It seems that this was let slip by Zhang Dazhong who is the Shanghai Media Group’s vice president, who is also the parent company of BesTV whom Microsoft had partnered with to launch the console over in China. Given China’s population and assuming that initial sales are an indication of what to expect, it would not be surprising if Microsoft will be able to achieve 1 million sales by this time next year.
This is compared to other Asian markets like Japan where it seems that Microsoft is struggling. Last we heard, the Xbox One in Japan had only managed to sell around 25,000 units during its first few days of launch, a quarter of what they had managed to sell in China. The following week’s sales were worse at around 3,000 units.
Microsoft has since vowed to work harder by improving upon the console and the content that they will offer in the region in hopes that they will be able to attract more gamers.