Official sales figures?

[ceres]

naznatips said:

Sqrl said:

llewdebkram said:

Phalanx said:
First Quarter reports for all three companies should be out soon. I believe MS released theirs last week, but I don't remember the number they reported.

Are the companies required to tell the truth?

Not sure about other countries but yes, public statements about sales and earnings must be accurate. Intentionally falsifying this type of information gets you busted Enron style.

Yep, as you said.  However, their advertised figures throughout the rest of the year can be anything from creative wording to blatant lies.  For example, Microsoft said they sold 10 million 360s by the end of last year, but what they really meant was they had sold 10 million 360s to retailers by the end of last year, and it was misinterpreted by many gamers.  Sony and Nintendo both do the same.  Quarterly reports will probably however not show what the stores have sold as it's really not part of the company's earnings.

Sony also claimed the 2 million mark back in 2006 to tout that they had beat the 360's launch numbers from 2005 (ignoring the Wii's numbers completely). Then their financial report revealed that only 1.8 million had been sold to retailers. Not to mention that while the 360 was soldout, the PS3 had only sold about half of those units to consumers.