Even though I've probably butted heads with Just_Ben, he's perfectly within reason for this post. 11.1 from what is expected here at VGchartz, and 11.6 by what the link claims are possible. Sure, ioi does a heck of a job and is very accurate on his numbers, but like any single fan or person with a hobby there is a margin of error and 500k units is well within those margins of errors.

Just_Ben, don't leave, you are a heck of a contributor here and in my eyes are welcome here. It's just that news like this is damaging to the psyche of Nintendo Fanboys as this would mean that the Wii and 360 are in a virtual dead heat, and MS's big gun game is coming out next week which could possibly push them ahead of the Wii again. The Nintendo fanboys are very protective of their precious Wii and anything said that could be interpreted as bad news for the Wii is instantly condemned and they want that person to shut up and leave.

But there are those who like the Wii and are fans of it, but they aren't so negative with the other consoles and are good people. I'm sure you can see in this thread who is who. ;)

 Wow, that second paragraph sure amps the troll factor. I am so happy you put in that third paragraph to tone it down some.

 Or, we just defend the site, think about that before trying to insult people.

i agree, except for the very first bit.....the 11.6M is reffering to the end of June, which would mean (if the 11.6 was sales to consumers) that ioi was 1.5M out.

the 11.6M is for MS sales to retailers as of the end of June, which fits in nicely with iois numbers (1.5mil on store shelves or in retail stock throughout the world)

This is just MS's old 11.6 number from June, which they included in a batch of data they gave to Next-Gen.biz

For whatever reason, NG.B assumed that it was up-to-the-second sold-to-consumers number. Of course in reality, it was just all of MS's most recent numbers compiled together. When do any of the companies announce sold-to-consumers numbers, and when do they even report sold-to-retaillers outside of quarterly reports and sales milestones? Hint: they don't.

I remember in January of this year when there was a poster ranting and raving on and on about how MS had sold at the very least 10M 360's, and were likely pushing 11M. In January. There's no actual evidence that VGC has been misrepresenting 360 sales, but people have been convincing themselves that they are for a good long time now.

I'll be honest. I didn't read the link. Most of the times I don't look at the links at all and gauge what is said by what is posted in the thread. The way I understood it just by reading the posts was that they were referring to 11.6 million sold to consumer as of the end of august, or middle of September. That could be possible. And it would certainly be within the margin for error for estimations.

I'm not saying that ioi is wrong or that this site is flawed. Nothing is perfect when you cannot get solid numbers from every retailer in a timely fashion, but vgchartz seems to be quite accurate and has been quoted by the national media which adds to the credibility of the site. What Just_Ben was saying is that if it were true that MS was at 11.6 million, that it's still an impressive number. And my thoughts are that if it's the case, with Halo 3 coming out next week, don't be shocked to see 360 numbers briefly spike above the Wii during the next few weeks.

Neos, I could say things to insult you, but I'll pass and stay civil. :)

I'm inclined to believe the Microsoft official who spoke was refferring to the 11.6 million shipped through June, and that next-gen misinterpreted what was said, or that Microsoft just mispoke.

Why do I think this?

Well, it isn't October yet.  That means the big three have not accounted for the number of hardware and software units shipped from July 1 to Sept 30.  One of the European sales trackers announced 360 sales were 260% higher in the UK after the price drop, but the leaked numbers I saw showed that 360 was still selling under 50k/week in Europe (and by extension Others which includes Aus, NZ, etc), while at about the same time a report came out from a European agency saying that Wii was moving 90k/week in Europe.

My inclination is that through August, Wii is basically at ~7.7 million in Japan/USA & Canada 3.4 million/4.3 million split while 360 has ~7.1 million in a 400k (Jap)/and 6.7 million split between USA & Canada.

The question is, was Wii within 600k of 360 in others by the end of August?  I'm inclined to believe it was - because it was outselling 360 in it's best Euro market - the UK - by ratios of 2:1 upto 4:1 prior to the August price cut for 360.  That means 10 months of Wii sales would be equal to 20-40 months of 360 sales.

Basically, I think Microsoft was estimating their figures for TGS.  But even if they weren't and knew exactly how many consoles they sold, then ioi's margin of error was well under 10%.  You have to remember - the data could be underestimating Wii sales a bit as well.

Reading comprehension FTL.

Ben never questioned ioi's numbers and the disrepency between MS and ioi's numbers are within reason. He's not attacking VGCharts, he's just opening up a line of discussion about some numbers he found quoted from MS.

Some of you need to get your panties out of a bunch... There is nothing wrong with this thread and Ben just wanted to share information he found on the net. You can argue the validity of these numbers (which, I suspect is why Ben posted them in the first place) but to outright attack Ben for posting them is foolish and immature. No one is perfect and neither is ioi or VGChartz, though they're as accurate as can be given the information available.

Calm down, people.

What rocketpig said.

However, vaguely on topic: I don't believe that Microsoft (or Nintendo or Sony) has a 100% accurate way to measure the sold-to-customer amounts of a given console. They probably have access to more data than VGChartz does, but, unless they spent a rather large amount of money tracking down the sales data of every store that sold their consoles, they too would have a margin of error.

It also occurred to me that because of how sales work for video games, a majorly hyped title can bomb and the creators can still get most of their money back. The store owners have to foot a large part of the bill if only a low percentage of shipments sell.