So in the quarter when MS was clearing the channel (aka stopped manufacturing and shipping Jasper 360) to make way for 360S and quarter PS3 became profitable to manufacturer Sony boosted shipments.  Shocking.

Not to mention previously Sony stated that shipped started when a retailer/distributor orders units. 

LOL so now the "supply issue" argument is now a valid excuse!!!!!!!! god what would I do for laughs if VGC ain't around!.

yup.

1. NPD has ps3 304k sold last month which is fairly more than what VGC have for that month, how's that "in line"

2.VGC has xbox360 sold vs shipped about the same yet PS3 has more than 2m in shelf? and the excuses is Sony is bullshiting their numbers? really?

3.Didn't you say the GAP when ps3 launched was 5.4m?? I remember you posted that somewhere.......not sure.

One word can pretty much some up Xboys response. Delusional. There is no logical reason for PS3 to have an extra 2 million or so consoles more sitting on shelves. If its not selling as well as the 360 why would stores be buying them?? makes no sense people come on.

Well to be fair the 360 has just discontinued a model and is currently (by most accounts) struggling to meet demand on the new model and so it would make sense that their shipped number is much closer to their sell through number than the PS3, especially if Sony's shipped figures include retail orders currently awaiting shipment.

Also in the case of HW, although units sold sold to retail are obviously important it is the sell through that really matters as that's where the companies make most of their money (particularily Sony who don't appear to make much of console sales but have a lot of first party software).

The good news for Sony is that demand for the console in obviously still there and retailers must be expecting to shift a lot of units over the coming months otherwise they clearly wouldn't be stocking so many units.

Ok i have thought a little more and think i have spotted some "errors" with Sony's numbers.

Right if we go back to the previous quarters results (jan,feb,mar) we see Sony said they had shipped 2.20m consoles. Bringing their total to 35.7m consoles shipped.

But yet in these recent figures for the last quarter (apr,may,june) Sony say they shipped 2.40m consoles bringing their total to 38.12m.

35.7m 2.40m = 38.1m.   Not 38.12 as they claim.

While the difference is short it shows you that they can make mistakes on these official reports. Which some are claiming they can't due to rules and regulations etc.. Doesn't quite work like that.

And having spent a bit more time looking into this missing 2m it really is baffeling!

Because we know those numbers are not in americas, the biggest game sales on the planet. Because everytime NPD reports results Sony come out and comment on them, all the companies use NPD to track those numbers and base remarks based on the results each month. If the numbers were out as much as some on here are suggesting Sony would of mentioned it.

The same goes with Japan, we have two companies which track numbers and VGC is roughly on par with those figures. If numbers were higher there then the two trackers would of noted it for sure.

Which leaves EMEAA. This is the only region where it is hard to track 100%. However in this region there are some tracking organisations (chart track gtf or whatever they are called) who now and then release some numbers or reports on something doing so well. Like recently the 360s release figures. So we have a bit of information we can go on from this.

So what we need to find is this missing 2m units. We know it can't be in americas or Japan.

If we divide the 2m by 12 weeks we see on average the PS3 weekly sales should of been 166k ADDITIONAL to the current numbers.

Let's put that into a bit of perspective.

For that to be true would mean for the past 12 weeks PS3 would of had to be tracking 200k every week for 12 weeks in EMEAA. For it to do that would need to increase it's current sales rate of 50k a week by 150k. Or 300%.

To put that into further perspective that would mean PS3 sales would be nearly on par with the holiday sales for the region last year.

To put it into even further perspective for the same 3 months last year (apr,may,june) PS3 shipped just 1.1m units. That means a year over year increase by 130%.

So let's look at VGC numbers for the period last year. For apr,may,june 2009 they have it at 1.27m. Higher then what Sony reported they shipped. People are not complaining about those numbers?

And let's look at the numbers for the same period this year for apr,may,june 2010. Vgc has it at 2.01m. Slightly lower then the 2.4m Sony say's they shipped.

But let's look at the year over year % on the VGC numbers. 2009 = 1.27m.  2010 = 2.01m. Difference of 740k.

Meaning year over year PS3 increased by 740k or by 60%.

Which means Sony's numbers don't quite add up. The numbers they suggest would mean PS3 turnaround from getting to the shop and being sold would have to be fast. This would mean you would not really notice many out on the shelves due to the purchase rate. Obviously this is not the case. Even i showed a photo i took of 30 PS3's on my local stores shelves. That shows the demand cannot be as high as Sony's numbers suggest. Because they wouldn't stockpile like that.

The only real logical explantion is that these additional PS3's are in stores around the world waiting to be sold.

Just like when the PS3 Slim launched and started facing shortages, 360 is having the same effect atm, duh?

Outside of official accounting statements Sony can fudge numbers if it wants so long as it doesn't go too far - however it must be accurate regarding corporate legislation on sales, profits, etc. publicily posted.  That's a given.  Not sure why some posters think global publicaly traded companies can just ignore such things.  Actually, just to be clear, they can, but moslty this ends up like Enron, etc. with the guily party being found out.  I therefore doubt Sony is lying about it's shipments in any way.

Sony (and MS and Nintendo) should know exactly what they've shipped or received orders for.  Again, there is little room for mistake here.  If Walmart has 50K units on order then that will be know.  Equally if a small store has ordered 5 that will be known.

Note when they report these some rounding will always be in force and the figures won't be exact to that minute but probably a prior period by a day or so.  On the day something is annouced the true orders, to the single unit, might be for 2,103,455 units (random example).  That would be rounded for any public statements.  Probably up rather than down!

To your question will it matter to the market if Sony say they've shipped more LTD than MS despite what ths site says?  Of course it will.  That's a given and nothing against this site.  Investors, market researchers, etc. look to official company statements and performance a lot more than VGChartz or even NPD (which it itself estimates used to get an idea of trends/sales in addition to the hard, public figures released less often).

The 360s should delay the day of meltdown though, and might even prevent it (although I'm not sold on that yet).

If PS3 and Xbox 360 are close this fall - which they are expected to be, and MS can't meet demand as well as Sony (even though there many be more 360 demand), then this 'real' gap may stay roughly the same.

I feel MS needs to sell more this fall to beat the PS3.

I thought its standard to take the most conservative number which is to round down.

I agree with your comments though.