinion against another.

How old was the person who made that video? Did he just use Windows Movie Maker to get those effects? Lol, you see my point hopefully.

It's all ONE person's opinion against another.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

When will we be done with these freaking sales chart sites? These websites have no credibility what so ever and your number 1 clue should by why PS3 fans follow one while 360 fans follow the other. Two websites that exaggerate sales numbers and are followed by extreme fansboys (myself not included). These are made up numbers all of them, here is an idea how about you trust the companies Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo when they tell you there numbers sold. We are not in the middle of some sort of conspiracy, we are in reality and in reality these two sites are a bunch of f*cking bull sh*t.

Going to post this again, people get a CLUE.

10/9, reasons, one opinion and a reminder why your sales numbers websites are not to be trusted.

1. Notice there is no contact information available other than an e-mail, I mean if these numbers were official there would be legal information so not to be sued by mega corporations
2. Why do these number sites have discussion forums? And why do these sites lead to advertisements? Wouldn’t these “official legal serious business’s” that provide people with “supposedly” accurate information be unbiased, considering it would benefit all business?
3. Why no information boasting about how accurate there information is? Wouldn’t they want to advertise there accuracy so there “competitor” wouldn’t take there jobs?
4. Why does the site “page layout” look as if it were made on myspace? If it where so important to have such numbers you would think there page would look like something not made by a child.
5. Provide some reliable links and why do the links they do have lead to fanboys?
6. Uh why do PS3, Wii and 360 fans post the one that makes them look good but disapprove of the other?
7. These are used as a sort of recruitment tool for some members, they use it on noobs to score more fans.
8. The best why to track these numbers is wait for the “Company making the product” to release official numbers and subtract a bit for hype (be honest about subtracting don’t be liars, lies hurt everyone) You see unlike us gaming addicts it would hurt them if they were to break international business laws for lying to much to its costumers (fans)
9. If there are people putting up numbers this accurately, then why do they not advertising there genius to world and predict business sales of more then just gaming? And I would love to take these guys to Vegas and ask them to run my company.
10. The PS3 fanboys site of choice makes me laugh the most, it reminds me of when someone erases letters from a sign for form a dirty word or when they write bad sh*t about people on the bathroom walls. And IMO Its obviously the one with the most jealousy written on its face (There are discussion forums where fanboys argue).
One more W?TF is there spyware and ads on these sites?

[Dusk]

It's funny that fanboism has spread so much that people take sides on imaginary sales counters because one counter favors one side while the other counter favors the other side. Then they use youtube videos made by anyone with absolutely no confirmation or regulation to justify their initial belief in imaginary sales counters. All of this because of some fictitious belief that these game console manufacturers are either gods or some sort of extended family members. Even more wierd is that gaming, a form of entertainment based on fantasy, (which was the initial hobby before it was morphed into whatever this is) is actually more 'real' than this nonsense.

[Hayabusa 117]

Why should the exact sales number of consoles concern us? So what if the PS3 outsells the 360/vise versa? It doesn't affect what games I play.

[TylerDurden]

I am sure most people here do not give a flip about sales numbers. Some fanboy from another side uses it as an argument, so a fanboy from the other side starts using other sales figures to retaliate. Doubt any of these companies are going the way of the Dreamcast so we shouldn't have to worry about sales. MS is one of the richest companies in the world, they aren't going away. Sony has too much brand recognition and is the 2 time champ, so they aren't going away. Nintendo has always run a profitable gaming business and appear to be gunning for the crown this time. So again they aren't going anywhere.

What other industry do you know of where people justify their purchase and tout sales figures as a way to claim their purchase is superior? The only people who should care about sales totals are employees of MS, Sony, and Nintendo. Right?

[HokieFan]

I just had to say that I love your username...great reference to an awesome movie!

[TylerDurden]

Va Tech in the house. One of my best buds went there. Never forget the game where Vick almost singlehandedly beat FSU in the sugar bowl. Anyways yeah it is a great movie, and one of my favorites. The fact that it didn't sell near as many tickets as Titanic doesn't change the fact that it is still good(way better than titanic in my opinion)and it doesn't change the fact that I am glad I spent money on a movie ticket and DVD.

BTW anyone know when this is getting released on Blu-ray or HDDVD?
C# FTW

[HokieFan]

Yeah, that game was awfully depressing for us...but Vick sure was fun to watch. I was in school there while he was playing, it was an awesome time to be a Hokie Fan!

