Microsoft has repeated the next-generation Xbox would hit shelves in the United States on November 8th as scheduled, amid growing concerns about possible delays.
Earlier this month, brokerage Thomas Weisel Partners said in a research note that development of the Xbox could be delayed up to four weeks because of a problem with a motherboard made by Intel.
But Microsoft said today it would ship an initial 600,000 to 800,000 of the consoles in the United States.
It also repeated it aimed to ship 1.5 million units by the end of the US holiday shopping season.
That compares with Sony's target of 20 million PlayStation 2 consoles worldwide by the end of March. The market leader has sold nearly 15 million to date and its game machines account for almost two-thirds of the US home-use game market.