Taking a look at sales in January and February of a given year can often be a good way to examine and analyze the current state of the video game market, as the sales are typically not being affected too much by high-profile software releases, holiday periods, price cuts, or other short-term effects, though there are of course exceptions -- Smash launched in Japan in January this year for the Wii, and Devil May Cry 4 launched in all regions in Jan/Feb this year for PS3 and 360. In general, though,VGcharts are able to draw some conclusions based on a system's performance relative to itself from a year ago, and of course relative to its competitors, as well as the market's performance as a whole.