Given Microsoft's recent Black Friday sales boasting, we'd think that the Xbox 360 team's egos are severely bloated. Not so. Shane Kim says the company is, somewhat distressingly, "cautiously optimistic" about next year's sales.

Sure, Don Mattrick, senior VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, said the same thing in the Black Friday statement. But we imagined the reality of it all peppered with plenty of "in your face!" finger pointing and corporate chest bumps.

Mr. Kim isn't counting on 2008-style growth for the Xbox 360, adding "Who knows, maybe flat performance will be considered a remarkable achievement." Ugh. How are we going to make engrossing headlines out of "flat performance," Shane?

Microsoft cautiously optimistic about Xbox sales [Reuters]

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