http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1953/a_rare_opportunity_on_piatas_.php

So Viva Piñata itself didn't, sales-wise, take the world by storm as much as everyone had hoped. Why do you think that was? How do you feel about that?

JC: I suppose we knew from the start that we were going out to the limit there, because we were going to do something different to the usual game for the 360, obviously. I don't know if it worked out badly for us -- we've got close to half a million sales now, so that isn't a terrible debut for a game.

Is that worldwide?

JC: Yeah, that's worldwide. I think it's about that number. And we seem to keep creeping along -- it doesn't just stop. We keep selling a few copies, a few copies... it might work out okay.

JT: I think from our point of view, it was interesting to see how the marketing budget was split last Christmas, because obviously everyone knew that Microsoft were publishing Gears of War and Viva Piñata. Yet, so much of the money went towards Gears of War, which is going to sell millions anyway. It was a bit of like, "What about the other franchise?" I think we got left in the wake somewhat. Hopefully with the PC version this Christmas, it might get something of a second wind.

Dunno if anyone even cares, I do. The vgcharts number is actually pretty close to this, but I figured ioi might wanna check some sources just in case.    

Uh, the database has it at 440K. So what's your problem?

He said it's close to half a million sales.

VGchartz says 440,000. That's close to half a million. I don't really see the problem.

God damn this site is accurate!^

maybe he just feels good inside about starting a thread that holds no importance

builds character

i'd say 440k is closer to 400k then 500k :p

It's called a marketing spin. "Close to" is a vaguely defined term that can be easily stretched.

450K sales? "Close to" half a million, give or take 50K.
100K sales? "Close to" half a million, give or take 500K.

440k x $60 (give or take)=$26,400,000 in sales. Even taking a bunch of cuts off those sales, I would say the game turned a profit (since this wasn't a big budget HD game, I hope), and would therefore look like a good future cash cow for Microsoft.