After several successful months of sales amid the lack of heavy advertising, Microsoft Corp. has reduced sales targets of the Xbox 360 game console due to lower than expected demand towards the latest gaming machine.

Microsoft executives said Thursday that “due to unsold inventories in stores”, they expect to ship a total of 12 million Xbox 360 gaming machines by the end of the fiscal year in June, down from their previous target of 13 million to 15 million, according to a news-report by Reuters news-agency.

“Unsold inventories in stores” point to overestimated shipments as well as too optimistic sales targets.

Microsoft Corp. has been pushing its game consoles hardly into the market since late 2005. However, in a bid to proclaim the 10 million milestone game consoles “sold to retail” in late 2006, the company seems to have shipped too many units to its retail partners.

Microsoft Xbox 360 console is based around microprocessor developed by IBM, high-definition visual processing unit designed by ATI Technologies, I/O controller engineered by SiS and some other key components. The gaming machine will provide a broad set of multimedia capabilities in addition to games. Depending on the bundle, Microsoft Xbox 360 currently costs $299 or $399 in the U.S.