Microsoft , Sony , Nintendo and probably all the other big companies always go with the shipping numbers, they don't actually track how much consoles sold to consumers. because thats not their job.
im even surprised how Kaz Hirai got something close to VGchartz numbers, they never went to the actual numbers just shipping, i guess they're feeling a bit proud.

Newcomers? I've been a member here for ages!

that is why we are REALLY sick of you indeed ...

Balmer making PR crap OK, VGC community hyping PR crap NO WAY

NOTE : neverthless, I do agree that 2.5M unit on retailers is pretty big and surprising for the end of the year, perhaps a bit of undertacking but that is another story

Maybe you should look on the forum a bit more libellule, there are many people on this site that get pis*ed off with you a lot lot more than they do with me, take a look, pot kettle black comes to mind.....

Microsoft does not know, can not know, and will never know how many consoles have been sold from retailer to customer. They can only report shipped numbers, just like every other company in the gaming industry.

You claim you're not a newcomer but if you've been here for a while you'd know this.

LIES, your post number says so!

(lmao i almost beat your post numbers and this is my second account , i salute you for being a slow poster)

Just a simple question: how does MS know how many are sold from the retailer to the customer?

can you be more precise ? what is the "pot kettle black" ?

also, look how all the posts say "MS PR all the way" ... you are alone on this one

I think the actual quote was "around the world" not in homes
http://themindchannel.blogspot.com/2010/01/ms-over-39-million-xbox-360-consoles.html
I do think the 360 is undertracked a little though because in no way do I see that many consoles on the shelfs or in the warehouse this close to after christmas. That many consoles would equal to around 2 months worth of sale "give or take".
But again let me say that in no way am I dishing vgcharts because with such large numbers that are involved here spread around so many countries to be only off a couple hundred thousand is something really great.

I also think that it is a bit much consoles to be on the shelves but if you look at it this way, MS has had a holiday season that has been quite a bit lower than they had last year so it makes sense for them to ship the same amount of consoles that they would have done last year, only for these not to sell as much and thus more sitting in the warehouses of retailers waiting to be sold... It is possible!