Microsoft News Tracker

If you were wondering why Microsoft Xbox exec Peter Moore, in his brief appearance in Bill Gates’ CES keynote, introduced a new ship target of 4.5-5.5 million units by June, it’s because Microsoft isn’t going to make the original target of 3 million units in 90 days:

According to a report published in this morning’s Financial Times newspaper, Microsoft has abandoned its highly ambitious sales target of 3 million Xbox 360s delivered into the hands of consumers at the end of the console’s initial 90-day introduction period. Instead, the company will focus on the goal announced at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show of 4 million to 5.5 million units sold by the close at the company’s fiscal year at the end of June.

According to Peter Moore, chief of the company’s Xbox 360 division, the revision of sales estimates reflected the fact that “nothing’s perfect - [the Xbox 360 is] a complex piece of hardware that includes 1,700 different parts. Every now and again the line will slow down because something’s happened and there’ll be a component that didn’t make it that morning.”

There’s more by following the link and in the full Financial Times article (subscription required).

IGN has a reprise of some of the other facts and figures from Moore’s CES appearance here. Also, not that there was much doubt, but the announced HD DVD attachment for Xbox 360 is for movies, not for games.