Excuse Our Mess: Feedback At Work

If you've been logging in tonight, you've probably noticed some stuff out of place here and there. What you're seeing is your feedback hard at work. The majority of comments that I've been getting (besides "are you getting paid for this, loser?"), are about the size of the thumbnails in the main body of the blog.

I have widened the main body to better accommodate bigger pre-clicked charts so they are more legible before expanding. Obviously, the charts posted before this fix will look a little funny and out of place. I'll have to deal with that.

We're doing everything we can to make your experience here as informative and enjoyable as possible. As always, please give us feedback about how we can improve your experience by either leaving direct comments on the posts themselves or by emailing us at lotuscharts@gmail.com.

Thank you,
PL

NPD July 2008 Results: Charts

Analysis & Opinion:
[ ] If I was in the board room over at the 360 offices, I would be concerned. I would show my superiors the LTD chart but I'm afraid they'd look at the Market Share Line chart. Going 1-for-1 with the PS3 since Christmas simply isn't good enough, especially after the failure of HDDVD. I also wouldn't hang my hat on the hope that BRD never truly takes over.

• The 360 has lost around 1% market share per month since August 2007 (-12.5%).
• The PS3 has gained around 4% since last August 2007.
• The Wii has gained around 9% since last August 2007.

[ ] The 5 million unit lead the 360 currently has over the PS3 looks secure for now, but only because the PS3 is only just meeting or barely beating the 360 since Christmas. If this continues after targeted prices drops and the announcement of FFXIII, I would have contingency plans in place.

[ ] If I was a 3rd party selling games in the US territory, I would look at that Next-Gen Lead chart for a long time. I see 4.4 million reasons with a known core audience to target, assuming that my artistic desires would lead me to make hardcore games.

[ ] If I was Nintendo, I would be doing everything in my power to point at that LTD chart that is pointing straight upwards and compare it to the PS2 LTD line (anybody got one handy?). I would point to the money they made on the PS2, and I would smile and then point out the numbers on Nintendo's core games and how they sold here in the States.

I would say something along the lines of "The Wii will sell more consoles than any machine in history, and it will combine the core gamer audience of the PS2 with the casual audience of the PC. You will make much money."

Chart Notes:
[ ] Specific numbers removed from certain charts to observe privacy rules.

[ ] Not sure why I left the PS2 out of the total pie chart. I've never tracked PS2 sales, but at 155k, it's almost hitting 360 numbers. (STILL).

[ ] I think my NPD charts leave a little to be desired honestly; but I also think that's a direct result of the lack of specific numbers being released (leaked) any more. It certainly limits what I could ever do with software barring the occasional press release. I will be reworking my NPD charts to more closely resemble my MC charts. Logos, legends in the pie charts, etc.

[ ] I'm definitely aware of the glaring lack of handheld charts in relation to the NPD. I'm currently trying to secure the numbers since their respective launches to do so properly.

[ ] I really want to beef up that "Next-Gen Lead Over Wii" chart. What does it need? I think I could actually change the type of chart, but I could also add some different logos or something. Suggestions welcome. Post in the comments for immediate feedback.

PL

DS vs PSP Year by Year (JPN) 1.0

Sometime last week I mentioned possibly doing a chart that graphically depicts the history of the DS vs. PSP battle in Japan (source = Media Create).

(click to enlarge)

I ran into several difficulties while doing this:

1. I wanted to show the main model for each year in a vertical position, like a natural bar chart.

2. The DS phat apparently never closed. Is there an official picture anywhere on the interwebz that shows the DS Phat closed? I can't very well show the DS on its side when it is open, can I?

3. Since I had to go with the open DS, I had to go with the PSP on its side. The problem with this is that it is naturally skinnier than the DS, so even when they are extremely close in numbers for a year, the PSP looks over twice as big (2008). Also, when the DS is doing 200% of what the PSP is doing (2006), it isn't properly conveyed because the systems are very close to real-life proportions.

4. I liked the idea of putting the numbers in the screens, but that limited what I was able to do on the smaller partial years.

Notes:
1. 2004 and 2008 are both partial years.
2. I fully intend on redoing this chart when better graphics become available. Still, I think the depiction the scale of sales in 06-07 is quite impressive.
3. Any suggestions, ideas, or material for this chart is absolutely welcome. Post a link in the comment section if you find something.

PL

Media Create Sales: 7/14 - 7/20 (Handheld YOY)

This chart shows how enormous of a yearly lead that the DS claimed from the PSP in 2006 and 2007, and how the PSP is now claiming back some of that territory, one teeny chunk at a time:


Notes:
1. Limitations noted in a previous post were circumvented by breaking each line and starting their zero point in the appropriate X point in time.

2. This method of presentation may be useful for any set of data with multiple years to be compared. It might be fun to replace the lines (in this case, white and red) with graphical representations of data, like a vertically-resized DS and a vertically-resized PSP to represent yearly gains.

3. More later.

PL