Sold vs shipped... what are we really talking here?

When talking of third-party games, I'm inclined to say that Nintendo is using shipped numbers, especially since they know which companies have asked them for more than a million discs. I don't know that they internally track sales of third party titles.

However, when talking about first-party games, you could speculate that Nintendo posts their own internal sell-through data.

Regardless though, I think the error in these cases is less so than that with HD consoles. Publishers who talk about games on other systems often completely front-load their shipments, which can yield a huge disparity between what they say and what NPD data says (see: Ubisoft announcing early on that 2.2 million units of the latest PoP game shipped, while December NPD suggests that just under 500k sold in the US). The Wii I suspect is, ironically, less susceptible to this kind of over-reaching PR since I doubt most Wii games start out with shipments more than a million. Most Wii games I suspect get restocked to go over a million as demand continues over time.

In hardware, Nintendo usually sticks to shipped-to-retailer numbers I believe. The reason Sony got in trouble with this terminology was that they were using shipped to Sony warehouses as the definition.

Lets reset this data a little bit. How many of those have sold past 5 million?

I'm looking through the release list... They list "Dynamic Zan" for 2009 in Japan, no other regions though (I hope that just means it's undecided). Also New Play Control Pikmin 2, Another Code R and Endless Ocean 2 are listed for Europe but not the US? That's weird... Can't say I remember what "Kensakusu","Line Attack Heroes", "Takt of Magic" or "Spurn Smasher" were...

Why are you moving the goal posts? T_T

I don't know if there's any hard data to peg games over 5 million. Besides, only the most expensive of expensive titles would need to sell 5 million units, and only the most blockbuster titles should be expected to.

However, Nintendo has provided data for some recent first-party Wii million sellers... seven of which are over 5 million worldwide.

Um, are you talking about the 2009 release list Nintendo released a few days ago?

I gave the link to Kairon, but I believe this isn't about that. Unless I am missing something.

That's my point. It's great to see MORE titles selling more than a million. But in comparison to stuff like Wii Fit and Mario Kart which is just selling lots all the time continuously it shows the massive gap between them.

So do we have a list of the titles or what?

Why pick such a huge number? You do know that even the PS2 had only 7 games that sold more than 5 million copies?

A news story is coming. Until then, you can click the link in the story to see the list straight from Nintendo.

Kairon get an interview with Iwata.

Well of course there's going to be a huge gap between them.  In the case of Wii Fit it was a game that was heavily advertised and marketed to the right audience very well.  In the case of Mario Kart, it's the new installment of a long running series that's always sold millions, not to mention it also had a big marketing campaign.

It's basic economics going on here.  Right now third parties have still not taken the Wii seriously.  They barely advertise their games and don't release major well know titles.  As a result, of course their sales aren't going to come anywhere near Nintendo's who advertises and releases well known brands.

When major third party games like Monster Hunter 3 and Dragon Quest X are released, then we can start making real comparisons.

It's in the PDF linked in the article.

Unfortunately, these stats aren't going to end the complaints that only Nintendo's software sells.

I think that perception exists because people WANT it to exist.