Forza 2 and others by end of June 07 - Moore

Xbox 360 titles Forza Motorsport 2, Crackdown, Shadowrun and Too Human are now down for release before the end of June 2007, Peter Moore has admitted.

Speaking to MTV, the Xbox boss also said he'd recently played a build of Halo 3 - expected by most to release in late 2007 - and that it was "everything people would expect to see in a next-generation version of Halo".

Sadly though he didn't have an update on what film director Peter Jackson's doing, with no word on whether any of his Xbox projects would launch in 2007.

Moore's comments come in the same week as Microsoft revealed its plans to launch digital TV and film downloads in the US on 22nd November - with the Xbox man describing it as "a shot across the bow" of competitors Sony and Nintendo.

And on the subject of films, he also had some encouraging words for those still hoping for the Halo film to get going. "While we have no deals to announce, everyone in Hollywood is looking at it," he said. In fact, "several studios" have popped round to see the work that's already been done.

"For the magnitude of what the script is - I've read the screenplay - and what we need to do to uphold the 'Halo' universe for its legion of fans in the way they want to see a movie being made, no, it won't be next year," he added.

Finally, he responded to criticisms recently of publishers' behaviour on Xbox Live Marketplace - where Electronic Arts in particular has come under fire for charging consumers for things they can unlock in-game, and holding some elements back to sell separately.

"The consumer has the ability to vote. And they vote with the A-button most of the time. Either they download it or not," he said. "I think publishers, and we're a publisher as well, will get the message."