FilaBrasileiro said:
Comrade Tovya said:
I'm sorry, but you are wrong. MS likely did ship as many units as they did, but they did not sell as many to customers via their distributors as they implied.
Secondly, it's absolutely not illegal to say you shipped more than you did. It is quite embarassing for a company to wrong however.
It would be illegal for MS to say that Sony stole their technology if they don't have the proof to backup the claim. An accusation requires proof or a civil suit can be brought against you for defimation of character at the very least.
Saying you sold 30 million copies of a game you only sold 300,000 copies of is not illegal, it's just embarrassing. You don't know anything about law... which is understandable, because not a lot of people do.
It is immoral, don't get me wrong, but it's by no means illegal. If you think it is, just look up civil code and prove me wrong. Better yet, don't waste your time, I've been sued for similar things before. A judge won't even look at the case unless you can provide undeniable proof that a companies misinformation had direct consequences on your products' bottom line... and even then a judge is likely to throw it out.
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Thinking about it, you might be right, it's illegal to put wrong information on the quaterly financials, i.e. what I said would be illegal if Sony put on their earning releases to investors that they shipped 40 million PS3s and made 1 billion on their gaming division. Since companies rarely put games shipped on their earning releases, then they can get away with that. Still I can't think of a time where a company said they shipped 2 million when they really didn't as you suggested.
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Spot on brother, it is REALLY illegal to be even a dollar off on quarterly financials... I've been audited too, so I know you are right :)
As for for misinformation, that happens everyday.. like Toshiba and HD DVD back during that fight. Everyday, either Sony or Toshiba was claiming a victory here or there. That's just part of PR... there is not a single industry that doesn't do it.
It's only illegal when either you lie on IRS filings (as you stated), SEC filings, or shareholder reports, or worse off when you provide documents to a court of law that provide false information (either in pretense or by complete accident). For civil suits it can be illegal as well... for example...
"We sold 300,000 copies of our game because our competition Sony's version will infect your console with a virus that will render your hardware useless"
Okay, the truth is you only sold 200,000 copies, but that's not what is going to get you in trouble (though it will be embarrassing should the true sales numbers come out). You better hope to god that their version of the game really does infect their console with a virus and renders it useless or you are going to have a serious judgement placed against your company for defaming their product with undo cause.
