The battle over video game motion control devices has moved to the accounting department.

Sony and Microsoft are both claiming to have momentum on their side with their new devices, releasing updated sales figures. No matter how you slice it, though, it’s clear that both the PlayStation Move and Kinect are enjoying a strong holiday season.

Microsoft kicked off the sales updates late Monday, with word that Kinect has sold 2.5 million units in its first 25 days. That puts the company well on track to reaching its internal projection of 5 million sales before the end of the calendar year.

Kinect has been selling out at retail since its launch and is quickly assuming “must have” status this holiday season.

Sony, meanwhile, says it has sold in (or, shipped to retail) more than 4.1 million Move motion controllers since that device went on sale in September. The number, while impressive, is a bit less firm, as the number of sales to customers remains unknown.

The larger question about Move's sales is how they breakdown geographically. Move is still fairly easy to find at U.S. retail, but was reportedly an enormous hit in Europe.

While the milestones are impressive, both companies have got a long way to go before they catch up with Nintendo – which has sold an average of 46,000 Wii Remote controllers per day in the United States since the Wii's release. 

Microsoft seems to be pressing forward with its plans to launch its own TV channel.

The company has reportedly held talks with several media companies about acquiring content for a pay-television subscription service that would stream through the Xbox 360 dashboard. The service, assuming it comes to pass, isn’t expected to launch for roughly one year.

Talk of Microsoft launching its own channel first surfaced in April, when the company and former News Corp. president Peter Chernin discussed a channel that would air both original and television content. Around that same time, Conan O’Brien reportedly considered moving his show to the Xbox before deciding to go with TBS.

The latest reports, which come from Reuters, seem to indicate the plan has evolved somewhat. Microsoft is reportedly discussing a number of options, including creating a “virtual cable operator” that would be delivered online. The company could also use the 360 to authenticate cable subscribers to watch shows – similar to its current deal with AT&T’s Uverse.

The Xbox 360 already has a separate channel for content from Disney’s ESPN 3 – and the company could also create individual channels for other providers.

Microsoft took an early leadership position in non-gaming programming this console generation, incorporating Netflix into the Xbox 360 long before its competitors – as well as other services such as Last.fm. In recent months, though, Sony’s PlayStation 3 has shown tremendous progress on that front, adding content from Hulu Plus and BBC America while Microsoft has been slow to react.

The move would put Microsoft in competition with other set-top box providers, including Apple TV and the struggling Google TV. The STB market is growing fast and content providers (and cable companies) continue to worry about cord cutting – consumers canceling their cable packages for a la carte programming.

Should that happen, it could fundamentally alter the broadcast world.

“We’re all concerned about over the top video delivery because ultimately what sustains this industry is a bundled model – the ability to build a linear channel,” said John Landgraf, president and general manager of FX at a recent Variety Entertainment and Technology Summit. “I … don’t believe a purely a la carte business will function. It simply will not function. It will not sustain quality programming."

Sony’s keeping up the pressure in the console wars. The company has begun streaming content from BBC America onto the PlayStation 3.

Episodes of “Top Gear,” are currently available for $1.99 (standard def) and $2.99 (HD) per episode. Other programs, including “Doctor Who” and “Being Human” will arrive in December. To promote the new offering, Sony is offering users the chance to download an episode for free through Dec. 7.

Video games, of course, are the heart and soul of the PS3, but in recent months, Sony has turned up the heat on non-gaming functionality as well. In addition to Netflix, which is on all of the consoles, the PS3 exclusively offers users access to Vudu and Hulu Plus.

The BBC programming is another big 'get' for the console, as the Xbox 360 has been trying to secure content from the network for over a year. (The BBC has reportedly been less than enthusiastic about being part of the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Gold package.)

Non-gaming functionality is increasingly important to console makers, as they increasingly view their machines as set-top boxes with larger entertainment missions. By making other types of entertainment available, the companies open their systems up to a much wider audience.

