THE BUZZ: It wasn’t so long ago that people thought Microsoft were crazy for getting into the business of video game consoles. With Microsoft’s latest announcement for how those efforts are doing, however, nobody is questioning them these days.

As part of CES 2012, the company announced that 66 million Xbox 360s have been sold to stores at this point—making the system the best-selling console in the US for 2011. This also puts the Xbox 360 far above Microsoft’s first attempt at a console; the original Xbox ended up selling just over 24 million units worldwide.

Microsoft’s entry into the world of motion gaming is also doing quite well, as they announced that so far, 18 million Kinect sensors have been sold to stores.

EGM’s TAKE: I still remember the comments that were going around before the launch of the Kinect, and how many people were certain that it was going to fail. Instead, Kinect really has caught on—no matter if you see that as a good or bad thing for video games. Will Kinect be a part of whatever the next Xbox is? I think it’s an absolute certainty at this point.

As for the Xbox 360 itself, think about this: The console is now the fourth best-selling console of all time, after the PlayStation 2, original PlayStation, and Nintendo Wii. Not only is that great news for Microsoft, but it also shows just how huge video gaming has become. I remember being a child and thinking that everybody in the world had an NES—and yet that only ever sold just under 62 million units around the world.