Listen Blowfish, here's how sales numbers are generated:

A bunch of data is collected from retailers, kind of like a poll 'cause not all retailers will provide data.

An algorithm is applied to the data to extrapolate it to the entire market, based on historical data and target markets and such.

At the end you get a possible range of values due to built-in intervals for the algorithm. Most tracking services stick to the lower end of this range to give conservative estimates. The people doing the actual selling (Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, etc.) always choose the highest end of this range to be able to boast about higher sales. VGCharts is sitting near the middle of this range - thus why VGChartz is usually slightly higher than other tracking services and slightly lower than so-called "official" numbers from Sony/Nintendo/MS etc. Who's right? They all are, to some extent.

If you can't understand that, then there's no helping you.

And to everyone in this thread - lay off the attacks.

Insults!? Mercy me.  Fanboy is only an insult when it's not true (if it's not I cheerfully withdraw it, even though DKII lacks the "fear me" mod signature his ID is in red so I wouldn't want anyone thinking I was attacking you).  You're not supposed to do anything, although you could take the advice of most of the posters and get over it. 

Absolutely agree with this. Both on the statistical validity and on the personal attacks.

Blowfish, Sony is doing the exact same thing that VGChartz is. That needs to be pointed out. Despite the fact that they are an enormous company that's on the inside of the Video Game market, they don't recieve much, if any information that VGChartz wouldn't be privy to as well. They have no mystical omniscient powers. They simply get a sampling of store data which allows them to estimate how many are sold overall, just like VGChartz does. Do they probably have more sampling points? Yes, but the general method remains the same. And Sony will always, always take the highest estimation possible without simply lying.

Nintendo and Microsoft have also released sales data suggesting that VGChartz is wrong. I can think of at least two Microsoft press releases that suggest that European and American sell through is higher than VGChartz has estimated, but Ioi didn't change it for the exact same reason. Quick question -- should Ioi change the Xbox360 numbers as well?

Honestly, I can't remember Nintendo or X360 fanboys freaking out about such a small discrepancy.

They haven't. Remember when the Wii was under estimated by Ioi last time the NPD came out? He was 60,000+ behind. Don't remember a single complaint about that (even larger) discrepancy. 

Probably because they don't.

I think a lot of this PS3 fanboy backlash is from 20-somethings who have only played the Playstation brand and only saw its dominance over the past decade. To them, it's unfathomable that their precious console could ever lose a generation and they'll staunchly defend the PS3 no matter what.

To older folks like me who watched their childhood idols Atari and Sega smash themselves to pieces, we've learned that markets rise and fall and there's no need to get all hot and bothered about it. Since I started gaming, I've watched Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Nintendo, Sony, Sony, and Nintendo all rise to dominance at one point or another. I just don't care any more.

Sorry to take this rant off-topic. 

*hmm* this topic reminds me of the good old times

It's kind of pathetic really. There are 5-10% discrepancies between VGC numbers and Famitsu, M-Create and NPD numbers ALL THE TIME. But people don't cry bloody murder whenever there is a difference.

That's the nature of polling, there is always a margin of error.

I agree whole-heartedly.  I've taken several threads off topic with a similar spiel.