Claim 1: was the context for this claim worldwide or NA sales? Given that April (are these figures for the end of, or beginning of April?) is somewhat halfway between the beginning of the year and now, doubling sales since then within NA alone doesn't seem too unreasonable. If these are worldwide sales figures, then they seem much lower than one might extrapolate from Q1 NA sales.

Estel

Claim 1: Does the context here say that these sales are for NA or worldwide? Given that April is as close as you can get (are they end of April figures?) to midway through the year from January to now, it doesn't seem too unreasonable for NA alone. If these figures are worldwide, they seem much lower that I would have guessed.

Estel

Why does anyone but Sony shareholders give a crap about this?

Sniper_Zegai

Love this column! Just wanted to say please keep 'em coming just like this for all the major press conferences. Thanks!

fragmaster

SingStore's got around 200 songs online. That would mean the times each song had been downloaded would be OVER 9000!!!!!!

WHAT 9000?!?!

RoboSheep

Um, I'm pretty sure that repeating what was said during the presentation and then saying "sounds high" or "sounds false" doesn't really constitute fact-checking, even by the most loose and generous definition of the term.

Your "method" of offering your OPINION about what they presented not only has little to do with facts, it also reveals bias.

Better luck next time.

BTS.WRKNG

@Ninegauger: Uh. They're providing first hand information. It's their data. Why would they need to provide a source?

The source is Sony.

Pixelantes Anonymous

These companies should have to provide sources for their information...

Academics source their information and they don't even have a vested interest in lying to me in order to take my money.

Ninegauger

"Claim 2: More than 1.9 million songs sold via the SingStore worldwide.
Sounds false. SingStore's got around 200 songs online. That would mean each one has been downloaded more than 9,000 times!"

That sounds plausible to me. I mean, how many people own Singstar? I'm guessing at least 250,000 or something (according to VGChartz it's .46 million, but they are a bit faulty), so if it were 250,000, it doesn't sound too ridiculous that they could make 1.9 million.

"Claim 1: 1.8 million PS3s, 1.6 million PSPs and 1.5 million PS2s sold in the this year.
Not sure. Annual U.S. sales as of April 2008, according to NPD Group, were .99 million for PS3, .95 million for PS2, and .96 million for PSP."

That one sounds interesting... It's hard to believe that the PS3 nearly doubled in sales. 1.5 or so would sound reasonable considering the ballyhooed release of MGS4. Maybe Sony's counting shipments again...

tehflyingwombat

Guys, sorry to say this, but countering a claim by offering another >opiniongut feeling< is not "fact-checking".
To do any "fact-checking", you need a source of facts.

SolidSlug

As a big Kotaku fan, I do think this particular bit of 'fact checking' is a bit ridiculous.

I guess if you called it 'Our opinions about what Sony has said' then it would be more accurate.

In addition, the guesstimation you use seem flawed. Assuming that even only 200k people bought Singstar, using the math to say that EACH must be downloaded 9000x is a misleading average, as it assumes that all tracks must have uniform popularity. If you want to play ratio guessing games, if we assume that 200k+ people own the title, then IF (big IF) each owner buys the same number of songs, then each player buys about 10 songs.

It seems almost like you WANT to find flaws...is it that unbelievable that there would be an attach rate of 10 song downloads per copy of the game sold? Particularly since I would assume there are fanatics who buy a ton, which would offset those who buy none or a lower number.

phloog

@phloog:
@SolidSlug:

Agreed, this is an opinion piece, if anything else.

Also, what's with this?

Sony didn't have many stats to boast about this year. But read on to double-check the four claims made during Sony's E3 08 press conference.

Nintendo has one more, and that warrants a proper post, with positive comments. Sheesh, that's not very even handed guys.

But then again, it's a blog right?

Scipher

@Scipher: Nintendo used one more fact, if you think I missed one from the announcements let me know.

Noah R

@BTS.WRKNG: Unlike some of the other people doing pressers today, Sony inserted facts that are difficult to verify -- at least not within minutes of the press conference.

Noah R

I don't need to repeat what's been said - this sounds more like an X-Box fanboy Sony-bashing piece. Even the "true" point is meant to be negative, by implying that MGS4 is as far a the console will go in terms power.

chef4hire

claim 1- more than likely is true considering NPD doesn't cover a large percentage of retailers.

dadeisvenm

So how exactly are these facts being "checked" again? Sounds more like opinion to me...

ePuMa

@chriscasey: p.s. Rock Band has 3 million bundles sold and 15 million song downloads.

chriscasey

According to this article from April, over 12 million copies of SingStar have been sold in the UK, and another 1.5 million in the US. The store is doing well, too...

[www.ps3fanboy.com]

It doesn't seem unrealistic at all, considering these numbers. That's about one downloaded song per six copies of the game floating around.

chriscasey

@Noah R: If they aren't easy to verify, then why make even make a post to begin with, let alone one that claims you are "fact-checking?" Because as far as fact-checking goes, this is a joke. The American media hardly ever gives Sony credit, I don't even want to start explaining what I mean there...

threeve

yeah how is "sounds high", "sounds false", and "not sure" fact-checking??

You could say "Hey, an fact about Sony! after the jump! W00t!"

djomg

@RoboSheep: I'm glad someone caught that, it was just to perfectly placed.

lol

AntiZERØ

Kotaku... I love ya. But this is an opinion piece, not fact checking.

"Unlike some of the other people doing pressers today, Sony inserted facts that are difficult to verify -- at least not within minutes of the press conference."

Noah, if you can't properly source a story then don't publish it... or at least wait until ya can. What's the big rush? Now, based on your negative opinions, many on here may assume that you dislike Sony and may be an Xbox fanboy on the low. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Now that Luke Plunkett on the other hand...

klashawnd

Sony, what does the scouter say about the number of Singstar downloads per song?....

osteofight

@Noah R:
"I don't have any way to determine how accurate the figures are, so I just decided to assume they were lying and write an article about it so people would know better than to trust them."

Lovely.

serversurfer

@Noah R:
Claim 2: More than 1.9 million songs sold via the SingStore worldwide.
Sounds RIGHT! Assuming a modest 250,000 copies have been sold that is approximately 7.6 songs per customer, which is not that hard to believe because people have bought it especially for the extra songs. I dont even use mine much and I have nearly 20 songs!
However Noah R, Singstar has been on sale in the EU since 2007. It is a massive franchise in the UK.

Noah R. If you are going to do some fact checking then CHECK YOUR FACTS!

If your not sure, then RING UP CRECENTE & ASK FOR ADVICE!

Shoddy research undermines the reputation of Kotaku.

All the best!

Andronix

So, which are opinion pieces then:
[kotaku.com]

Tepoz

LOL at Claim 1 & 2: Remember again that world wide sales > US sales. And 9000 downloads per Singstar track sounds more than right in my ears - the game has been selling like crazy in Europe.

Fact checking? Maybe next year. This is an opinion piece.

robur

Also is there anywhere on the net that has some article that gets to the bottom of "claim 4"? We have heard a lot of the untapped PS3 power. But is there anyone out there who give a better estimate or prove how much power is being used by current games? Right now I feel the PS3 is powerful but that is not enough, I want to "know" if it is powerful or not.

Dubdoob

No one rewrote this yet? I am still interested in a real more accurate fact-check. We don't have to wait till next year to get one right?

Dubdoob