And given the ground the PS3 has to catch up with, that focus is a sound one. Life-to-date, the 360 has sold 21.9 million units, according to NPD research shown by Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime at a recent analysts’ conference. The PS3 has sold 13.5 million. 

While the networks and other content providers are throwing up hurdle after hurdle to slow Google TV, the search engine giant is looking for new ways to ensure the service stays relevant.

The Wall Street Journal reports Google is in talks with the holding company that's in the process of aquiring Miramax to license the digital rights to the studio’s entire film catalog. If successful, the films would be available two ways: Via paid rental on YouTube and, for older catalog titles, free to watch, with ads.

Google has been trying to sidestep into the film digital distribution business, a la Apple, Amazon and Netflix. So far, it hasn’t managed to make much of an impact, though. Its only significant partner is Lion's Gate, which offers titles such as “Kick Ass” and “Precious”. 

While this sort of deal would help Google’s streaming service, its impact on Google TV would largely depend on the ratio of rental to ad-supported titles. There are currently several paid streaming options on the service (along with many other platforms). Adding one more won’t be a draw that attracts fence-sitters – but if the deal results in new free offerings exclusive to Google TV owners, it could be the second wind the service needs right now.

It’s been 16 years since Nintendo showed up at CES – but with competition growing and a revolutionary product launch looming, Mario and Co. are packing their bags and heading to Vegas this January.

The company will be one of the flagship exhibitors in the 2011 CES Gaming Showcase when the consumer electronics tradeshow returns to Las Vegas Jan 6-9. All totaled, more than 35 video game companies will be part of that display.

Nintendo, of course, will be launching the 3DS – its next generation handheld gaming device – at the end of March in the U.S. The system is different than anything on the market, in that it projects stereoscopic 3D images without the need for special glasses.

That alone is likely to make it stand out at the show – and given the concentration of media outlets that also attend, it’s a ton of free press for the company just months before the system hits shelves.

Other game and game-related companies who will attend the 2011 CES include DC Comics/Warner Bros, Dreamworks Animation, Sony and Microsoft.

First it was Hulu, then the major networks. Now, Viacom has blocked Google TV units from accessing its content, including all Comedy Central programming.

It’s the latest in a series of hindrances for the latest set-top box competitor and couldn’t come at a worse time. With the holiday season approaching and shoppers debating whether to splurge for the device, there is less and less programming to watch via Google TV.

The device is appearing on gift guides around the net (including our own here at Variety), but the blockages have been escalating since many of those were written. At present, the only major content provider that’s allowing Google TV free access is Time Warner. Otherwise, it’s the usual suspects of paid streaming – Netflix, Amazon, etc.

The setback not only affects Google, but its partners in Google TV – Sony and Logitech, which are both actively promoting the product. And with CES looming, other sets are expected to be announced that include the functionality.

“Call of Duty: Black Ops” continues to devastate entertainment industry records.

Activision today announced the latest installment in its multibillion dollar franchise has generated sales of $650 million in its first five days on shelves – an 18 percent (and $100 million) improvement over last year’s “Modern  Warfare 2”. That makes the game the highest opening entertainment property – of any sort – in history.

“Black Ops” recently broke the opening day records as well, with $360 million in sales in its first 24 hours.

Beyond shattering sales records, the game is also setting new high marks on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game consoles. By the end of Nov. 9 – the game’s launch day – more than 2.6 million players had played “Black Ops”. And cumulatively they had logged more than 5.9 million hours in the multiplayer portion of the game.

The performance is a vindication for Activision and developer Treyarch, as many gamers and industry observers were doubtful earlier this year that the company would be able to match the quality or sales of “Modern Warfare 2”.

With that question definitively answered, all that remains now is will “Black Ops” beat its predecessor? Activision, publicly, is saying it doesn’t expect that to happen – but the consensus from industry observers is that’s the company taking its normal conservative stance, to keep investor expectations in-line.

Hulu’s subscription service – taking the Web-based operation beyond the PC – has moved out of its beta period and is welcoming all who are interested. Hulu Plus officially launches today – and, even better, it’s getting cheaper.

