Xbox sales strong, Halo 2 held back?

While talking to Reuters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday, Chief Xbox Officer Robbie Bach dropped two bombshells. First, he claimed that the Microsoft console outsold the heavily discounted GameCube over the 2003 holiday season, despite the fact the Nintendo console moved more units than the PlayStation 2 in previous weeks. "Christmas was good, we feel like we had a very good holiday," Bach said.

Bach's second revelation was that Halo 2, easily the console's most anticipated game for 2004, may not be ready for its previously reported April release date. Repeating the developer mantra, "We're going to ship it when it's ready," Bach continued, "That might be the first half of 2004, it might not. You have to be careful with franchises like this." It may--or may not--be worth noting that the original Halo was a holiday 2001 release.

Ironically, Bach also denied any plans to turn the Xbox into a media center--just hours before Microsoft chairman Bill Gates unveiled the Xbox Media Center Extender Kit. "It's not Xbox's role to be the center of what we do in the living room at home," said Bach.