Seeing as how we are debating accounting methods, we will continue to disagree even though we are actually agreeing.

I disagree, we will continue to agree about disagreeing.

Meh, not any worst than the weekly "PS3 undertracked" claims.

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People like to cherry pick stuff to argue; especially things that will help their claims. Funny thing is when the discussion changes slightly to benefit something else they do not favor, they will flip flop.

Sony shipped more than MS; kinda obvious. They did sell more systems. Official gap,  depends on what numbers you want to argue.

What you said....

Good numbers, I think the gap will close up heaps this year. And hopefully we will see a ps3 price drop.

VGC says Sony shipped 2.30 million more PS3's in 2010 then 360's, but the difference in units sold is 790k. Shortages started mid december, and MS asked retailers to sell their January/February stock in order to meet holiday demands. Thus the week ending January 1st we already see shortages significant;y affecting sales.

MS can only ship as much as retailers are willing to buy, correct, but if they can't ship as many units as retailers request, then the difference in the number of units shipped will be misleading.

Sony outshipping 360's despite not selling as many PS3 units can only be attributed to two factors. An expected major jump in hardware (1.5 million if they were to sell as many units in relation to units shipped as MS), or MS experiencing shortages. Since MS specifically have outspoken and sent a message to reatialers about shortages, and seeing the holidays ending, I think the second case is in reality whats happening.

So if you add 1.5 million (as stated above, the difference in the number of PS3's shipped - sold compared to MS) to the number of shipped 360's. Then the shipped difference would be 4.38 million, which would imply MS is growing the gap between the 360 and PS3, and this is verified by stronger 360 hardware sales, despite the ongoing shortage (MS said until at least February, 360's will still be seeing shortages).

What it seemed you are suggesting is that MS needs to just ship more consoles to help pull away from Sony.  What I am saying is that retailers have to order those consoles for MS to ship them, just like Sony.  Yes, MS started having shortages in January due to increased demand during the holiday season, but it was not a WW issue.  Only in a few regions, and mostly America.  But the shortages that MS were seeing in Jan will not affect 2010's results.  If anything it helped them because they had to ship more from their projected Jan shipment.  Plus, since MS was expecting the shortages to be straightened out by Feb (and the weekly sales in America suggest they pretty much already had by the end of Jan) then the only thing it will affect is seeing a larger shipment number in their Jan-Mar financial report.  Again, that increased number is not going to be a mil or more than what Sony posts in its financial report.

too bad, this debate always comes down to shipped vs. sold.  I thought that the VGchartz number was based on sold to consumers, and that is what we are debating.  Yet half the numbers in here are the shipped to retailer numbers.  

To thismeintiel's point, I don't think this is about M$ just shipping more units and that makes the difference up.  I think that it is more related to the fact that the actual number of units sold to consumers are one # and the Shipped to retail/resellers is another.

No you misunderstand, I'm not sugesting MS will pull away more sales then Sony, I'm saying that if you look at shipped consoles, you would infer the gap in sales is smaller then it actually is, and that thats because of shortages on the 360.

MS is selling to retailers every console they make, and for a month, they couldn't even meet demands. Thus the PS3 shipped number should be higher in proportionto sales.

Those shortages definatly affected shipped consoles in 2010. Sony did not sell every console they shipped in 2010, MS did. Ontop of that, sales were reduced, just like in the case of Wii launch in 2006, because not all locations were able to maintain an inventory. Severe shortages started just after christmas, meaning MS barely had enough consoles to meet holiday demands. Not was MS not able to meet demand in the final week of 2010, retailers were't able to meet demands, thats why 360 droped from a 120% of PS3 sales, to 80%. So shortages will definatly affect units shipped in 2010.

Basically, Ms didn't expect that Kinect would boost sales as much as it did. So they didn't initially ship as much as Sony. When Kinect released, 360 sales jumped significantly, and the number of consoles in retailers hands all started becoming sold out. MS quickly produced more consoles, but wasn't able to meet demand. So despite outselling the PS3 in the second half of 2010, the number of shipped units is low because MS simply didn't expect to sell so well and sold out. Retailers still want 360's, but the problem is that MS cannot produce them fast enough.

Sony on the other hand had a high goal of selling 15 million PS3's in the 2010 fisical year. They produced PS3's accordingly and shipped to demand. MS just didn't 360s and when the holidays hit they were unprepared. Thats what shortage is, not being able to meet demands.

LOL at only a few regions. The US and UK make up more then 50% of the global video game market, and 70% of the 360 market. Shortages in 70% of the effected market is hardly a few regions.

So in summary, my point is that judging the gap between PS3 and 360 by units shipped is misleading. Although MS is now meeting basic console demands, retailers still have low inventory's, where PS3's are stocked up since there was no PS3 shortage. You have to judge the gap by units sold.

Anything is still possible especially a long term race like this one.

But still in any case microsoft can still give themselves a good pat in the back for doing a good job so far when people expected them to stay a permanent 3rd this gen.