The company has scaled back the $9.99 monthly fee it has charged since late June to $7.99 – and says it will issue refunds for the difference to early adopters who were in the beta. The price cut is a welcome one, but still higher than the $4.99 figure many people were expecting.

All new subscribers will get a free one week trial for the service. And the company is vastly extending the number of supported devices where you’ll be able to watch Hulu Plus.

The list of supported (and soon to be supported) devices now includes:

- Connected TV and Blu-Ray players: Samsung, Sony BRAVIA® HDTVs and connected Blu-ray Disc™ Players, and coming soon: LG Electronics, Panasonic, VIZIO

– Connected Set-top Boxes: Roku, Sony Network Media Player, and coming soon: TiVo Premiere DVRs, Western Digital’s WD TV Live Hub Media Center and WD TV Live Plus Network Media Player

- Gaming Consoles: PlayStation® 3, and coming soon: Xbox 360

- Mobile Devices: Apple iPad, iPhone, iPod touch

- Other network appliances: Sony Dash

Hulu’s promising to continue adding to that list in the coming months and will be adding to its library as well.

We’ve been with Hulu Plus since the beginning (see our impressions here). It’s a promising service – and the price cut is a welcome one – but it still faces an uphill battle against Netflix and users are still likely to be upset to pay both a monthly subscription fee and have to sit through ads in the programming. 

While no one will mistake October as a joyous month for video game sales, there were a few nuggets of good news from NPD this month.

Retail software sales were up 6 percent – the first time the industry has seen growth since May. And the Xbox 360 saw hardware sales increase – the only console to do so. Otherwise… well, things weren’t so good.

On the whole, industry sales fell 4 percent compared to 2009. And hardware sales were down a whopping 26 percent – due to strong sales last year as the PS3 and Wii both dropped their prices.

The real news was the poor performance of “Medal of Honor” – which only managed to snag third place among October titles. “NBA 2K11” took top honors. And “Fallout: New Vegas” placed an impressive second – with sales of 680,000 units on the Xbox 360 alone.

As for the performance of PlayStation Move, that’s something of a mystery. The “video game accessories” category, which includes Move (and will include Kinect next month) was up 18 percent compared to last year – but the best selling item was the Xbox Live 1600 point card (for the fifth consecutive month).

Sony, when contacted, said it would not be releasing any updated sales data for Move today.

The top 10 selling games are after the break – without sales data, as NPD no longer provides that information in its monthly report.

Apple has filled one of the biggest holes in the iTunes catalog. The Beatles catalog is now available for download.

After years of teasing, disappointment and back and forth, the Cuppertino-based company (which has become one of the most powerful forces in the music industry) and the iconic band have come to terms. It’s unclear at this time whether Apple secured exclusive digital rights to the band’s songs or if EMI, The Beatles’ record company, will be striking similar deal with other providers.

Each Beatles album comes with iTunes LP, which features additional content including photos and lyrics. Single albums cost $12.99. Doubles run for $19.99. And the band’s entire body of work can be downloaded for $149. (Individual songs will run the standard $1.29.)

"We love the Beatles and are honored and thrilled to welcome them to iTunes," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a press release. "It has been a long and winding road to get here. Thanks to the Beatles and EMI, we are now realizing a dream we've had since we launched iTunes ten years ago."

The Beatles have been the most notable hold-out in the digital music revolution. Jobs has been chasing the band for years, but Apple Corps Ltd. has steadfastly refused offers. Surviving members of the band had previously said they weren’t satisfied with the quality of digital music.

A change was signaled two years ago, though, when the company, which was formed to look after the band’s affairs in 1968, announced a partnership with video game maker Harmonix to create “The Beatles: Rock Band”.

“We’re really excited to bring the Beatles’ music to iTunes,” said Sir Paul McCartney. “It’s fantastic to see the songs we originally released on vinyl receive as much love in the digital world as they did the first time around.”

(Update: All Things Digital reports Apple will have exclusive rights to the catalog until some time next year.)