It's crystal clear that Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii leave Sony's PS3 in a trail of smoke and dust more and more with every day that passes. But who's winning when there are only two consoles to be mentioned: the Wii, or the 360? I found this article today on Gamespot saying that Microsoft might have just mugged their own sales figures. How? By stuffing the retail channel.

Here's how it goes. A company like Microsoft has a fiscal year to end. As the end of that fiscal year approaches, the company realizes that only 9 million units of their product have been shipped (sold units are something to bother their heads with later) out of the 10 million target. The company then “stuffs retailers” with the extra 1 million units and they can happily say they've ended their fiscal year. But all this is like a boomerang and if this is indeed Microsoft's case, it will come back and hit them in the face.

“Strong companies confident in their strategy and performance don't do these things," the Ehrenberg blog says. “They don't have to. What kind of a message does this type of behavior send to the investor community and, more importantly, your customers? Weakness. Fear. Short-term thinking. Nothing that represents a positive signal for a better, brighter tomorrow.” Roger Ehrenberg, president and COO of investment analyst service Monitor110 financial blog, got his information from the Apple-focused Blackfriars' Marketing. They imply that “Microsoft threatened to withhold copies of its Vista operating system--released in January--from retailers who didn't play along and choke down excess Xbox 360 inventory.”

So what do you think? Is Microsoft capable of pulling a stunt like this? If they are, we're surely in for some good news later on as these kinds of actions have severe repercussions.