Yesterday, many websites reported that Sony had sold 4.1 million PlayStation Move units. Destructoid and a handful of others reported that Sony had only shipped that many units. A few commenters accused us of BIAS but the egg was on their faces when Sony itself clarified the issue.
However, while shipping figures are far less impressive than sales figures, Sony is trying to spin it into a positive.
“While we don’t disclose our exact sell-through number, the key is that our retailers continue to ask for more Move units and are taking every unit we can supply them with based on their sales,” says Sony in its clarifying statement.
Sony is still claiming that PlayStation Move sales are doing incredibly well, which begs the question — why not just release the sales figures? If you claim that retailers are constantly selling out and that your large supplies are indicative of large sales, why do you refuse to show us the presumably brilliant numbers to back up your boast?
I’m not saying Move isn’t successful. It’d be cool if Move has sold enough to encourage the development of more supporting software. But hiding behind shipment figures and refusing to tell us how well the peripheral has actually performed just makes Sony look bad. If Sony has nothing to hide, it can just give us the numbers and be done with it.
I don’t recommend we swallow Sony’s shit until they produce some real figures as opposed to conjecture and spin.
