The holiday shopping season for video game consoles was frantic as shipments appear to have exceeded makers' goals despite supply shortages (for Nintendo and Sony). At CES, Microsoft announced it shipped 10.4 million Xbox 360s in '06, beating its goal of 10m. Reuters quotes Bill Gates who said, "It's a complete reversal of last time ... (when) we tried coming in a year late with a big, clunky box that cost more and having less titles." 
Gates also talked up plans to add IPTV capability to the Xbox 360, saying "people are underestimating ... the living room device that does it all." Sony said it achieved its goal of shipping 1m PlayStation 3 units to the U.S. by year-end '06 after tight supplies at launch time and it also seemed pleased with PS2 sales. Nintendo hasn't provided an update, but the New York Times reports GameStop's COO said last Thursday that there was actually stock of PS3s at hundreds of its 3,700 outlets, but new arrivals of Nintendo's Wii were "... in really limited supply, and they virtually disappeared." The best-selling game so far belongs to Microsoft, which reports it sold 2.7m copies of Gears of War.
• Sources: Bloomberg, GameStop press release, NYT, Reuters [I, II]
• Related commentary: GameStop Holiday Sales Impress, Game Console Wars: Nintendo Leaves Microsoft, Sony Trailing Behind, Bill Gates' CES Keynote: Microsoft's Home Media Server and More, 2007 May Be Rough For Video Game Stocks
• Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Microsoft (MSFT), Sony (SNE), Nintendo (NTDOY.PK), GameStop (GME). Gaming software publishers: Electronic Arts (ERTS), Activision (ATVI), Konami (KNM), Take Two (TTWO), THQ (THQI)
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