Oh come on. You think any of these companies don't at least have a reasonable handle on how many of their consoles are in consumers' hands? They officially report shipped to retailer numbers because that's always a bigger number so is more impressive, and because shipped to retailer means number of units the console maker has sold and will receive payment for, so it's the imporant number for business. And of course they KNOW down to the last unit how many consoles have shipped to retail so it's the only number that can be reported with absolute certainty. Sold to consumer will always have a margin for error so it's not a good business number to report in any official way, but in an interview with a gaming website it's fine. 

The numbers they officially release aren't necessarily the only numbers they know. Oh, and Dille can swing by a little site called VGChartz.com any time he wants to get access to sell through numbers.

Unless Dille has a mole in MS the only number he can quote in an interview are officially reported 360 numbers. And even if he has a mole in MS he isn't going to be the one to reveal he knows any unreported MS sales data is he? The last number I heard from MS was 39 million shipped.

There really is no great controversy here.

Sony almost never claims sold to consumers, they typically just say sold and leave it at that. The media then takes it the wrong way and tacks on to consumer or at retail. If it is a financial statement (or they are quoting their financial statement) then it is sold to retail. If they say sold to consumer (based off internal tracking or NPD/GFC/Famitsu), then it is sold to consumer. They typically make it very clear when it is sold to consumer.

PS3 is not going to outsell the 360 because of the sales in america

I would also like the guy in this thread who claims M$ financial report states 39m sold to consumer to provide a link. Also I think it wierd that Sony would make a mistake that makes them look in a bad position. Surely if anything Sony would want the gap to look good not bad?

The whole idea of an actual mistake is that it's something that wasn't planned, you're thinking of deceit not a mistake.  You can argue all you want, but taking what he says at face value doesn't make sense when we look at all the other data, it just isn't possible.

Dont get me wrong. I dont know what to make of it all. There needs to be proper clarification from M$ and Sony. In fact we need to see their finacial reports. VGChartz does a fantastic job. But there will be times where problems arise big or small. I dont really know one way or the other.

We'll know Sony's shipped figure shortly and it'll doubtless be close to 34mil, at which point selnor can stop getting all excited that the PS3 might be severely overtracked on here. :P

many companies do it again and again.only the ceo knows what exactly is happening.they would just minus 2m shipments from the next quater's figures and be done.that happens alot.

and no MS didn't say shipped to consumers but you can't have 2m extra units on the shelves too.so most probably they are bluffing or they overshipped and not alot of consumers bought them.

whereas sony said they shipped 31m and they sold 31m in last quarter as figures show.there is a proof,there were PS3 shortages in dec itself

He's right about the 360 numbers yet wrong about his own companies numbers?


I'd THINK it's just another Sony executive saying something wrong... it's happened so many times this gen... but... 31 and 39 million?  That's just so oddly specific?

Could he mean shippped?  That would mean downward adjustments.

Could he mean shipped for 360 and.... god knows what for PS3?  Sellthrough?  Even though they don't give sellthrough numbers usually?

I'm confused.

It would just be an odd number for him to compare.  They don't usually provide sellthrough... hell, it used to be hard to get them to provide anything that wasn't "How many PS3's they made."

Definitly need to wait for shipments.