I merely said it is a feat to ship 5.5 million units, because the PS3 is a beast of a system and Sony manufacturing really got their act together in calendar Q1, unlike Nintendo. And I've also read Nintendo's statement "actually we planned to reach out to new distribution channels thse days, but we still have trouble delivering to the existing ones" (paraphrasing) and you have to commend Sony for having delivered everything the channel partners wanted. That is more a mark of the Wii's unexpected popularity than a fault of Nintendo. Nintendo is shipping more Wii's than the PS3, has shipped far more than the PS3 and has still sold out. As far as I know Nintendo have met every shipping target that they had set, its merely that Nintendo themselves werent expecting this much demand for their console. The fact is Sony is the company that has been hardest hit by delays this generation, their original targets for shipping were far higher and they have merely been revised. I think this was largely down to manufacturing problems concerning the blu-ray player.

Rath,

It's a company with a product that doesn't sell, so what. Isnt that the entire point of a product?

Reverie. One more time.

Saying "shipped" when you shipped is honest. Saying "sold" when you shipped is dishonest.

Good for them that they boosted production. Bad thing is seems like less people are buying 'em so like I said without context to how it is TRULY sold it sort of means nothing.

Nintendo outships THEM which if you think Sony is impressive should REALLY impress you with Nintendo's production. HOWEVER, their inability to meet demand is a GOOD thing when you notice the rapid rate of buying. They increase and increase and still can't meet demand. Worldwide except in a few regions they are selling out as soon as they make 'em and are desparately trying to match demand which only seems to grow. That's a good thing.

Sony increases supply when no one hardly is buying worldwide. So bragging about boosting shipment and confusing terms as if to say "sold" REALLY meaning shipped is bogus and dishonest. That's a bad thing.

It's about context. Sony or no other company has to announce personally their true sold figures if they don't want. But it's nice if they do. However when announcing figures NEVER substitute "sold to retailers" as simply "sold" because it's misleading. THAT'S the issue I'm talking about.

Nintendo said by end of fiscal year they SOLD 5.84 million worldwide. Nintendo announced their REAL sold figure because remember they announced 6 million shipped by end of fiscal year. They didn't say "sold" when talking about shipment projections. They said "shipped". That's the difference between them and the other two.

Nintendo doesn't have to play that channel stuffing game because they're straight up with what they're doing. Miyamoto admitted that Zelda: TW is not selling well in Japan. He didn't hedge, he didn't hem and haw, he came straight out and said it. When you get that kind of honesty you can trust a company's intentions. So there's your company who announces sold to customers figures.

Microsoft making big headlines early this year talking about 10 million sold and when I went back a few months ago to check up on old articles it seems most of 'em were taken down and you couldn't find anyone quoting that dishonest statement. Type in "microsoft 10 million sold" in a search engine. Only result is an old Digg link.

http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Microsoft_Crosses_10_million_Xbox_360s_Sold

Microsoft hasn't smelled 10 million YET 5 months going on 6 months later after this BS announcement. You have to have places like VGChartz keeping track of the reality to tell the real story. Your counterpart NextGenWars accepted those bogus numbers and keep XBox 360 headed toward 11 million range.

Even Wikipedia bought into that nonsense when "shipped" gets called "sold":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360

10.9 million sold as of March 31, 2007 indeed. Right there in the opening paragraph they call the 10.4 million number shipped by end of 2006. That's a long time to not get to 10 million when this is supposed to be such a gangbusters system. It was announced that way to fool people and that's what I don't like.

You say shipped when you mean shipped. And you say sold when you mean sold. Sold meaning sold to customers. If you can't say anything honest then don't say anything at all. ESPECIALLY on market performance. If I was an investor with Microsoft I would feel betrayed with lies like that. I'd wonder if I wasn't being taken for a ride. That's not how you do business, chief.

Sold to retail numbers are important but don't try to pass off Ralph Wolf as another lamb. Sam the Sheepdog don't like that and he'll pummel that wolf's face for the false representation. Don't give me that next quarter bull. Why do I have to wait 'til next quarter to see if you were straight with me or not? That means I wasted 3 months investing my hard-earned money in their delusions and willing confusions. See? I can't understand why you would accept such bullshit. What's the purpose of announcing numbers if I'm not seeing the full picture from your figures? It's bull and you know it.

Nintendo right now actually COULD pull this routine as shipped practically DOES equal sold at this point but they don't do that. You might be irked by their old monopolistic practices but you could never say they fudged the results of their performances.

Dishonesty and manipulation are pet peeves of mine. When I hear people spouting off about successes that were not earned I stand in protest. I got that feeling looking at EA financial sheets. Non-GAAP accounting is dishonest and hoodwinking in my opinion.

Check my article on Sega-Sammy and EA and then go to their sites and read their financial statements.

http://www.popzart.com/?page=view&topic=696

http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/pdf/release/english200703tanshin_final.pdf

Sega-Sammy's face figures were honest as far as I could ascertain. The figures were itemized and explained with a narrative. EA tried to hide poor performances and I didn't see any other game site talk about their decline outside of 4th quarter. They lost hella lot of money this year compared to last.

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:XltH4fnGxb0J:www.fsa.go.jp/inter/ios/press11.pdf+non-gaap+problem&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=us

http://itsolutions.sys-con.com/read/113873.htm

John Lucas

Nintendo's 5.84 million sold was also sold to retail you know, it's just damn close to actual consumer sell-through at this point.

Well why do people even bother saying shipped anymore then? If they're just gonna use the term as sold why bother? That's dishonest from Nintendo too then. Put a qualifier by it. That's all they got to do. SOLD...to retailers.

Guess I should just ignore financial statements from now on. They all play the word game.

That or just pay attention to the money alone since unsold goods eventually get taken back by producer for the loss. 

John Lucas

As a general rule, you should take all news from corporate companies with a grain of salt.

John, That's what I called hyperbole and vilification. Nintendo is stating "sold to retail" as "sold", Microsoft is stating "sold to retail" as "sold", Sony is stating "sold to retail" as "sold" and "left the factory" as "shipped". Nobody is announcing "sold to consumers" except NPD et al, there is no difference in the definition of "sold" between the big 3 and there is specifically no obfuscation in Sony's reporting as they explain what their different numbers refer to.

I'll remember that. Thank God for sites like these.

John Lucas 

Oh, and here's how fast Nintendo can ramp their production... http://www.vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii&reg1=Japan&cons2=Wii&reg2=America&cons3=Wii&reg3=All&weekly=1