MS Guards Early Lead in Console Race

Ballmer says things are on track with the Xbox 360, welcomes Sony's PlayStation 3 delay.

Getting an early start in the console race hardly guarantees success - just ask Sega - but it certainly doesn't hurt. No surprise then that Microsoft was happy to hear of Sony's decision to delay the launch of the PlayStation 3 until November, giving Microsoft more time alone to work on lead the Xbox 360 is building.

"In every other generation, the first guy to 10 million consoles was the number one seller in the generation," Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer told Fortune magazine in an interview the day after Sony's announcement. "Did we just get an even better opportunity to be the first guy to 10 million? Yeah, of course we did."

Microsoft is, however, still struggling with actually making more Xbox 360s to sell. The console has been in short supply since its global debut in North America in late November, with Ballmer pointing to a particular production partner as the bottleneck.

Microsoft said earlier this year that it would sell 4.5-5 million Xbox 360s by the start of the summer.

The production issues are being sorted out; a third plant was recently brought online to crank out more Xbox 360s. But no one, least of all Microsoft, would deny that the company stumbled in the all-important year-end period.

"We're sort-of on track," Ballmer said, "though it would've been nice at Christmas to have one for everyone who wanted one."

Sony's announcement has given the company breathing room, but as Microsoft's Shane Kim said last week, it hasn't changed how the company is thinking. Top priority now for the company - as it has been all year - is to get more Xbox 360s onto shelves.

"We've been saying 'make them faster' before [Sony's announcement]," said Ballmer.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games