Unfortunately it seems that it may not be as happy a thanksgiving or christmas as Microsoft had hoped with the recent news that another of their launch line-up titles, Dead or Alive 4, has slipped to the new year following in the footsteps of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Expected to be the key beat em-up in the Xbox 360 launch, Dead or Alive 4 has been taken back for further revisions and will now debut in the States possibly before Christmas but it will be 2006 for all other territories.

Another low note for the Xbox 360 was forced by rival Apple, when Microsoft admitted that any music bought or downloaded from i-Tunes will not be playable on the Xbox 360, instead appearing as a greyed-out listing unavailable for selection. Microsoft have been keen to emphasise the Xbox 360's ability to interact with many forms of digital hardware, so it's inability to play a large percentage of iPod titles is quite a blow. Currently the Xbox 360 will play normal iPod content such as mp3's or tracks taken from CDs, but even this may change with Apple's software updates causing further problems for Microsoft.