Actually AFAIK the big 3 all report the same these days: shipped to retail. None of the big 3 report sold to consumer, because, well, nobody nows this number accurately down to the last console. And when companies report sales figures for financial reporting purposes they can't report estimates, they have to report actual number of units sold. The only numbers they can report accurately are the number of consoles that leave the factory floor (but at that point they are stock on hand in the console maker's inventory), and the number of consoles they invoice to THEIR customers, meaning retailers/independant distributors.

That's not to negate your point however. Fact is 2.something million difference between Sony shipped and VGC consumer purchases is actually well within VGC's tolerance. Sony certainly has inventory in the retail chain, and that could be as much as 1 million without it being an unreasonably large amount of stock to be in the retail system. So the potential "under track" by VGC is more like 1.something million, not 2.something million. 1.something million as a % of total PS3 sales is something between 3 and 5%. People who are going to cry over a 2.5-5% error on a site that explicitly states sales numbers are an estimate really have no business being here, and certainly have no business making comments.

I'd like to see LTD sales numbers be accurate to within 3%, regular adjustments over time should improve accuracy considerably, compared to the sort of error that can be expected on weekly sales (10-15% I'd say is acceptable for weekly sales, 5-10% for quarterly / yearly). A 5% LTD accuracy would be at the upper end of acceptable, but still reasonable if that was only for one console out of the 5 hardware units being tracked and all the rest were under that 3%.

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but there's got to be enough uncertainty in the system to throw another measly little 21,000 onto the PS3 sales for 19 December 2009. C'mon guys, you know you want to. We know that there's no way PS3 is overtracked LTD, so such a tiny little adjustment that doesn't corrupt the numbers in the slightest would be such a nice thing to see.

They flush now? When did this happen?

Didn't think Bioshock 2 would be in the bargain bin just yet. But I guess 6 months has passed since launch; damn the year is going by so phreakin' fast.

Comparing Sony with Microsoft for simplicity here, from what I know of the two and I may be wrong!:

You have to remember that Sony and Microsoft are completely different entities and the way they record shipments are completely different. Sony are a traditional manufacturer so they record sales as they get them. If for instance they get 3M PS3 orders they will record the revenue in the quarter they take the order, hence shipments for them are orders. Microsoft on the other hand books shipments in the quarter they are actually fulfilled. Their business model doesn't rely on inventory, if they sell 20M more Windows 7 operating systems this quarter they don't ship 20M discs. They book the revenue and hence shipments in the quarter that they are actually fulfilled. When they pre-sold Windows 7 to retail for instance, they deferred that revenue to the actual launch of the operating system.

P.S. All financial statements are meant to be accurate estimates. 

http://www.northernadvocate.co.nz/local/news/new-loo-replaces-last-of-dreaded-dunnies/3907578/

End of an era!

I guess you're right about the year going by quickly, but thats good because Civ 5 has all of my attention and for what its worth I believe the year cannot go by quickly enough!

I only care about

4

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS) Nintendo

2

43,719

83,177

:)

That's very very simple. X360 slim sales mostly to existing userbase as it's most logic solution for everone whose first or second year xbox is still alive and working.

Well of course the X360 is still falling, duh. Even the PS3 slim wasn't the best thing since sliced bread after the rush of it's launch. Console revisions do help on the medium range, but won't change this generation result as... some members... were expecting to.

What makes you think Sony could afford another pricedrop?

Nice numbers overall.

Great 360 numbers!

And look at Dragon Quest IX! Second week > First week!!!