[QUOTE="LegatoSkyheart"][QUOTE="kuraimen"] M$ also counts shipped units FYIkuraimen
the 360 edition remark was not a point out to the Xbox 360. It was to point how People here make Circles to make their point more correct than the other.
I was reading the WiiU sold 2.2 million units thread where a lot of people were like "THAT'S SHIPPED UNITS! IT MEANS NOTHING!" yet here they are saying that Shipped Units mean everything.
All official numbers are based on shipped units so if shipped units didn't count there wouldn't be any arguing in the first place. Normally people who complain about shipped via sold don't know this.Ignore Kuraimen as he is an idiot and doesn't grasp anything except simple fanboyisms.
The reason for the apparent hypocrisy between WiiU shipped vs sales discussions and PS360 shipped vs sales discussions is based upon where the product is in its lifecycle.
The WiiU is at the launch phase. Manufacturing is making units to satisfy two requirements: 1. sell through at retail and 2. shelf inventory
Steady state is achieved when there is sufficient shelf inventory to meet demand. At that point manufacturing is making units to replenish shelf inventory only and sell through at retail is being fulfilled entirely by existing shelf inventory.
An easy way to think about it is to imagine 10 million units shipped in yr 1 of which 1 million units is on shelves as inventory at thousands of stores. You could make a distinction that 9 million units were sold at retail + 1 million inventory. Now in year 2, they also ship 10 million units. Total shipped is now 20 million of which there is still only 1 million in inventory at stores. This is because you cannot force retailers to keep taking lots of inventory.
If you think about this for a second it will become apparent that the retail sales rate is in fact different between the 2 years. Year 1 is 9 million. Year 2 is 10 million. This type of situation only matters up until the time that steady state is achieved and reasonable amounts of inventory are available at retail (not big shortages and not big over supply). This usually occurs within the first year.
PS360 have been at steady state for years; consequently, everything they ship is to replace units sold. Therefore we don't care about the distinction and shipped = sold. But if you wind the clock back to 2005 and 2006 the exact same arguments were being made about shipped vs retail sell through at that time. And at that time there was some degree of merit in discussing the issue.
Just like today with the WiiU. If there were no WiiUs sitting on shelves and manufacturing was having trouble meeting demand and you couldn't find a WiiU (like a Wii in its first year) then no one would make a distinction and everyone would view 2.2 million as retail sell through. But because you can find piles of WiiU in lots of places people are saying...wait a minute...that 2.2 million shipped is actually made up of retail sell through + inventory. And because it is quite possible that inventory levels could be substantial, people are saying that the 2.2 million is not impressive...at all.
Therein lies the difference, which is actually a reasonable discussion and not hypocrisy.
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