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Forums - Sony Discussion - Is PS One overtracked on VGChartz (serious and honest question)

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Did the original PlayStation sell over 104 million units?

Yes, 104.25 is the correct number. 39 46.99%
 
No, 102.49 is more likely. 44 53.01%
 
Total:83
Mandalore76 on 22 April 2015
S.Peelman said:

I have said this like a hundred times already, Sony never shipped more than 102.49.

Though VGC is a bad reference for old consoles that aren't Nintendo (Nintendo blatently mentions the numbers on their site, so if even those were wrong...) in general. Better just to look at Wikipedia, which actually has sources. PS1's Wikipedia's source links to an old financial report buried somewhere on Sony's site, several quarters after the PS1 was discontinued, hard to argue Sony themselves. All SEGA consoles, the PS1 and the Atari consoles, also all wrong on VGC.

Yeah, I didn't know if this had been discussed at any length in the past or not.  Seeing as it has, I'm trying to figure out why the 104.25 total has stood for so long without any evidence whatsoever seeming to support it.  And yes, the source you reference is one of the links I included as part of my research.



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Raven on 22 April 2015

According to Sony's own shipment data, it is overtracked.

http://web.archive.org/web/20110722094946/http://scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps_e.html



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ethomaz on 22 April 2015

kowenicki said:

PsOne shipments stand at 102.5m actually.

 

Fiscal Year PS1
1995 4.30
1996 9.20
1997 19.37
1998 21.60
1999 18.50
2000 9.31
2001 7.40
2002 6.78
2003 3.31
2004 2.77

You are missing 2005 and 2006 shipments that doensn't exist in Sony site because they changed Production Shipment to Shipped to Retail in 2006... Sony stopped to update the site part of PSOne (even the shipment data for PS2 is not what is showed in the site because that).

Sony stopped to produce PSOne in March 2006... so there is 1 year data not covered that Sony didn't give PSOne numbers anymore like they stopped to give PS2 and they will stop to give PS3 numbers too.

102.49m is what Sony produced until March 2005.

PS. Fixed it is only one year of missing data... from March 2005 to March 2006 Sony didn't showed data for PSOne.



Mandalore76 on 22 April 2015
BraLoD said:
kowenicki said:
BraLoD said:


But wasn't it discontinued in 2006?

fiscal years.... and these are from Sony earnigns releases.  Its about as official as it can be.

It is 100% correct.

Evwn if it is fiscal years, there is one missing if it's been discontinued in 2006.

Maybe there is the reason it's 1.75 over that here (or not, I dunno)

Even if you suppose that another 2 million were manufactured the year it was discontinued, which besides the fact that there is no evidence to support this happened, why would they do that?  I mean, is it really plausible for it to have sold 4 million more units after 2005?  The PS2 was six years on the market at that point, fully Backwards Compatible with the PS1's software library, and by April 2006 was only $129 new at retail.  I can't fathom the amount of sales that people who support the 104.25 total are imagining the PS1 to have enjoyed in the 12th year and beyond of its lifecycle.

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Price_cuts



Mandalore76 on 22 April 2015
RolStoppable said:
ethomaz said:

You are missing 2005 and 2006 shipments that doensn't exist in Sony site because they changed Production Shipment to Shipped to Retail in 2006... Sony stopped to update the site part of PSOne (even the shipment data for PS2 is not what is showed in the site because that).

Sony stopped to produce PSOne in March 2006... so there is 1 year data not covered that Sony didn't give PSOne numbers anymore like they stopped to give PS2 and they will stop to give PS3 numbers too.

102.49m is what Sony produced until March 2005.

PS. Fixed it is only one year of missing data... from March 2005 to March 2006 Sony didn't showed data for PSOne.

The change in reporting started with fiscal year 2007, because that's when Sony had to cover up for the PS3 that performed far below expectations.

What really happened is that Sony didn't produce any PS1s during fiscal year 2006 and instead just sold off the remains that they had in their warehouses. Hence no shipments to report, so Sony announced that the system had been discontinued.

That makes a great deal more sense than imagining Sony producing 2 million more units of PS1 to have to sell through in the 11th year and beyond of it's life, with PS2 already having been on the market for 5 years, and with the PS3 about to release in November of 2006.



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AlfredoTurkey on 22 April 2015
Mandalore76 said:
Ka-pi96 said:
Mandalore76 said:

Which still begs the question, where does the 104 million+ number come from?  If VGChartz is correct, baring in mind that Sony had just announced PS1 crossing 100 million units in 2005, and then discontinuation in 2006; then Sony would have sold 4 million PS1's in the 12th year of its lifespan (6 years into PS2 being on the market)?

