Microsoft Corp. said on Friday that it would delay the launch of its XBox video game console by one week to Nov. 15 but declined to clarify exactly how many units it will have available at launch. The decision was made "after going through a review -- obviously doing a lot of reviewing this past week -- of our integrated systems for launch," said Robbie Bach, chief XBox officer for Microsoft. Microsoft still plans to ship between 1 million and 1.5 million units to retailers by the end of the calendar year, Bach said. When asked if Microsoft was sticking by its initial projection of 600,000 to 800,000 units at launch, or lowering it as had been speculated this week, Bach would not provide a figure, saying "we've just moved on to not focusing on the day one number." Analysts, retailers, and game publishers have said that the number of consoles available on the launch day could be closer to 300,000.
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