360 Numbers don't add up!

[Stromprophet]

Monty said: Well, I never ever, ever said that the number should reflect the 10.4 million "sold" figure from MS... where did you get the idea I said that? As for whether I'm a fanboy or not, all I can say is that coming into this debate, I knew the 360 numbers and there was a LOT more out there to debate this issue as the PS3 and Wii were just released. And, come the end of March, if Nintendo says it shipped 6 million, but vgcharts lists sales of 3.9 million and tries to tell me there is 2.1 million of stock on shelves, I'll laugh them off this site (as they are doing with the 360). And, I somehow believe you'll jump the fence onto my side with that one, eh? I'd actually love to see you people flip-flop on this issue when that happens. I've been a diehard gamer for over 30 years now, and own consoles of every brand... I buy them all. Every console has it's good and bad points... all of them, and I can find a reason to want to own all of them.

Weren't you the one that said the 360 numbers are wrong to begin with? Anyway, I won't be flipping on any side of any fence. PSP already did this, they announced they "shipped" 20 million PSPs worldwide back in June or July. And it just now hit that mark. So did they have millions sitting on shelves. Yes, apparently they did. If you have been gaming so long you would know this is a fairly common practice among all the console guys. Nintendo, Sony, M$, Sega. Especially when install base is still small enough for it to make a big difference in what you report your market share as. Before you even pull out the differences between what Sony says is shipped and M$ interpretation of shipped. Link... http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200701/N07.0108.1833.15034.htm?Page=1 SCEA’s Senior VP of Marketing, Peter Dille "GI: Now you said its 2 million worldwide sold in? Dille: It’s 1 million in North America. What we’re not talking about today is the Japanese numbers, but we will be announcing those soon in the Sony announcement that will come out of Japan. GI: “Sold in” means the retailers have the units, correct? Dille: Correct. What the sell-in number refers to is that we’ve shipped it, we’ve sold it to retail, and the fact that we got to a million was possible because we were air shipping these products in. If we had gone with a boat, there was no way we would have gone to a million. So we’re not playing games with the numbers. These were sold into retail, and you can image the retailer’s incentive: If they’re shipped on a plane, they can go up onto the shelves as quickly as possible. And really, as soon as they’re getting there, they’re evaporating. There’s a tremendous demand." ____________________ But if you have followed the PSP any you would know, it is perfectly possible for a manufacturer to ship millions of "unsold" units to retailers. They are "sold" but not in the end users hands.