Topic: Why do people care about numbers? (Sales Forecast)

I cannot control sports, geopolitics, music, movies or religion. I just go with the flow and don't discuss these matters at all.

Just because you can't control something doesn't mean you shouldn't concern yourself with those things.

I care because I like Nintendo and want them to remain a viable company.

I also care if a game I like sells well so that the people who made it can go on and create more games that I'll hopefully like. If they don't sell well, then more games won't be made.

It's not hard to understand.

yeah, that sums it up, combined with a desire to see my tastes and popularity actually match up in some way sometimes (which hasn't happened much lately, barring the unexpected return of success JRPGs are getting).

I think there's nothing that annoys me more than when I like a thing a lot and it would fit perfectly and make complete sense to be a success, but then kinda isn't for no logical reason.

Because sales affect the games put out. If a game sells poorly, it's unlikely to get a sequel, and the developer might even get laid off. A consoles sales affects how many games it gets, a console selling really well has more people to sell to, but if a console sells poorly, it won't get as many games. It lets you see the gears behind "all that matters."

If it was 2008, this forum would be akin to "the Wii is dominating over Sony + Microsoft in sales, DS kills portable sales, Nintendo is golden, etc. etc."

Now in 2014, if you talk about sales or how a said system / game is doing on the market, "your so shallow, best go off and play COD ignorant fanboy, annoying arse, etc. etc."

If you are referring to "people" as non businessman, than it's to use as debate on whether a game or system is good or not. Some times people justify a purchase based on how many other people brought the game instead of seeing if the game is right for them personally. Other times it's to brag and argue, ex. PS4 is better than the Wii U because it sold more systems and it arrive a year later.

If only these numbers were a mystery like eshop digital sales.

I'm just astounded at how dumb people seem to be. The PS4's library of exclusives is very lacking, but they still outsell the competition! What happened?!

@ryanator008 The entire reason why the PS4 sold so well is because of excellent marketing. Sony convinced the average consumer that the PS4 will give them the best gaming experience and it worked.

I've had my PS4 for almost 2 weeks now and I must say, it's definitely a nice piece of hardware but the software really is extremely lacking. But hey, DriveClub is coming in a few days and Call of Duty Advanced Warfare is just around the corner!

I really find it weird when people compare the Wii U and the PS4 because from my own experience they are totally different. The only similarities between them is that they are both 8th gen consoles.

Wow, that just gave me a great idea. What if we had an ongoing "Fantasy Console Wars" going in the General Discussion forum? You could draft a "team" of games and consoles and get points for scores and regional sales.

Someone make this happen, please.

It depends. It hasn't even been much of a discussion until the Wii U came out, and possibly when GCN and Xbox were doing not so great compared to PS2. It's part of following a company you care about.

Most of the sales discussion comes from when a company is in a tough situation or a really good situation. In Wii U's case, people thought Nintendo was going bankrupt without any research and mostly opinion based responses. That triggered people to actually go out and find the real information.

I don't care about sales, per se, because I figure whatever sales were had were deserved. That's why Nintendo still made money on GCN for the most part, because they were still making enough money to survive, and someone who likes Nintendo doesn't want them to just stop making games, because of finances. We're just lucky that Nintendo knows how to manage their company very well, because then sales would actually matter more than what people make them out to be.

Sony has sold 10 million consoles and still isn't making money, so that automatically tells us that the sales issue isn't really worth talking about.

Sport is a different term and topic, I'm taking about "Videogame", not Sports

Your right on the part of Wii U, actually when people heard that Bayonetta was released and it didn't do good in sales people were crying that the game should of been on PS4 and Xbox one and the list goes on..

You could have Nintendo sit on sideline cause Nintendo is the Waterboy and PS4 and Xbox are the one that are versus & PC is the crowd. lol

Yeah and they say that PS4 is the Glory of videogames. Its funny on how last gen was Xbox 360 and this gen is Playstation 4. But next gen its going to be Nintendo cause I sure do hope. Nintendo learns its lesson this time around.

You sir just won the internet!!

See everyone knows that but still people over abuse it to the extreme.

People care about numbers in every entertainment sector, be it sports, box office, music albums, etc.

I only care to the extent that when something sells well there's more chance I'll get more of it. For example we know that Metroid doesn't move as many units as Mario or Zelda does, that's likely one of the main reasons why we don't see as much from Metroid as we do other big Nintendo games. A similar thing is true for music, I don't care how popular or not the music I like is. However if it's not popular there's a higher chance that they'll stop making music and we'll never hear another band making chiptune shoegaze...

The difference is with sport having your team win is the primary way of enjoying it. You're only really watching the game because you hope that the team you support will win or at least perform well if it's a bad year. With games the reason you play them is to enjoy them in their own right. The main reason you're keeping an eye on gaming news is in the hopes that something cool will be announced or speculated about. For games "company performance" is a sideshow, for sport it's the only reason you watch it.

And if people are only interested in performance of a game when they're reading gaming news? Well I think they've missed the point. I care about how well something I like sells because I want to see more of it. However I care a hell of a lot more about whether or not it's good.