Wednesday August 23rd, 2000
Desslock posted this today:
Of course, the reason I tried to include sales statistics from a local retailer, was because PC Data's accounting system sometimes results in some misleading results. Perhaps there's never been a more obvious example of the misleading nature of PC Data's results than the lists of the top selling games for the past couple of weeks. 'Surging' to the bottom of the list is none other than Pyrotechnix's 1998 adventure/RPG hybrid, Return to Krondor
. When that game was initially released, it didn't even make the top 10 list of best sellers for a single week, and it was enough of a commercial bomb that it ultimately contributed to the dissolution of Pyrotechnix's development team. Even taking into account bargain bin pricing, there's no rational explanation for Return to Krondor's sales resurgence (after all, the game has been available for discount pricing for well over a year now), unless PC Data is incorporating some weird bundling arrangement or similar distribution transaction that doesn't involve purchasers actually choosing to purchase the game. Myst continued to be on PC Data's list for years as a result of similar machinations. It's really a bit embarrassing to PC Data.
