2010 the biggest year in Xbox history
"It's official," cheers Microsoft.
Five years after the 360 arrived, Microsoft has crowned 2010 as the biggest year in Xbox history.
Milestones reached: 50 million worldwide Xbox 360 sales, 30 million Xbox Live users, eight million Kinect sensors sold.
"The debut of Kinect and smash-hit games like Fable III and Halo: Reach drove Xbox to the biggest year in its history in 2010," the company blurted.
Last night, US December results showed Xbox 360 rampant with 1.9 million sales. Microsoft acknowledges this to be "our biggest month ever".
What's more, MS tells us "more money was spent on Xbox 360 than any current generation console in 2010" - presumably because the Kinect price is so high, boom tish - and that Xbox 360 was "the fastest-growing console in 2010", with 42 per cent year-on-year growth (to sales, not to the size of the machine - odd).
Helping Xbox 360 deliver such a barn-storming performance during December were three games in particular - each representing Microsoft's machine in the US top 10: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Kinect Sports.
Meanwhile, Aaron Greenberg, chief of staff for Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, tweeted to reveal that Kinect games Kinect Sports and Dance Central had each sold a million units in the US, describing them as "breakout hits".
Looking ahead to 2011, Microsoft ringed upcoming blockbuster Gears of War 3 as well as Kinect-focused experiences Hulu Plus and Avatar Kinect.