In a recent interview with The Ottawa Citizen, Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer discussed several topics. He was asked questions about competition from companies like Google, Microsoft's stock price, and what Microsoft's plans are for Canada. Most telling for gamers, however, was a statement at the end regarding the supply (or lack thereof) of the Xbox 360 in North America. He blamed the lack of systems on the slow manufacture of new chips and repeated the Microsoft mantra "stores are getting new units each week."

"We are making more," Balmer said to The Ottawa Citizen. "All stores are getting new units each week. Can we make as many as people want' The answer is no, but not because we don't want to. In these new consumer electronics devices based on new chips, there's always the question of what yield will you get out of the manufacturing process of the new chip. We're getting a little less, but not much less than the yields we expected, and we know that the yields we expected will probably outrun supply. But we decided to go ahead and launch rather than wait until post-Christmas and get a few million units out into the hands of users."

"We're doing our best," he ended.