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[Doubledex]

Great games can possibly same a system would the Genesis have been a success without Sonic coming out?

?

 

[Version 3.0]

I'm sticking with it. Nintendo is under manufacturing the Wii. Sure it would still sell a lot if it was in stores but I think it would level out if there was an abundance of them. And what makes some of you think the Wii is that hard to manufacture?

Not this again. They're deliberately under-shipping the fastest-selling console ever? Really?

And I just love the "if they can't find it, then people buy MORE of it" theory. I understand what you're saying, but you can't manage something like that with sales this high. Maybe Sony should pull all PS3 stock from stores, then their sales will triple!

 

[Jirotrom]

Is 74k good/normal for Ratchet? It usually tops out at a million right? Next mth should be interesting with Uncharted, Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Need for Speed and Rock Band.

you forgot Mario Galaxy.

 

[Kestastrophe]

It's not that people get pissed off at the notion but more [ ... ]

Is there any reasonable justification for the claim that Nintendo is undershipping?

This explanation only takes into consideration the historical shipments for previous hardware products, and it doesn't address demand. The fact that it is still difficult to find a Wii on store shelves, a year after launch, indicates that there is demand for this product that isn't being supplied. I don't think that there is any unreasonableness to the assumption that Wii demand outstrips supply.

 

[Psychotext]

Not this again. They're deliberately under-shipping the fastest-selling console ever? Really?

And I just love the "if they can't find it, then people buy MORE of it" theory. I understand what you're saying, but you can't manage something like that with sales this high. Maybe Sony should pull all PS3 stock from stores, then their sales will triple!

It's funny... this comic had it wrong all along!

 

[Renji_11]

?

Someone earlier said that no non launch game has saved a system so that's why I mentioned Sonic, as without Sonic the Snes would have killed the Genesis in America. But no one game can save the PS3 but things should look up next year. Btw go Cowboys

 

[RBH]

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/35436/October-U-S-PC-Console-Hardware-Sales-Charts

Interesting to look at the sales of NBA 2K8 and NBA Live 08, as 2K8 seems to perform alot better than Live on the 360 and slightly better than Live on the PS3 (taking last month's leaked numbers into account as well) while Live does alot better than 2K8 on the PS2.

 

[Elios83]

Sony has released a few stats for PS3 first anniversary:

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/ps3-celebrates-its-first-birthday-56-million-sold/18572/
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=SNE:US&sid=aAFQFJAXas7o
http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/11/sony-reacts-to.html#more

5.6m units sold ww (up to the end of October), 2m sold in US.
Xbox360 has been outsold 3:1 in Japan and Europe in 2007 total sales.
192% increase in PS3 US sales in the week ending 11 November over previous weeks at top 10 retailers, 100.000 units sold.
Expected 11m ww installed base by the end of March 2008.
Titles are now being developed on PS3 and then ported on other platforms (Haze is an example.
Blu Ray is winning bla bla bla.

 

[Borys]

Sony has released a few stats for PS3 first anniversary:

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/ps3-celebrates-its-first-birthday-56-million-sold/18572/
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=SNE:US&sid=aAFQFJAXas7o
http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/11/sony-reacts-to.html#more

5.6m units sold ww (up to the end of October), 2m sold in US.
Xbox360 has been outsold 3:1 in Japan and Europe in 2007 total sales.
192% increase in PS3 US sales in the week ending 11 November over previous weeks at top 10 retailers, 100.000 units sold.
Expected 11m ww installed base by the end of March 2008.
Titles are now being developed on PS3 and then ported on other platforms (Haze is an example.)
Blu Ray is winning bla bla bla.

Titles?

Oh this will be great.

 

[RubberJohnny]

"Developers are now creating games on PS3 and then porting them to other platforms. This shows the strides developers are making in creating content for PS3 and also provides developers with an advantage as it's harder to port from Xbox 360 to PS3. Ubisoft's Haze is the first title to be created on PS3 and ported to Xbox."

Wait, what? Haze is multiplatform? I'm not surprised, but to hear it from Sony...

 

[Kestastrophe]

Expected 11m ww installed base by the end of March 2008.

