The month in sales data press release word counts

My story about February video game sales is now up here.

All three of the console manufacturers have in the past few months taken to issuing press releases shortly after NPD releases its data in order to spin things their way. It occurred to me while sorting through this month's data (available in raw form below) that there may just be a good connection between how long each company's press release is (i.e. how much spin they feel the need to provide) and how good their month was (i.e. how much the numbers speak for themselves). So here's a different kind of metric that didn't make my print story. Number of words in NPD sales data press release:

1. Microsoft: 678

2. Sony: 504

3. Nintendo: 201