UPDATE October 27, 2006, 5:35 pm ET: Late this afternoon, a spokesperson for Microsoft confirmed to BetaNews that CFO Chris Liddell's prediction of four million more Xbox 360 consoles sold between now and the end of the year, is an accurate one. The spokesperson did clarify the meaning of "sell:" Liddell was referring to sales to retailers and distributors (wholesalers and resellers), not to end customers. If NPD were to make an assessment of Xbox 360 end customer sales next January, we were told, that number could be different.

Liddell did not mean "ship" instead of "sell," we were assured. Conceivably, the company could ship fewer units than it sells, though with inventory windows narrow, the book-to-bill ratio in this case is probably fairly even.

As part of its quarterly earnings report issued late Thursday, Microsoft disclosed that it has sold a total of 6 million Xbox 360 video game consoles since the product debuted nearly one year ago. Losses in the Xbox division were also lowered to $96 million from $173 million a year ago.

As of July, Microsoft had sold a total of 5 million Xbox 360s. Still, the Redmond company expects to sell a total of 10 million consoles by the end of this year. This figure has remained firm, even with increased competition this holiday season from Sony's PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, both due out next month.