Sony Announces GT5 "Sold" Millions

As ever, we're taking Sony's sales figures with a pinch of "do they actually mean 'shipped' when they say sold?" for the 5.52 million unites of GT5.

Here's the official wording, "As of December 6, more than 5.5 million units of Gran Turismo 5 have been sold worldwide. Gran Turismo 5 will further continue to contribute to the expansion of the PS3 platform."

That definitely says "sold" meaning "in the hands of customers" rather than "shipped", which means "in the hands of retailers."

The company continues, "Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced today that the cumulative worldwide sales of the Gran Turismo franchise, a genre-defining racing and car-life simulator available on PlayStation , PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 (PS3) and PSP (PlayStation Portable), has exceeded 60 million units* as of December 6, 2010. This remarkable sales figure was achieved in just 12 years and 11 months since the Japanese launch of the first title in the franchise, Gran Turismo, in December 1997."

Notice the *? That refers to, "*Sell-in number". This in the deliberately obfuscatory language of Sony's business means, "shipped from Sony to retail".

The company also provides a breakdown of "sales" figures for the franchise.

Gran Turismo – 10.98 million Worldwide
Gran Turismo 2 – 9.34 million
Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec – 14.80 million
Gran Turismo Concept 2001 – 1.50 million
Gran Turismo 4: Prologue – 1.34 million
Gran Turismo 4 – 10.86 million
Gran Turismo 5: Prologue – 5.03 million
Gran Turismo PSP – 2.24 million
Gran Turismo 5 – 5.52 million

Source: Sony PR