The Financial Times is reporting from Tokyo that Nintendo intends to increase US GameCube shipments, and is confirming the estimated 700,000 units shipped so far:

Microsoft put its long-awaited Xbox console on sale in the US last week, three days ahead of Nintendo's launch of GameCube on Sunday. The US software giant expects to sell between 1m and 1.5m machines by the end of the year.

Nintendo said on Wednesday it expects to sell 4m GameCubes in the US and Japan combined by the end of next March. No sales figures were available for the US launch, but the games group confirmed it had shipped 700,000 units.

Meanwhile, Blue Yonder has seriously misinterpreted the Goldman Sachs survey, apparently thinking that the percentages of stores sold out of each console directly translated to percentages of shipped units sold, and concludes that the GameCube's lead over the Xbox is much smaller than reported elsewhere:

Goldman Sachs have been busy surveying retailers in the United States about the popularity of Xbox and GameCube systems a few days after their respective launches. Sachs revealed that 73% of Microsoft's Xbox allocation of 300,000 had gone, while a massive 47% of Nintendo's 700,000 units had been sold.

Perhaps it's a bit early in the morning for all that. That's roughly 219,000 Xboxes versus 329,000 GameCubes. The survey was conducted amongst 49 retail chain stores in large cities.

Blue Yonder also disputes the figure of 510,000 GameCubes sold in Japan claimed by FT.com, suggesting the correct figure is 350,000. There's no information on what the source for that estimate is.

Furthermore, they say some planned Xbox shipments are being delayed:

Microsoft were due to ship another 100,000 units to retailers on Monday, but if that shipment did go ahead, nobody has heard of it. A source working for Virgin Megastores in the US suggests this shipment has been put back, and that units are being prioritised based on demand.

CNET.com also quotes the Goldman Sachs report, which seems to confirm these shipment problems:

Toys R Us is well stocked with GameCube consoles, according to Goldman Sachs' research, but it is only a matter of time before Christmas demand consumes this inventory. Wal-Mart and Toys R Us both lack Xbox inventory and do not know when shipments will arrive, the report said, adding that (at the time of the survey) Electronics Boutique stores had both systems in stock.

More on the console war as it develops.