Groucho said:
Guys... stop with the "shipped" vs "sold" debate.
Software is sold "in" and "through". "Sell in" is the number sold to retailers -- it is out of the manufacturers hands at that point. "Sell through" is the number sold, by retailers, to consumers. The ONLY way for a retailer to return software is to return it via a consumer returning it (i.e. claiming its "defective" or if still unopened "not what they wanted"). Other than that, the retailer owns the software once they purchase it (at much discounted prices) from the manufacturer. They can get a rebate from the manufacturer, if the manufacturer calls for an across-the-board price cut on the software, however, and they still have units in their possession.
"1 million sold" means "1 million sell-in", which means Sony sold that many copies to retailers. That doesn't guarantee that it makes it into consumer hands without being severly discounted/clearanced -- its up to the retailer to not over-order and to handle their own inventory. They don't get a "get of out debt free" card from the software publisher -- they cannot hand it back at will. They have to sell it, if they want to recover their investment.
Sony probably sold each copy of M:PR to retailers for around $25 each. The retailers have plenty of room to chop the price before it becomes a loss for them. In any case, Sony sold these games to retailers (not consumers).
VGChartz tracks sell-through (retail sales to consumers), not sell-in, so its bound to be less than Sony's own sell-in numbers. VGChartz is probably fairly accurate, in most cases, including this one, in that regard.
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I'd say that publishers make much more than off of each game sold to retail.