I honestly don't see that happening. I am not saying it couldn't happen, but this seems very unlikely in my opinion. Especially considering that MGS4 has been delayed and GTA IV in all likelihood will be released next fall.

 

[botticus]

I'd wager a guess Nintendo is planning a similar numbers party on Monday. Wii anniversary + Mario Galaxy first week.

 

[Chiggs]

Geez, I love my PS3, but seeing this kind of crap month after month is starting to get worrisome. PS3 needs to break 300k next month.

And how about that PSP? Carving out a nice share of the market while the DS juggernaut continues to dominate.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Xbox360 has been outsold 3:1 in Japan and Europe in 2007 total sales.

Interesting. YTD in Japan with Famitsu is something like 862K to 205K, so one could try to test values in an equation of
(862K + PS3Europe) / (205K + X360Europe) = 3
But I'm sure 3:1 isn't very exact.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Did Sony really just nerf their own "Haze is exclusive *wink* " posturing?

The only titles that fit their description are Burnout 3, Unreal 3, and Haze, which can be explained by Alex Ward being a Sony fan, moneyhat, and moneyhat, respectively.

Interesting. YTD in Japan with Famitsu is something like 862K to 205K, so one could try to test values in an equation of
(862K + PS3Europe) / (205K + X360Europe) = 3
But I'm sure 3:1 isn't very exact.

If the PS3 has sold roughly 1.5 million in Europe this year, by Sony's 3:1 math, that means the 360 sold ~582k in Europe in 2007.

 

[Lightning]

I am still fucking pissed at Ratchet & Clank numbers. Sony never even bothered starting to advertise this until November and if this game doesn't pull 300,000+ numbers in then PS3 owners fucking suck and Sony fucking suck.

No Ratchet sales = FISSION FUCKING MAILED SONY.

Seriously, this is a travesty. Arguably Sony's biggest game of the year and Sony dropped the ball, so very depressing. Damnit.

 

[Bojangles]

Titles are now being developed on PS3 and then ported on other platforms (Haze is an example.

It's fascinating that being the worst platform to develop for is a strategy.

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

I am still fucking pissed at Ratchet & Clank numbers. Sony never even bothered starting to advertise this until November and if this game doesn't pull 300,000+ numbers in then PS3 owners fucking suck and Sony fucking suck.

No Ratchet sales = FISSION FUCKING MAILED SONY.

Seriously, this is a travesty. Arguably Sony's biggest game of the year and Sony dropped the ball, so very depressing. Damnit.

I thought Uncharted was their biggest game of the year.

Honestly though, 74k on a US userbase of what, 2 million? Is very good considering. That means over 3.5% of the people who own a PS3 bought R and Clank. That's good attachment.

Sony's problem begins and ends with the amount of hardware sold in the US, and they're finally taking steps to fix that. R and C was just a casualty of their earlier missteps.

edit: fixed some braindead math.

 

[schuelma]

I thought Uncharted was their biggest game of the year.

Honestly though, 74k on a US userbase of what, 2 million? Is very good considering. That means over 25% of the people who own a PS3 bought R and Clank. That's good attachment.

Sony's problem begins and ends with the amount of hardware sold in the US, and they're finally taking steps to fix that. R and C was just a casualty of their earlier missteps.

Err...isn't it more like 2.5%?

 

[RBH]

Honestly though, 74k on a US userbase of what, 2 million? Is very good considering. That means over 25% of the people who own a PS3 bought R and Clank. That's good attachment.

What? :lol

Edit: Ah, now corrected.

 

[Gaborn]

I thought Uncharted was their biggest game of the year.

The biggest game of the year is always the one that hasn't been released yet. Ratchet is an established franchise, people didn't respond to it like they did in the past. Uncharted is brand new. Typically brand new titles have lower expectations than established major franchises.

 

[Kestastrophe]

Err...isn't it more like 2.5%?

What? :lol

I see an incoming tag

 

[Gekkonidae]

Expected 11m ww installed base by the end of March 2008.

This is the line Sony has been pushing and has always seemed very optimistic. We can be sure that if they don't approach that goal there will be a reckoning. Althought they may just flood supply and then trumpet shipped numbers like Microsoft did to get to "10 million."