That's not necessarily true. Discontinued just means they stopped making new ones, they still would have had old stock to sell so the rest of those sales wouldn't all have been in 2006.

However that said, it does look like you are right and it is overtracked.

100% agree with you, but sales would have decreased significantly from that point on.  Could it have really added up to another 4 million units after that point is what I really mean to say.


Every single source of sales has the PS1 above the Wii though. So it's not just VGchartz you are questioning but rather every sales report and analysis in the world. 

I'm pretty sure that if the Wii outsold the PS1, it would have come out by now.



DialgaMarine on 22 April 2015

Uuuummm... Who cares?



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AlfredoTurkey on 22 April 2015
Ka-pi96 said:
AlfredoTurkey said:
Mandalore76 said:
Ka-pi96 said:
Mandalore76 said:

Which still begs the question, where does the 104 million+ number come from?  If VGChartz is correct, baring in mind that Sony had just announced PS1 crossing 100 million units in 2005, and then discontinuation in 2006; then Sony would have sold 4 million PS1's in the 12th year of its lifespan (6 years into PS2 being on the market)?

That's not necessarily true. Discontinued just means they stopped making new ones, they still would have had old stock to sell so the rest of those sales wouldn't all have been in 2006.

However that said, it does look like you are right and it is overtracked.

100% agree with you, but sales would have decreased significantly from that point on.  Could it have really added up to another 4 million units after that point is what I really mean to say.

Every single source of sales has the PS1 above the Wii though. So it's not just VGchartz you are questioning but rather every sales report and analysis in the world. 

I'm pretty sure that if the Wii outsold the PS1, it would have come out by now.

He's not questioning whether the PS1 outsold the Wii or not, regardless of which amount the PS1 sold it would still be ahead of the Wii. He's just questioning the final sales figures of the PS1 and he has legitimate sources to back his claims up as well.


If that's the case though, why? It doesn't really change anything. lol



S.Peelman on 22 April 2015
Mandalore76 said:
S.Peelman said:

I have said this like a hundred times already, Sony never shipped more than 102.49.

Though VGC is a bad reference for old consoles that aren't Nintendo (Nintendo blatently mentions the numbers on their site, so if even those were wrong...) in general. Better just to look at Wikipedia, which actually has sources. PS1's Wikipedia's source links to an old financial report buried somewhere on Sony's site, several quarters after the PS1 was discontinued, hard to argue Sony themselves. All SEGA consoles, the PS1 and the Atari consoles, also all wrong on VGC.

Yeah, I didn't know if this had been discussed at any length in the past or not.  Seeing as it has, I'm trying to figure out why the 104.25 total has stood for so long without any evidence whatsoever seeming to support it.  And yes, the source you reference is one of the links I included as part of my research.

Well I never made a thread about it, moreso mentioning it here and there where it was appropriate, and I don't remember anyone else having a discussion to this extend, so that's good .



Mandalore76 on 22 April 2015
AlfredoTurkey said:
Mandalore76 said:
Ka-pi96 said:
Mandalore76 said:

Which still begs the question, where does the 104 million+ number come from?  If VGChartz is correct, baring in mind that Sony had just announced PS1 crossing 100 million units in 2005, and then discontinuation in 2006; then Sony would have sold 4 million PS1's in the 12th year of its lifespan (6 years into PS2 being on the market)?

That's not necessarily true. Discontinued just means they stopped making new ones, they still would have had old stock to sell so the rest of those sales wouldn't all have been in 2006.

However that said, it does look like you are right and it is overtracked.

100% agree with you, but sales would have decreased significantly from that point on.  Could it have really added up to another 4 million units after that point is what I really mean to say.


Every single source of sales has the PS1 above the Wii though. So it's not just VGchartz you are questioning but rather every sales report and analysis in the world. 

I'm pretty sure that if the Wii outsold the PS1, it would have come out by now.

That's not at all what I'm saying.  If you read my opening statement, and any/all comments I made beyond that, I clearly state that even if you adjust the PS1's numbers down to 102.49 (where every other source indicates it should be), that is still over a million units above where current Wii sales are stated to be.  I also clearly admitted that I don't believe the Wii will reach the PS1's total at it's current snails pace.  All I said was that every source I could find, besides VGChartz, has PS1's final sold through number as 102.49 million.  I very purposefully did not try and make this a thread about "do you think Wii has actually outsold PS1", or even "do you think Wii will eventually outsell PS1".  That's not what this thread is about.  It's strictly about why VGChartz is the only site stating PS1 total units sold as 104.25 million.