Shipped VS. Sold: Blurring The Line

Submitted by James Munn on January 8, 2007 – 7:00 am9 Comments

A little rant action coming at’cha. Last night, Kotaku dropped an article stating that the PS3 has sold more units than the Xbox 360 sold in each system’s first six weeks at retail. While I guess since it’s on the internet it’s got to be true, I think the numbers need clarifying.

The press release from Sony states:

“…that more than one million units of its recently launched PLAYSTATION

Subnet6

“Why don’t they tell us how many copies of Moblie Suit Gundam for PS3 were, “sold in to the retail channel in North America?” They won’t, because then we’d know exactly how many copies didn’t sell.”

Good point.

And yes, I agree, this new “phraseology” is sneaky and intentional. They know people bitch about the whole “shipped” vs. “sold” so they worded this on purpose. As much as I’m looking forward to many Sony titles, this just bothers me about them. The really infuriating thing is that the other 2 have followed suit because it makes it look bad for anyone quoting “sold”. Tell us sold, or tell us they don’t have the numbers, enough of the BS.
http://www.farbot.com/ Paul

It always pays to read carefully. Makes me glad English was my first language. Oh wait, it’s my only language too. Doh!
http://www.infendo.com Jack

Sony, they’re so full of ship these days.
bill

don’t the retailers buy the items from sony though? so techinically didn’t sony sell those items that got shipped? I’m asking this as a serious question. I still think its great news sony shipped 1 million, everyone harped all over htem calling them a bunch of liers becuase they said they would ship 1mil by the end of 2006…they have…so you have to give them respect in that area. The peopel that said sony wouldn’t do it were wrong.
James

I believe Sony actually said they’d ship 2 million by end of year, Bill. I decided to leave that out of the article to stave off the flames a bit.

Although that was 2 million worldwide, so it wouldn’t apply to this article.
Subnet6

“don’t the retailers buy the items from sony though? so techinically didn’t sony sell those items that got shipped? I’m asking this as a serious question.”

The answer here is a bit muddy, and thats why we like to specify sold vs. shipped. In most cases, Sony/MS/Nintendo will launch a product and give a guarantee that if it doesn’t sell, they will buy it back from the retailers. Nintendo pioneered this practice back in the 80s after the gaming depression of 83. Retailers were scared to death of electronic games after they got caught holding onto millions of $ worth of cartridges/consoles that wouldn’t sell. Nintendo had to do something so they offered a buy back so the retailers would feel protected. Anyway, long story short, just because Sony ships consoles to retailers, it does not mean those consoles got into gamers hands.

The other problem with using “shipped” numbers is that shipped numbers include any warranty replacements, demo units, kiosks, etc.

The main point is that using shipped numbers does not give a good indication of how many units have actually been purchased by users and thats what we care about as gamers. How many other idiots like us are out there.

So, while “shipped” numbers are a pretty good indication of whats out there, it can still be misleading. If everyone used “sold”, there would be no ambiguity.
Bill

actually I beleive sony said they would ship 1 mil in Northern america by the end of 2006,and thats what they did. So I still give them props. And although using shipping numbers is a bit misleading, I still think this is a positive thing for sony and ps3 fans. I’m happy about it
Kyle

The fact is, Sony outselling at a “time-range” doesn’t really count for much. I knew it would sell fast, only because people in Japan are brainwashed into buying every Sony product that comes out.
Bill

Are you saying the only reason people got the ps3 was because they are brainwashed? I mean come on, the ps3 sold a lot of units, because its a good system and people want it, the same goes with the 360..its a good system and people wanted it, same with the wii. They are all great systems, this idea that people were brainwashed into buying a ps3 is childish, and if thats the only excuse you can come up with, you need to try harder. The fact of the matter is everyone was all over sony because they felt sony wouldn’t provide enough for launch, then sony provides 1 million so you could walk into a store and buy one in a lot of locations (thats how i got mine, just walked in and picked it up), so then people bashed sony because “they have too many units out and there is no demand” All this really is, is people trying to convince themselvs that they bought the better system, and its stupid. (and this goes for both sides) Both systems are great, and both will sell great numbers, (the 360 already has actually). We should just leave it at that. Sorry to go off subject for a bit, but this childish, “your system sucks” debate is getting old. Its almost as dumb as the “which is better coke or pepsi???”

Anyway, back to the article, sony shipping 1 million units is a good thing, it helped the launch, and its going to help the ps3 users of the world, so again I give props to sony for living up to its word on this.