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

This is the line Sony has been pushing and has always seemed very optimistic. We can be sure that if they don't approach that goal there will be a reckoning. Althought they may just flood supply and then trumpet shipped numbers like Microsoft did to get to "10 million."

No way the supply chain could bear that many PS3's, even worldwide.

They're at what, 4 million sold?

 

[AstroLad]

Honestly though, 74k on a US userbase of what, 2 million? Is very good considering. That means over 3.5%[/25%] of the people who own a PS3 bought R and Clank. That's good attachment.

:lol bravo if you did this intentionally. Standing ovation if you did it unintentionally.

 

[HylianScribe]

Did you ever stop to think that, you know, Twilight Princess is very western marketed while Phantom Hourglass is Japanese marketed? This isn't rocket science.

According to Nintendo, Phantom Hourglass was not heavily marketed in Japan, though (conversation I had with Zelda guys at E3). Nintendo had to rush out kiosks a few weeks before to generate last minute hype for the casual audience there in Japan. Maybe somebody who is a Zelda fan in Japan can clarify if there was a lot of buzz and marketing for the game before its release.

I know Phantom Hourglass may pick up sales in November/December, and that Twilight Princess also released in the prime of the holiday shopping season, but still, I seriously think Nintendo was expecting Phantom Hourglass to be its best selling Zelda game, or at least to surpass Twilight Princess.

Nothing to quibble about but where did you get this nugget?

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20037961,00.html

Well, I think a lot of people who bought the Wii are not necessarily the types of people who are interested in playing that kind of game. And a lot of the people who would want to play it [due to chronic shortages of the console] can't find a Wii! But mostly, I think it's that there are fewer and fewer people who are interested in playing a big role-playing game like Zelda.

GDC 2007

However, in comparison, sales figures were not what I had been hoping for in Japan, and so I believe that many users still have the impression that Zelda was too complicated and therefore too hard to play.

And yes, they point out there is a demographic difference in Japan and NA/EU, which I don't argue against, but they didn't once go on record that I could find praising the US sales of Twilight Princess. So I mean, Phantom Hourglass solved the Japanese demographic issue as it's well on its way to making it to 1m sales there eventually. Also, I acknowledge other factors are influencing the rather average Phantom Hourglass sales here. Abundance of high profile titles surrounding it, limiting purchasing power. The fact it came out in Japan first killed a lot of the buzz with the fanbase. Many may be waiting for the holidays to purchase it here.

I don't know. I really feel Zelda is getting boring and stale, and though PH was good, how you play the game isn't an innovation to me. Redefining how you control the game, though the gameplay is the same as every other Zelda game, is a superficial thing to me. Yeah, it helped, but come on Nintendo. Please do something radical to Zelda at least once, and screw fans bitching "OH, IF YOU CHANGE ZELDA LIKE THIS, YOU LOSE WHAT MADE IT ZELDA". Some fans have no clue what makes Zelda "Zelda".

 

[Lightning]

I thought Uncharted was their biggest game of the year.

Honestly though, 74k on a US userbase of what, 2 million? Is very good considering. That means over 3.5% of the people who own a PS3 bought R and Clank. That's good attachment.

Sony's problem begins and ends with the amount of hardware sold in the US, and they're finally taking steps to fix that. R and C was just a casualty of their earlier missteps.

edit: fixed some braindead math.

3.5% is probably the internet crowd. The need to get this game out, advertise the shit out of it, they should have been doing that for weeks leading up to release rather then sitting on their collective asses contemplating how to do a stealth price drop without informing anyone.

I can assure you that if Ratchet was on the 360 and if Microsoft were in Sony's current position this would not have happened. Everyone in the US would know that Ratchet is available and the game would have been advertised and hyped to hell. That never happened from Sony and is the reason for the lackluster start to what is a GREAT game.


They're at what, 4 million sold?

I think they are at 5million.

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

:lol bravo if you did this intentionally. Standing ovation if you did it unintentionally.

:lol I guess I had my sympathy hat on too tightly.

 

[Psychotext]

If the PS3 has sold roughly 1.5 million in Europe this year, by Sony's 3:1 math, that means the 360 sold ~582k in Europe in 2007.

