We missed 360 target - Moore

Peter Moore has confirmed to our sister site, GamesIndustry.biz, that Microsoft failed to meet its 12 million shipment target for Xbox 360 - but said he's confident we'll all be going bonkers for it come Christmas.

Here's the science bit: in a conference call, Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell said 11.6 million Xbox 360 consoles were shipped by the target deadline of June 30. Before downgrading its estimate to 12 million, Microsoft initially announced 13-15 million units would be shipped.

Liddell acknowledged that the figure is slightly shy of projections, but said Microsoft is still "happy with that number". He also said Microsoft reckons its Xbox and entertainment and devices division will turn a profit for the 2008 fiscal year.

Liddell's comments were echoed by Moore in an interview following the announcement. He told GI.biz, "On the state of the business, we feel really good about that.

"A lot of what we're going to talk about at E3 next week is about the games line-up, and we feel really good about our line-up, both first party and third party, and what we've got to offer this holiday," he said, having lived in America for so long he's forgotten it's called Christmas.

"It is going to be a tremendous holiday," Moore continued. Possibly referring to the two weeks he's booked in Corfu next month, who knows. "Hopefully, people will recognise and respect what we've done."

The full interview is now on GamesIndustry.biz.