Announcement

**DanQ** · January 25, 2001, 21:23

Sorry Steve, no I don't know the answer or where to find it.

Suggestions, anyone?

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Dan; Apolyton CS

**CapTVK** · January 28, 2001, 16:18

Market researchers like PCdata might know, but you have to buy a pricey salesreport first. For some reason, actual sales figures are very hush hush.
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by CapTVK (edited January 28, 2001).]</font>

**CapTVK** · January 28, 2001, 17:13

What the hell! I'll give you some inside info how this business works (better pay attention )

What do sales figures mean?

Well, here is a comprehensive breakdown of how these
numbers come to be. We start with a retail outlet, any retail outlet. Based on this stores ability to move merchandise and how quickly, the softwarepublisher and/or distributor will ship x number of units to said store (most work through distributors so'll use that term from now on). Multiply that number by however many stores this distributor supplies and you will get x number of units that this distributor moves at any given time. In order to fulfill its obligation to its retail outlets it must re-order these items to replenish its supply. Also note that publisher also has to pay for shelfspace (this also includes special displays, promotion, placement etc..) in the store (yes, you have to pay to even get your title in the store!). A distributor can supply several stores within a certain region but there could also be a different distributors in other regions who also ship those units. If the game is a smash hit these distributor report to the Parent Company what they have shipped so that the software publisher
can decide based on current sales and projected sales how many copies to order to redistribute to their regional distributors or straight to the larger retailers. All these additional totals must be included. It is this total that is used to actually produce a new batch of copies (can take 4-6 weeks). The total number that is shipped is what you see when sales figures are released by the publisher (sure it's correct!?...:rolleyes)) (or research firm in most cases). What does this actually mean? It means that a sales figure of lets say 185,000 units for Q4 of 2000 still has X number sitting in a warehouse someplace, X number still at the publishers cdrom factory waiting to be shipped and X number sitting in a display at some store. Once the stores move the items off the shelves the process starts all over again. How many were actually sold to customers is anybody's guess (This information is very valuable for marketing types). The best guide as to how many and of what was sold per quarter is to wait until the next sales figures come out and compare the two. If there is an increase over the previous sales figures then they did indeed sell as many as reported. Stores like to keep a hot item available for as long as they can to increase sales. If however the new report shows a decline in sales then not as many units were sold as reported and the stores still have merchandise left over that they want to get rid of before they place orders for more. For large shipments the software publishers will usually give a refund (sometimes full, sometimes not) otherwise it's the bargain bin. But this means that sales figures for low selling titles will essentially be flawed. So all of the Q4 2000 sales figures that have been posted only represent what has been shipped and is not an accurate figure of units that have been
bought.

Note: this system only works for the larger software publishers. If you're an indie, you'll never reach the shelf on your own, you're screwed!

phew, that's about it...

I'm not even bothering to find the typos anymore
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by CapTVK (edited January 28, 2001).]</font>

Announcement

Sales Data for Civ2-Mac original and/or MPG

Sales Data for Civ2-Mac original and/or MPG

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