Would make sense given the PS3 launch... but I'm always wary of PR figures.

 

[BishopLamont]

Tell me genius, why doesn't every manufacturer of consumer electronics (Sony and MS especially) use this same method?
I mean if creating a phenomena as big as the Wii is a simple matter of manipulating supply and demand why doesn't everybody do this?

Everyone remember the PS3 launch fiasco? Nothing but shortages, funny how well that worked.

Well I have some a little insight into November just based off of shipments and popularity of... things.

-Wii shipments have gone up like crazy. During August, we would get 3-6 every other week. Last week we had 6. Two days ago we received 12 more. Yesterday, they were gone. The holiday buying season has officially kicked in. Two months ago, those 12 would have stuck around until at least Saturday.

-Guitar Hero III is apparently sold out around these parts, particularly the 360 version based on a couple accounts. We wound up with a huge overstock of the game for pretty much every system, so I thought the thing was relatively easy to find. Not so.

-Assassin's Creed is going to do well, though I found a lot of people were asking me how it was before they bought it. So negative word of mouth may hurt it. Even saying that it's been getting some very mixed reviews (some very high and some very low) is turning some people off to the game. Everyone that bought the game today for the 8 hours I was there got it for the 360.

-Super Mario Galaxy is selling well to people walking in, but not a ton of people have picked up their reserved copies. If a ton of people don't come in by Sunday, I think we're gonna be stuck with a huge overstock like with GHIII... but I still think we'll be sold out of the game or close to it the closer we approach Christmas.

-Microsoft is dumping a shitload of 360s of all types. The Arcade bundle is a popular choice. They did the same thing last year to hit that magic 10m shipped number and systems sat on shelves for a very long time.

-PS3 has been selling better due to the increased advertisements and price drop. Some people look horrified when they found out the 40GB doesn't play PS2 games though. Uncharted only has a few reservations (5), much like R&C did. I imagine it will receive a big ad campaign, like all big Naughty Dog games do, so that should help it. Most PS3 owners I deal with tend to only buy sports games though.

-Kane & Lynch hasn't really been selling, but I was at school all day Wednesday, so I might've missed the big rush for it then (it was incredibly busy on Wednesday).

-PSP hardware continues to sell and PSP games continue to stay on the shelves where they are often looked at and rarely purchased.

Awesome, NPD's very own Vinnk's Village.

 

[GhaleonEB]

-Microsoft is dumping a shitload of 360s of all types. The Arcade bundle is a popular choice. They did the same thing last year to hit that magic 10m shipped number and systems sat on shelves for a very long time.

Popular choice for MS to ship out, or popular purchase choice?

This year, they have not set a public shipment target for the 360, so my thinking was there is less pressure to dump so much into retail to hit a shipment number. They shipped 4.5m from Oct-Dec last year.

 

[Westonian]

Summer 2006

Nintendo Marketing: "E3 was a huge success, we need to get factories on line now to start producing units for our world wide launch this fall. Let's set production goals of 6 million units world wide by the end of March 2007."

Nintendo Executive: "Six million by March 2007 would be more than any console in the history of the world. We're sure that demand will far exceed even that extremely aggressive production schedule. We should build an extra factory or two, just in case."

Nintendo Marketing: "Good idea, but let's keep those factories a secret. Erase them from satellite images, not list them as assets in our financial reports, and most importantly, not actually ship those few extra million units, let's only ship the six million."

Nintendo Executive: "But why? Why not sell the units as we manufacture them?"

Nintendo Marketing: "Because, if we can keep supply below demand we can effectively sell out for an entire calendar year, and then some, driving even more demand from consumers who want to jump on the next gadget bandwagon!"

Nintendo Executive: "Brilliant! Even though there is no historical precedence to believe the 6 million units won't meet demand, I like this plan! Run with it!"

 

[Arsenal]

Like last month's leak. How the fuck are they being allowed to post cash and sales states for the top ten for every platform?

Looks like that IGN article was nuked, so it wasn't allowed for long.

Looks like the leak was on some german site - I need to brush up on my language skills :lol

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Everyone remember the PS3 launch fiasco? Nothing but shortages, funny how well that worked.



Awesome, NPD's very own Vinnk's Village.