Fight Club blows Titanic out of the water! (No pun intended) The thoughtful, artsy movies will never do as well as the giant special effects / cheesy love story movies. Too bad. Not that Fight Club did poorly though.

Unfortunately for me as an HD DVD owner, Fight Club is a Fox movie so it would only be released on Blu-ray, but they have said nothing about plans to do so. Too bad, that's one I would double dip on and purchase in HD DVD if they released it.

[kewlkat007]

Whatever Dusk said in his post...11&14

Funk the numbers, since both sites are somewhat close, a Sony fan probably likes VG charts and an Xbox fan probally loves Next-gen wars...so both sites to me are probably not accurate..

BECAUSE The numbers will be skewed by fanboyism as always

Example:
The 2 SITES
Xbox360 9,999,999
Wii 6,666,666
PS3 3,333,333..

With Sony Fanboy GOGGLES on:
Xbox360 9,999,998
Wii 6,666,666
PS3 3,333,334..

With MS Fanboy GOGGLES on:
Xbox360 10,000,000
Wii 6,666,666
PS3 3,333,332..

With Nintendo Fanboy GOGGLES on:
Xbox360 9,999,999
Wii 9,000,000(ya know that might actually be correct soon)
PS3 3,333,333..

I know it's that petty but it's true..ya get the point

[SmokeyMcBear]

actually, i think the differences are closer to a million off, with the million being in favor of the cosole each particular site favors. But to be really hones, it doesnt even matter. This is less than 6 months after a particular system launched, and even when you look at the big picture, these number have no comparison to over 110 million units the ps2 has under stock. So lets say last gen sold around 180 million units ( ps2 - 120, xbox 30, gamecube, 30, i really have no idea what the real numbers so bear with me). So potentially there are 180 million customers out there that could be customers of the next get in gaming. Its the race to 180 million, and lest say a winners share would be 40 percent of the pie, thats 72 million units to be considered the "winner", we are just at the beginning of this, and these numbers don't mean anything, get off the charts and get gaming.

[ASSASSYN 36o]

Im never using that site again. nextgenwars.com just got pwned.

[Blasphemy]

on their site in their forums section nextgenwars actually admits they use microsft's and nintendo's shipped to retailers numbers but only use sony's sold to CONSUMERS numbers. nextgenwars is a joke.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

There all jokes.

[Blasphemy]

If anyone can show more accurate data then prove this link. wrong. This link proves vgcharts is very accurate.

http://www.gamespot.com/pag...

[FirstknighT]

It's funny how people discredit nexgenwars.com but they believe the person who made this cheap video. HAHA, you sony boys are to much!

[00]

You want the truth?...well you can't handle the turth! just kidding but this is a great day for gameing.

[kamakazi]

i cant believe most of you are caught up in who is seeling more. you have your systems of choice now play them, all i know is SONY MS and NINTENDO each had a purchase from me and thats all that matters. you guys cant seriously be stressing over who is still selling more. enjoy your games guys and quit B!TCH!NG over sales figures, unless you have stock in one of the three or all.....back to guitar hero 2.

[ITR]

Both Target and Wal-Mart both do this and I'm sure so does any other big outfit.

Target's Electronics Games Report:
All sales per week of Wii's, PS3's, and 360's are shown in Sales Reports in an online app. called Work Bench.
Any manager at Target can get this info.
It shows your sales and if you sold accesorries with it or not. It also shows game sales.
Besides showing sales for your store and your state's district sales, it also shows what Target did as a whole for that time frame.

So one would only need contacts in all major chain stores to get this info.

[kornbeaner]

Become a member of the NPD if you really want accurate sales numbers.

Yeah you have to pay, but just like everything else in this world you get what you pay for.

[Spartan15]

I always used nexgenwars.com as like a basic not truthful, just to see where an estimate about the console sales at a certain point. I never took tit too seriously.

[quen_gta2]

I don't know the exact numbers from last gen, but the PS2 sold roughly 3 times more consoles than Xbox and Gamecube. That didn't put an end to either company it only made them come out with better products next gen. So everyone needs to quit trying to figure out who is going to win the next-gen war, because win or lose I don't see none of the console makers pulling a Sega anytime soon.

[Clinton514]

"but but..." I'm sure many told you all that it wasn't accurate now do you see?