Microsoft will have a happy holiday season, based upon early sales estimates for its Kinect motion-control device for the Xbox 360. Cnet News and others are reporting that Microsoft is expecting no less than 5 million units to sell this quarter, beating the Playstation 3’s Move motion-control device that was released in September (it sold 1 million units that month) by a healthy margin.

The Kinect is a big launch for Microsoft, and can be big competition for the Nintendo Wii’s grip on the family video games market.

“Gamer moms” may be flocking to the new Xbox toy, but their impact may be greater than just big sales. Kinect has already provided a horde of YouTube videos documenting the device’s propensity to cause injury to humans, pets, and furniture/televisions.

On top of that, reports are circulating around the internet that the software isn’t working quite right, failing to recognize people’s skin color, or calibrate properly, and the microphone accidentally broadcasting private conversations over Xbox Live.