He accounted for shipped vs sold at retail. Read the thread before posting. His original position is that it should be 1.5 million under sold to retail. According to ioi, that is on the high end of normal for the retail channel. We also have some data for the week of January 2nd. Unless you think they had a week that is ridiculous beyond comparison it will be still in the 2 million range which is high given statements by the guy who gives us the numbers. He has a point.

So if normally it's should be 1-1.5 mil for systems on shelves and in backrooms, don't you think that during the Christmas season it should go up to make sure that demand is meet?  Common sense tells me yes.  I mean it is only around a 500k difference, and that's spread around the entire world.  Plus, retailers probably were expecting a repeat of last year's Christmas for the 360.  They probably figured parents would be in a mad rush to buy a gaming system, and most of those sales would go to the cheaper systems, the Wii and Arcade.  Unfortunately for them, they were only half right.

Then again, as others have stated, maybe it's just MS flooding the channel to make their holiday season look better and/or meet projections.

Going into the Christmas season, yes there absolutely should be a surplus. Coming out of it I would expect a return to more normal levels as shipments would taper off over the holidays as needed.

The point everyone arguing with me is missing is that I am not saying it should be adjusted. There are several plausible explanations, and undertracking is just one of them. I have consistently said it warrants a comment from the numbers guys to clarify.

I've been reading the thread since it started. That still doesn't explain why you ever brought up the whole shipment thing. If MS said they've shipped 39mil 360's, then they've shipped 39mil 360's. Companies like Ninty, MS and Sony usually ship their hardware in advanced. Also, I understand your position on 2mil being too high, but, I wanted to point out that his magic 3mil figure was pulled directly out of his ass, because according to basic math, the answer simply is not 3mil.

Now, if he really did OBJECTIVELY consider ship vs sold, he would've that his 1.5mil number is total bs. Since we can safely say that with the extra weeks data, the difference will be 2mil, that means, that according to ioi, 1.5mil on shelves is possible, it is undertracked by 500k, not 1.5mil. Personally, I don't think that's the case... I think MS overshipped the damn console because they expected higher sales. In any case, if there is a discrepancy, it would be in Others, since the PS3 was beating out the 360 by very large margins.

Now for the bolded part..  I was the first one to bring up the 2mil number... How can you possibly imply I am expecting the number to be below 2mil? The point is this, if there are adjustments to be made, they will be made. I still don't see the reason why he needed to barge in here and accuse VGC of purposely slacking off or undertracking. 

I realize you aren't saying it should be adjusted.  And yes, I would like to hear from ioi, too.  My point is if MS flooded the channel, it's not going to drop right away.  The info is for the week ending Jan. 2nd, not far enough off of Christmas to get all that stock sold.  But, I would expect that the following weeks shipments of 360's will be next to nil, at least until most of the backroom stock is sold.  Then again, they may continue to flood the channel.  The 2009 fiscal year ends this March, afterall.  Might just be trying to reach projections.

this

This.

Gnizmo, you're speaking as if we are well into the year already. Of course we are still going to be seeing the effect over an over-stuffed market. It's been a week since January 2nd, this haven't changed much, and I do expect the shipments to drop, but you won't see them affecting the huge Holidays shipments in a week! 

I continue to point this out, but for some reason you aren't reading it. I am not saying he is right. I am saying he has a point. Him being aggressive about pointing it out does not invalidate the claim. I don't see why you have to shut down anyone who has a question about the numbers that is valid. You continue to dance around the heart of the matter, and just try to dismiss it out of hand. That is far worse that an agressive accusation.

Wow I thought haters like the Original poster died a long time ago. Wow I'm amazed that people so ignorant still exist on these forums. I guess your next post is going to be the PS3 is doomed again or Uncharted 2 and GOW3 are just overhyped pieces of crap. Man get the hell out of here with that shit. Leave the hate at the login page. Your kind ain't welcome

No, I am speaking as if we are right where we are for the year in sales. You don't ship massive quantities of consoles when they aren't going to sell for no reason. I can't imagine they would keep sending them in the same hige number after the holiday spike. The more sensible approach would be start sending them in mid november, and taper it off around mid to late december right before demand spikes, and drops. There is still very possibly a large supply, but the last time I recall ioi commenting on shipped vs retail figures was about now a year or 2 back.