I would like to add to what he said. I picked up Uncharted today (1st of 25 copies) and 7 people came to pick up Need for Speed Pro Street in the ten minutes I was there, all for the 360.

 

[DayShallCome]

Summer 2006

Nintendo Marketing: "E3 was a huge success, we need to get factories on line now to start producing units for our world wide launch this fall. Let's set production goals of 6 million units world wide by the end of March 2007."

Nintendo Executive: "Six million by March 2007 would be more than any console in the history of the world. We're sure that demand will far exceed even that extremely aggressive production schedule. We should build an extra factory or two, just in case."

Nintendo Marketing: "Good idea, but let's keep those factories a secret. Erase them from satellite images, not list them as assets in our financial reports, and most importantly, not actually ship those few extra million units, let's only ship the six million."

Nintendo Executive: "But why? Why not sell the units as we manufacture them?"

Nintendo Marketing: "Because, if we can keep supply below demand we can effectively sell out for an entire calendar year, and then some, driving even more demand from consumers who want to jump on the next gadget bandwagon!"

Nintendo Executive: "Brilliant! Even though there is no historical precedence to believe the 6 million units won't meet demand, I like this plan! Run with it!"

wat?

 

[Arsenal]

-Guitar Hero III is apparently sold out around these parts, particularly the 360 version based on a couple accounts. We wound up with a huge overstock of the game for pretty much every system, so I thought the thing was relatively easy to find. Not so.

GH always manages to have crazy legs so the holiday sales should keep ringing up pretty fast if they can keep stock. Might go down a bit when Rock Band comes out though.

-Microsoft is dumping a shitload of 360s of all types. The Arcade bundle is a popular choice. They did the same thing last year to hit that magic 10m shipped number and systems sat on shelves for a very long time.

Curious about this statement... don't retailers tell MS how much stock they want? Is MS cutting them deals? Is the arcade bundle actually selling?

-PSP hardware continues to sell and PSP games continue to stay on the shelves where they are often looked at and rarely purchased.

They are researching which games they want to go home and download

 

[MaX_PL]

didnt sony execs say theyd be #1 by the end of 2007? or were those just forum fanboys? one or the other.

 

[Parl]

Summer 2006

Nintendo Marketing: "E3 was a huge success, we need to get factories on line now to start producing units for our world wide launch this fall. Let's set production goals of 6 million units world wide by the end of March 2007."

Nintendo Executive: "Six million by March 2007 would be more than any console in the history of the world. We're sure that demand will far exceed even that extremely aggressive production schedule. We should build an extra factory or two, just in case."

Nintendo Marketing: "Good idea, but let's keep those factories a secret. Erase them from satellite images, not list them as assets in our financial reports, and most importantly, not actually ship those few extra million units, let's only ship the six million."

Nintendo Executive: "But why? Why not sell the units as we manufacture them?"

Nintendo Marketing: "Because, if we can keep supply below demand we can effectively sell out for an entire calendar year, and then some, driving even more demand from consumers who want to jump on the next gadget bandwagon!"

Nintendo Executive: "Brilliant! Even though there is no historical precedence to believe the 6 million units won't meet demand, I like this plan! Run with it!"

Iwata: No.

 

[Redd]

I am still fucking pissed at Ratchet & Clank numbers. Sony never even bothered starting to advertise this until November and if this game doesn't pull 300,000+ numbers in then PS3 owners fucking suck and Sony fucking suck.

No Ratchet sales = FISSION FUCKING MAILED SONY.

Seriously, this is a travesty. Arguably Sony's biggest game of the year and Sony dropped the ball, so very depressing. Damnit.

Whoa step back breath for a minute, calm down. Dont take this too seriously. Look at last gen when PS2 totally dominated. Xbox and Gamecube still had great games. Just enjoy the ride. Sony still has great 1st party Ips and some exclusives.......unless you have stock in sony, then well fuck.

 

[dammitmattt]

I thought Uncharted was their biggest game of the year.

Honestly though, 74k on a US userbase of what, 2 million? Is very good considering. That means over 3.5% of the people who own a PS3 bought R and Clank. That's good attachment.

