BHR-3 said: shipment vs sold numbers becomes larger the longer a gen runs for b/c a console is being sold in more markets than when it first launches aswell as the stores display models being swapped out for the newer design of console which would affect both ps3 and 360 in are case, ps3 more as they have had 3 physical changes looking back at some of the data i have when i used to compile it (could have changed since not updated since late 2011) vgc sold vs shipments since this gen started 360 has had over 2M on shelves at least 6 different quarters and at or over 1.5M 13 quarters. ps3 has also been over 2M and over 1.5M atleast 10 different quarters so unless vgc adjusted there past numbers i would use a 1.5-2M as a baseline for consoles on shelf's
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Your logic is flawed. Greatly. Shipped vs. sold will become smaller as the gen goes on, not larger. This is for two reasons. First, larger markets drop support (like the US and Japan for the PS2), so consoles no longer need to be shipped there. And second, in the markets that retain support retailers need to order less stock to keep up with demand, as sales have slowed down. Until, in the end, the sales numbers will be an exact match of the shipment numbers.
And Sony combining the PS3 and PS2 shipments has nothing to do with it being hard to track shipments. Sony knows exactly how many PS2s and PS3s go out. The reason they started combining shipment data in the first place, was to hide the poor Vita sales. Of course, it would look ridiculous if they combined the Vita and PSP numbers, but not the PS3 and PS2 numbers, so they did it with both handhelds and home consoles. This has been stated so many times on this site, I'm surprised you missed it.