Supply shortages hurt Xbox sales last month

Seattle PI | at | by Mike

Xbox 360 sales last month were hurt by supply shortages, a Microsoft spokesman said Wednesday, before the NPD Group's release Thursday of U.S. video-game console statistics for January.

The spokesman, David Dennis, declined to say where Microsoft expects the Xbox 360 to stack up against Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii for the month.

Microsoft says the current shortages are being caused by Xbox 360 sales exceeding its forecasts during the holiday shopping season.

"We did not forecast the level of demand that we would see throughout the holidays, and we didn't manufacture as many units as we should have," Dennis said.