With our Q2 earnings announcement complete, a bit more of the story emerges from the number crunchers.  As a public company, there’s a lot we can’t say, especially in a blog post.  Because the company is owned by shareholders, we have to tell them what they’re doing all at the same time (i.e., publicly), if it’s going to affect the price of the stock at all.  Otherwise, you’d all be in trouble for insider trading, and I’d be writing this from a federal prison (or from home with an ankle bracelet attached).

You can hear a podcast (okay, not really a “podcast,” but at least a recording) of the announcement call by clicking on Microsoft.com/MSFT.  Listen in at about 18:30 or so, for the start of the bit on Xbox business.

Update: I'm told a full transcript of the earnings announcement conference call is on SeekingAlpha's Internet Stock Blog.

Some highlights:

• We sold 1.5 million Xbox 360 consoles in Q2 (i.e., from Nov 22 to Dec 31), with 900,000 consoles in North America, 500,000 consoles in Europe, and the 100,000 in Japan.  That number actually would have been 1,500,001 if we didn’t give one console to Paris Hilton.  
• This was lower than we, you, analysts, EVERYONE expected due to component shortages stemming from challenges in ramping supply of a complex product like the Xbox 360.  We believe that this is a short term manufacturing challenge (honest!).  Don’t blame us for secretly holding them in a warehouse at Area 51, or giving them all away to celebrities and drinkers of Mountain Dew.  Okay, maybe you can blame us a little for that…  
• Lots of folks watch attach rate—how many units on average are sold divided by number of consoles sold--to figure out how healthy a platform is.  According to NPD (ya, we listen to them too), software attach for the Xbox 360 in the US was more than 4 per console and accessory attach was more than 3 per console for the quarter – both are records with consumers purchasing nearly double the amount relative to any other console launch in history. 
• Since the launch of Xbox 360, Xbox Live members have downloaded over 4 million pieces of high definition games, music and movie content from Xbox Live Marketplace.
• Not only that, our Xbox 1 platform remains a great value for consumers.  We sold over 2.2 million Xbox 1 consoles in the first half of our fiscal year bringing the installed based to over 24 million worldwide with 16 million in North America and 6 million in Europe.  Who said the Xbox 1 is dead?  Not us… 
• Okay, now it’s official.  We lowered our estimate of Xbox 360 console sales in the first 90 days from launch from 2.75 – 3.0 million units to 2.5 million units.  Or 2,499,999 if you count the one we gave Paris Hilton.  Even so, we estimate that consumers will spend over $1.5 billion in total retail value on Xbox 360 consoles, games, and peripherals in these first 90 days.  You might call our Xbox 360 launch a horrendous failure, but after only six weeks, that’s not bad…
• You guys already know we are bringing on a third manufacturing partner, Celestica, next month to help us build more Xbox 360s.  That makes three plants working day and night to get these into the market.  For that reason, we are not adjusting our previously announced fiscal year console sales guidance of 4.5 to 5.5 million consoles and our revenue guidance is based on unit sales within that range.  
• By the end of June, Xbox 360 will have more than 50 high definition games from the best names in publishing.  In the next few months, look for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks); Fight Night Round 3 (EA Sports); Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft); Dead Rising (Capcom), and Full Auto (Sega). 
• By the end of March, Xbox 360 will be available in nearly 30 countries! (31 if you could the space in Paris Hilton’s head)