Lately Microsoft has been pretty boastful about the future success it sees for it?s as yet to be released Xbox 360. Yesterday chief financial officer of Microsoft?s Entertainment and Devices division, Bryan Lee, said, ?I?m very proud to announce that we think through the first 90 days of launch . . . we expect to have sold 2.75 to 3 million consoles worldwide.? While 3 million units in 3 months is very impressive, analysts project the software giant to actually lose about $75 on each console made and sold. That?s a $225 million loss from console sales. Where Microsoft plans on making the money back is in the games, Xbox Live accounts, accessories, and peripherals. Microsoft believes it will make well over $1.5 billion from total sales in the first 90 days the 360 is on the market.

Mr. Lee also talked about Microsoft experimenting with in-game advertising. This seems like an odd move seeing as how almost no one in the world likes commercials in the first place. Lee added, ?We?ve actually got a couple of games on the market now on the Xbox platform where we?re trailing some ads and we?ve been working with Massive on those couple of games. We feel very excited about advertising as a potential growth opportunity for the business.? Hopefully Microsoft will do some further analysis on whether or not this will be looked favorably upon by gamers.