Sony's problem begins and ends with the amount of hardware sold in the US, and they're finally taking steps to fix that. R and C was just a casualty of their earlier missteps.

edit: fixed some braindead math.

I hope you are being sarcastic because there is no way to excuse the sales of Ratchet and Clank. Early in the 360's lifetime, top games like Oblivion, GRAW, Fight Night 3, and more all sold exceptionally well despite the 360's small userbase.

PS3 owners just aren't buying much, and when they do buy something it's a sports game or Guitar Hero. It hurts not having that pack of 250k or so hardcore gamers that move from game to game each month.

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

I hope you are being sarcastic because there is no way to excuse the sales of Ratchet and Clank. Early in the 360's lifetime, top games like Oblivion, GRAW, Fight Night 3, and more all sold exceptionally well despite the 360's small userbase.

PS3 owners just aren't buying much, and when they do buy something it's a sports game or Guitar Hero. It hurts not having that pack of 250k or so hardcore gamers that move from game to game each month.

Early in the 360's lifetime, you mean when it was completely uncontested on the next-gen market by launching a year before any solid competition?

The 360 and Wii are obviously cannibalizing the PS3's sales, nobody is arguing that. But considering that the last PS2 R and Clank game barely made it into the top 20 and the Sony PS3 userbase is at just over 2 million, 74k is a respectable number. Of course it could be better, but Naughty Dog isn't going to pack it in and kiss development goodbye. If you had to blame Sony for anything here, blame it on them not getting enough PS3's into people's hands.

Don't expect every console to have monster attach rates like the 360 does. It's not a realistic proposition.

 

[Suburban Cowboy]

how did Ratchet do compared to motorstorm, resistance, lair, and heavenly sword over the same amount of time?

 

[Kosma]

I really fucking hope Uncharted cracks the top 10 next month.

Oh yeah and COD4 (PS3 +360) better outsell SMG too because I dont want to lose my awesome avatar for a week!

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

how did Ratchet do compared to motorstorm, resistance, lair, and heavenly sword over the same amount of time?

Better than Lair.

 

[The Innocent X]

I really fucking hope Uncharted cracks the top 10 next month.

Oh yeah and COD4 (PS3 +360) better outsell SMG too because I dont want to lose my awesome avatar for a week!

Uncharted? Unlikely.

Halo3, two COD4, mass effect, Assassins Creed 360, maybe AC PS3, SMG, proabably rock band 360 and PS3, + GH3 carry overs. I can`t see uncharted doing more than ~160K, probably around 12th-15th

 

[botticus]

I really fucking hope Uncharted cracks the top 10 next month.

Oh yeah and COD4 (PS3 +360) better outsell SMG too because I dont want to lose my awesome avatar for a week!

It'll be tough, due to the fact that GH alone will likely take up a few spots in November again, plus the big Wii and 360 releases.

 

[Arsenal]

I really fucking hope Uncharted cracks the top 10 next month.

Thats a pretty steep order in what is probably the single most competitive month in years.

IMO, COD4 is the most likely PS3 game to chart.

 

[radjago]

I hope you are being sarcastic because there is no way to excuse the sales of Ratchet and Clank. Early in the 360's lifetime, top games like Oblivion, GRAW, Fight Night 3, and more all sold exceptionally well despite the 360's small userbase.

PS3 owners just aren't buying much, and when they do buy something it's a sports game or Guitar Hero. It hurts not having that pack of 250k or so hardcore gamers that move from game to game each month.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone said half of all PS3s were employed exclusively as Blu-Ray players. Their emphasis on cost reduction and less focus on gaming features seems to imply that they woudln't mind if people did so. Sony's trojan horse may have worked too well.

 

[tinfoilhatman]

Don't expect every console to have monster attach rates like the 360 does. It's not a realistic proposition.

OK can anyone definitivly say why the heck this is? This was even the same situation with Xbox1(obviously to a much lesser degree though)

 

[AniHawk]

Dumping? I thought stores are supposed to order however many they want, but maybe that doesn't apply to hardware?

Well we wound up with an overstock of PSP hardware too in 2005. That was back when Sony was "beating" the DS worldwide.

Do you mean that people are picking up the Arcade pack or that Arcades are sent to you?

Both.