Thought about this again, and I don't see how these numbers can be right. I don't mean to whine, but there's hardly been a good explanation about the adjustments and none of my questions ever get answered here.

So, am I right in saying around 3M more PS3's have been 'sold' by Sony than have been sold to consumers according to this site? Well if so, how can this be correct?

• If Sony's sales are counted by orders/financial transactions then the numbers don't make sense either. Im hearing that there are PS3 shortages in NA, so just say there are 1M PS3's on shelves/in warehouses/in transportation - that means 2M PS3's have been ordered by retailers. Now, why would retailers order so much stock over a period of time when PS3s aren't selling as much as we thought? Also, that would mean that the retailers have a very low stock turnover rate. And, if 2M orders have been made then why is there PS3 shortages? Trust me, Sony can keep up to console demand fine rightly. Makes no sense. This point does still leave the numbers believable, but very very doubtful.
• There are so many possible answers to this question that it's hardly useful to list them all. Your best bet is just to wait it out and see what happens.
• There are many possible answers to this question, but none that make sense. I think your point basically sums up my last line in that paragraph. Anyway, we'll have to wait and see.
• If Sony' count their sales by shipped (or as soon as the units leave the factory) then the numbers are definitely wrong. There is no way on this earth that retailers have the storage capabilities to store 3M current PS3 models for quite some period of time
• same thing here
• Disagree here. This situation is defo impossible in my book.

Also, I was lurking about and a few questions still need answered Imo. 

• Firstly, from a while back and the big adjustments. Why did it take VGC 3/4 years to figure out that they were overtracking in 'Others' when presumably the data they obtained is released every year or so?
• Hard to track Europe and other countries because they do not have reliable tracking figures like in the USA, or at least they don't publish them, record them. It's like saying "Throughout high school, I was in school for approximately 1080 days" That's a pretty good guess, but to really find out, I'd need a record of all school days and compare them with ones where I was sick or had a snow-day.
• VGC made the adjustments based on external data from the 'Others' region. Now, if this external data is released frequently then the only option here would be that the data itself had been wrong. But then id ask, why trust this data to base adjustments on. If this data is new/just released then Im fine on this point, but again, Im doubtful this is the case.
• Secondly, what data is being used to base these adjustments on. It couldn't be VGC's own sample data as its far to small, and if it were Sony/NPD related then wouldn't adjustments have been sooner? I don't understand how adjustments are not made when big name figures are released, but are when no data (at least to the public) is available.
• VGC gets data from a number of sources including retailers and customers, I believe. However, some part of that equation may have been missing up until now.
• Must have been a pretty large part considering the small source scale VGC works with.

So, anyone care to help?

So...

VGChartz has it's back covered in all areas basically and it's numbers are realistic. However in saying that, you really need to look at the probability of VGChartz being right here. Very possible, but very unlikely.

my inclination is that they know ps3 is undertracked somewhere, but they can't just add the numbers, because they don't know where exactly it is where it is undertracked. The problem you are overlooking with Europe and Others is that it is a market slightly bigger than NA, but composed of 180 countries compared to 3. I personally think that the numbers are just shuffling around, but even so, there really are some other convincing reasons. For example, if a price cut was coming in EU/others, it would be more than fair to understand that there might be 1M+ in a stockpile somewhere.

Again, think about it. We have 3-4 very very big games coming very shortly. GoW3, GranTurismo, FF13, Heavy Rain, MAG, ModNation Racers (debateable whether MNR will be that big, but it's contributing nonetheless). With an outpouring of games of that quality there will obviously be a major shortage if there isn't a big reserve somewhere.

i wonder where they track, central and south america, they probably don't, and that's maybe where those sales come from. or middle east.

i am pretty sure they don't have a way to track those other extrapolate the data they have for other regions, but considering people complaining of shortages since january,