That's the first time I've ever visited N4G. Those people scare me.

Ah.  Got you.  For the manufacturer and shareholders the focus is shipped.  It's accurate and it's directly tied to how the manufacturer makes their money.  Sony and MS know exactly what they've shipped, for what cost price and under what (if any) deal agreements with their retail customers.

Sell through is also important, but not in the way VGChartz is trying to report it for us.  Sell through is simply a periodic confirmation that the goods are popular and selling well.  As you say it is rarely of huge important to the actual manufacturer unless they had cause to feel sell through was worringly low.

However, in the face of good demand and steady orders retail sell-through isn't hugely important vs the order frequency/volume as that drives the manufacturing supply chain.

So, of course Sony and MS want to know that their goods are selling at retail.  But periodic visibility plus orders plus other ways of judging success (PSN subscriptions / Live subscriptions) come into play.

Also, as per your final point, with sell-through being inhernetly ambigous the focus is on shipped, returns, paid invoices, outstanding invoices and deals for the manufacturer.

It's normally the retailer's decision in terms of safety stock, etc. and buffer stock which is where the difference between shipped and sell-through comes from.

Just want to say this.

When the 360 was doing well, ioi was a MS fanboy.

When the PS3 was selling exceptionally well, ioi was a Sony fanboy.

That's just how it works on N4G.

They don't even know the Quarters of these announcements lol.

They should really not attack ioi like that. 

There are much easier targets to attack at this site like me and other horrible VGChartz members.

Ugh...I got a headache reading through these comments...HUMANITY. WHY.

Don't give them any more hits, that response was worse than basically anything I've seen here.

this is just one of the reasons I left that site a long time ago(don't even remember my username or password)

Hate comments are the funniest and give the most entertain.

Imagine how much that guy hates ioi to attack him on an entirely different website.

Wow, I can't beleive how hatefull the comments are here, don't they realize the difference between PS3 units shipped and 360 units sold?

One guy even said that MS filled retailers with so many 360's at one point, that the next quarter it shipped zero consoles (in 2008).

Even some of the comments there point out, PS3 units shipped versus 360 units sold.

Sad..

Lol ->

Vgchartz - fake sales numbers
Gametrailers - fake graphics comparisions
Beyond3d - fake graphics hardware info
1Up/Eurogamer reviews - trashing PS3 exclusives

Sad how far some fans will go to defend their favorite consoles. Don't they understand that Sony and MS only want their money..

Also that article claims VGChartz was started in 2005 by a hardcore X-Box fan to inflate numbers. VGChartz started in 2005, just a little before the 360 came out, and the original XB posted poor console sales. I really doubt the guy who started VGChartz started it before the 360 came out, to overinflate 360 numbers, when no one knew the quality (game-wise) of the 360 at the time.