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Larry Hyrb, the director of programming for Xbox Live, tweeted that the company had "run out" of consoles.
"NPD tomorrow. I found out we ran out of consoles at end of the month (!) so don't expect to win Dec. (1/2)," he wrote.
Hyrb added: "Jan/Feb supply is tight as well. Likely amazing YOY growth numbers for Xbox. We'll find out tomorrow! (2/2)"
NPD, a market research firm, is scheduled to release its sales estimates for the month of December later today. The firm issues estimates both for the number of software titles sold as well as the number of consoles, the most closely watched number.
Gamasutra said that its estimates showed that Microsoft sold about 344,000 units per week during November, its highest rate ever. "If sales remained at the same pace, the Xbox 360 would have been on track to see its first 1.7 million-unit Christmas -- when the data is released later today, we'll see how the constrained supplies will affect these projections," the site added.
However, NPD began reserving its sales figures for paid clients only last year, so that the only public information has been released by the manufacturers themselves.
Microsoft has generally outperformed Sony in console sales, although Sony showed signs of strength during 2010. Nintendo's Wii has trailed the other two consoles.
Until then, market watchers won't have a clear idea of how the console market shaped up during the holiday season. IDC and Gartner released reports on Wednesday indicating that PC sales were slower than expected.
