Whenever shipment data comes up, it's the prudent thing to point out that comparing last-generation systems with current-generation systems is a strange thing due to the very different launch schedules. Every console this generation launched in a shorter time frame than any console last generation. So I had the idea to form a different sort of worldwide total by pretending each console launched in all regions in the same quarter, to create a more comparable situation to this generation. The downside to this is it downplays the production improvements made this generation. Sony didn't launch the PS2 in Europe 9 months after in Japan just for kicks, but because they couldn't produce enough. Creating a view like this erases that difference.
The other disadvantage is... really only PS2 has enough data to do this accurately; at least through early 2007, when they shipped to their different current shipment-reporting method. There's worldwide and regionally split PS2 shipment data for every quarter (and then some). GCN and Xbox only had half-year shipment reports for much of their lives, so I can't do the necessary quarterly shifts. PS3 shipments aren't reported regionally, so I can't do the shift at all. Wii and Xbox 360 actually did launch worldwide in a single quarter, so there's no adjusting to be made.
So for what it's worth, here's the no-adjustment-needed X360 and Wii aligned with the adjusted PS2, where NA and EU launches have been pushed up three quarters.
It's pretty remarkable how similar Wii and the adjusted PS2 are. But then, they've always seemed similar when broken down into single-region comparisons, so I guess that makes sense.
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