Kinect sales exceed 2.5M

Earlier this month, Game Console reported that Microsoft's new motion-sensing peripheral, Kinect, had sold 1 million units in its first 10 days, even before the device had released here in New Zealand.

Now Microsoft has announced that, in its first 25 days of release, Kinect has now sold more than 2.5 million globally following its release in other territories such as New Zealand, Europe, Australia and Japan. It's believed that the recent Black Friday period of retail specials helped Microsoft to shift a great deal of Kinect units in the US in particular.

"We are thrilled about the consumer response to Kinect, and are working hard with our retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments of Kinect to restock shelves as fast as possible to keep up with demand," said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.

Microsoft recently declared its confidence that the device will sell around 5 million units before the year's end, an increase on its initial projection of 3 million.

UPDATE - 2.41pm: A more recent press release from PR for Microsoft New Zealand now claims that more than 3 million Kinect sensors have been sold worldwide, with more than 1 million units shifted during the Black Friday weekend alone.