Tuesday, February 14, 2006

The shortage of Xbox 360 video game consoles that left many holiday shoppers in angst was due in part to Microsoft's decision to use a new kind of memory chip from a German company, Infineon Technologies, according to people who are familiar with the game box's design.

The blockbuster video-game box has been hard to find on store shelves since it debuted in November only to sell out early during the holiday season, prompting complaints.

One of two companies supplying the Xbox 360's storage memory chips, Infineon, has had trouble making enough of the chips at the right speed for the game console that debuted last November, according to the sources. As a result Microsoft has not been able to meet the demand for the console.

Peter Moore, head of Microsoft's game division, declined to comment on whether there was a memory chip shortage. He blamed the scarcity of 360s on "component shortages" but refused to pinpoint the problem. He said last week that the consoles would be more plentiful in stores within in four to six weeks thanks to the addition of a new contract manufacturer, Celestica.

"We have more than 200 suppliers and I'm not going to point the finger at any one of them," he said.