These results also do not correlate with IGN GamerMetrics’ data which ranked Super Mario Galaxy #1 in Mindshare (a good indicator of purchase intent) for all titles released since 2007. Call of Duty 4's Mindshare, despite being less than two-tenths of a percent lower than Super Mario Galaxy's, was much more in line with its actual sales. Also, Super Mario Galaxy did not meet The simExchange prediction market's original expectation of 391,800 units.
Given that data and coupled with the low Wii hardware sales, we can assume that (unless Super Mario Galaxy itself was undershipped to retailers in January) there is a strong correlation between the sales of Wii hardware and Super Mario Galaxy. This essentially means that while Super Mario Galaxy is among the first titles purchased by consumers with a Wii hardware unit, given the hardware’s slower performance, this likely played a hindering role to Super Mario Galaxy’s sales. [Jesse Divnich is the analyst for the simExchange, a prediction market that allows users to buy and sell fake video game stocks in attempts to predict Global Lifetime Sales (GLS), monthly sales based on NPD data(called “future”), and Metacritic scores. The Divnich Tapes concludes tomorrow with The simExchange's predictions on February's hardware and software sales.]