Anilrgowda

CFO reiterates optimistic holiday-season target; last report had 6 million sold through September. The year head start in the next-gen console race for the Xbox 360 has always been seen as a major boon for Microsoft. Late to the party during the last console cycle, Microsoft leapfrogged its competitors this time around by releasing the Xbox 360 in November 2005. Nintendo and Sony released the Wii and PlayStation 3, respectively, in November 2006.

But while Nintendo and Sony trumpet sales in the hundreds of thousands--Nintendo says it sold through 600,000 Wiis and Sony has yet to give official numbers--Microsoft is looking toward sales of 10 million Xbox 360s by the end of this year's all-important holiday season.

The figure is nothing new. Five months before the Xbox 360 launched, Peter Moore boasted that Microsoft would sell 10 million Xbox 360s in the console's first year on market. More than 17 months later, Microsoft appears to be sticking to that lofty number. Speaking at the NASDAQ analyst conference in London, Microsoft CFO Christopher Lidell talked about his company's future. While touting the upcoming launch of the Vista operating system, he said, "We also believe we can sell 10 million Xbox 360 units by the end of the Christmas season," according to the Wall Street Journal.