Given Microsoft's shipped numbers, and the usual struggle to maintain stock during the holidays, it's likely we have undertracked the 360 at least somewhat, and it wouldn't be very hard at all to erase the rather small gap we have between it and the ps3, putting 360 in first for the year. So I'd say they're probably right, if not definitely right depending on what information they have.

But I do wonder what information they're basing this on. They'd definitely know their own shipment figures and would at least have a rough estimate of sell through based on that, but how do they determine Sony and Nintendo's figures? Especially given the lack of tracking in areas like Southeast Asia, where a company like Sony has a relatively strong presence?

Is it just shipped vs shipped? Sell through vs sell through? Is "worldwide" just a compilation of worldwide trackers, like NPD, Media-create, and Chart-track?

I wish we could know more about these companies' internal methodology, but that'll probably never be the case. =(

Earlier in the year MS claimed their goal for number 1 was sold to consumer not shipments.

I should also think shipment and financial info isn't top secret, I mean these companies obviously have moles in some sort of fashion.

Also (know you already covered it) but if they have 66.8 shipped or w/e that's like 9.2m shipped this Q, 300k less than what Sony expect for Q4 AND Q1. They might not even need Sony numbers to determine they're ahead.

TBH the only element I'm not sure on it whether MS would know this quickly what PS3/Wii has sold to consumers.  Shipments are a matter of public record, and they would also be able to get a decent idea of latest shipments too - but sold would be harder, particularly for PS3.  That would mean either having info they probably shouldn't (which I doubt they'd make public statements on) or somehow getting retailers sellling PS3 but not 360 to let them know sales (which seems very iff).

I suspect they're comparing their sold vs a good knowledge of Sony shipped and factoring in an estimate for inventory in supply have decided they have to be ahead for the year.

Really? NPD is this thursday (and it's not like they need to wait to know how they were doing through Dec, they could have been getting periodic updates through the month.

Ok. So Sony at their conference gave that 3.9 Holiday figure. They never said anything about being #1 worldwide. On the flip side, Microsoft at their conference released the "over 66 million 360's and over 18 million Kinects sold" and to top it off they said they were #1 worldwide. The fact that they even said this at CES tells me they must be pretty damn sure about it. Not to mention that Sony or Nintendo have not said anything to dispute this claim. At this point I believe the discussion should be by how much they won, not if they won.

@Seece, How does  "Sony at their conference gave that 3.9 Holiday figure" compare to VG chartz?

Microsoft didn't provide sales for the year.

I think I'll go with VgChartz for now.

Que pasa? No hablas Ingles?

Why would they, that's what the quartely financials are for...

Nobody is saying it's wrong to wait (I think), what we are saying is wrong is people saying these figures are incorrect then using evidence of a site based on statistical analysis and estimation as fact.  Most users here know full well they can often be out by several hundred thousand over the holiday period giving the huge difficulties in tracking sales at the end of the year.  If the statements true then it isn't the biggest adjustment on record the sites done, I seem to recall 2009 the adjustments were pretty epic and the Wii figures have frequently been out a lot over the years.  It's just the nature of the figures they work with, they're only as accurate as the last lot of data received.

They said the 360 had over 66 Million users (sold to customer) Vgchartz has the 360 at 64.4 Million....you do the math.