drkohler said:
This is already on the wrong track. Amazon is, for likely the most part, not the manufacturer of the goods they sell, they are boxshifters. Sony is the manufacturer of consoles. So let's make a better example: Joe's Console shop chain orders 10000 consoles from Sony. Now any the following situations can happen: a) The consoles are in a warehouse and are delivered to Joe b) The consoles are on a ship to a warehouse somewhere c) The consoles are in the factory d) The consoles are not even made yet. In EACH case a) to d), Sony sold 10'000 consoles. How the money for the sale is/will be/has been accounted for is a contractual/bookkeeping problem. Now there are a ton of "what ifs" involved, like: when does Joe pay? When does Sony deliver? Can Sony deliver the 10000 consoles at all? How does that translate to shipped vs sold? At this time, when demand badly outstrips units produced: shipped = sold is the answer. |
This is basically what I was trying to say, I used Amazon to show that even when you buy something off a retailer, you can still expect a delay from the moment the product is shipped and delivered.
Like you said it translates better for a situation of manufacturers to retailers. Retailers like GameStop buy their units before they even made, aka sold.
The argument was made as why there’s always a difference between VGC and Sony’s reporting, again. Even in a situation of shortages and demand surpassing the offer, consoles don’t magically appear in store, they have to be some in transit or in warehouses waiting for the next shipment to be made. So it’s normal to have a difference between both figures, but in the end it’s still sold.
