Kinect for Xbox 360 continued its momentum in 2011, with sales reaching 10 million units worldwide to date. More than 10 million standalone Kinect games have been sold worldwide to date. In total, Microsoft also said it has sold more than 50 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide.

MindSnacks, a developer of educational games for mobile devices, today announced that it has secured $1.2 million in funding. The round was led by Felicis Ventures, with leading Silicon Valley angel investors, including 500 Startups (Dave McClure) and Mitch Kapor, also participating. The company will use the financing to support its growth plans, including hiring engineers and game designers to expand its current product and platform offerings. Its current apps focus on language learning, and each mini-game addresses a specific need, such as vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and sentence construction.

Rovio, the creator of the Angry Birds entertainment franchise, announced a $42m Series A investment in the company. Currently, Angry Birds is played by 40 million monthly active users, and the game has grown from an App Store success to become one of the most recognized entertainment franchises in just over a year. The funding round was co-led by Accel Partners and Atomico Ventures, the venture capital firm created by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström. Leading super angel fund Felicis Ventures also participated. Niklas Zennström, who also co-founded Kazaa and Rdio, will be joining the board of Rovio.

UK-based shopping comparision site BeatThatQuote.com today was sold to Google for GBP37.7 million ($62 million), according to a statement by the company.

In a statement, the company said, "Our team is excited about becoming a part of Google. We look forward to working with their engineers to create new tools making it easier for consumers to choose the right financial products. We think we can offer more transparency and better pricing information than existing online offerings."

One of themost well-known networks of forum communities on the Internet, CrowdGather (OTCBB:CRWG), announced that it has entered into definitive agreements with institutional investors to purchase $7.85 million of securities in a private placement transaction. Under the terms of the transaction CrowdGather has agreed to sell an aggregate of approximately 7,136,364 million shares of its common stock at $1.10 per share and warrants to purchase up to approximately 5,352,273 million additional shares of its common stock.

Apple today introduced iPad 2. The iPad 2 features an entirely new design that is 33 percent thinner and up to 15 percent lighter than the original iPad, while maintaining the same 9.7-inch LED-backlit LCD screen.

Electronic Arts  (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Bigpoint International Services Ltd. announced a relationship to distribute select titles within EA’s Play4Free portfolio to a global audience.

To launch this relationship, EA will bring Lord of Ultima, a hit Play4Free strategy game, to the Bigpoint network in March 2011. Lord of Ultima is the first of many titles to be released on http://www.bigpoint.com/ as EA increases its investment in the Play4Free brand internationally.

SocialEyes, a new company focused on socializing video, today announced its new social video service is now available in beta. Users can also record, send or receive video messages, whether or not the other party is currently online or not. SocialEyes Groups connects people based on specific topics.

Zeevex, an InComm company providing an open virtual currency through national retailers, said that it has signed agreements with Goozex, 2Pay, Snail Games, Quest Online, and Gamania. Each game publisher will use the distribution network of the Zeevex Virtual Currency Cards at over 50,000 retail locations in the U.S. Founded in 2008 and acquired by InComm in 2010, Zeevex is an open virtual currency available in national retailers. The Zeevex Digital Locker allows gamers to manage their virtual lives. Zeevex is located in Atlanta.

BookRenter, an online textbook platform, announced it received $40 million in Series C financing from new and existing venture partners Adams Capital Management, Comerica Bank, Focus Ventures, Lighthouse Capital Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, and Storm Ventures. Since enabling college stores to launch their own textbook rental site, the BookRenter Platform has gained traction with schools looking to reduce the cost of education for their students. Over 560 college bookstores that serve six million students are using BookRenter for their online textbook rentals, including eight of the ten largest independent bookstores. This growth is propelling the company to expand by 600% year-over-year and saving students $45 million in the past six months alone. BookRenter launched in 2008.