Ashwin Hary
Edward 1
The Xbox Live Juggernaught
October 23rd 2006 09:49
Being the first unified gaming network to grace gamers' lounge rooms is no mean feat. Actually providing a quality experience and some truly innovate features is not bad either.
But Xbox Live has done more than that. First on the original Xbox, and now on the Xbox 360, this thing is like one of those giant boulders Indiana Jones found chasing him out of a temple. It has gone from strength to strength. Microsoft recently released some statistics on just what their service has accomplished in its short life:
* Xbox Live has now reached more than 4 million members and is growing every day. We anticipate by June 2007 more than 6 million gamers will be connected to the Xbox Live network.
* Xbox Live is the world’s largest platform for high-definition, on-demand content with gamers downloading over 70 million pieces of gaming and entertainment content from Xbox Live Marketplace in just the first 11 months of launch.
* More than 70 percent of connected Xbox 360 consoles are downloading content from Xbox Live Marketplace, home to 2,000 pieces of gaming and entertainment content.
* Xbox Live Arcade has now surpassed 12 million downloads in less than a year. The popularity of Xbox Live has driven major publishers and independent game developers to submit more than a thousand Xbox Live Arcade game concepts to Microsoft for review.
* Xbox Live Arcade games average a phenomenal 24 percent trial-to-purchase conversion rate with #1 title UNO reaching a trial-to-purchase conversion rate of over 50 percent.
* Since the launch of Xbox Live in November 2002, gamers have spent more than two billion hours on the network playing games online with their friends around the world.
* Over 9 million text and voice messages are sent via Xbox Live every week.
Those are some pretty impressive numbers right there, but Microsoft has high hopes for the future of Xbox Live. It is constantly improving. The highly anticipated camera peripheral is selling like hot cakes, and last week a number of features were added to the xbox.com website which allow deeper customisation of your experience (whilst you're away from your console, no less).
Next month, MS's bi-annual "update" will be heralded in, improving resolution support (1080p) and allowing group voice and video chat, amongst other things. So what's the moral of the story?
Got broadband? Sign up. Everyone else is.
But Xbox Live has done more than that. First on the original Xbox, and now on the Xbox 360, this thing is like one of those giant boulders Indiana Jones found chasing him out of a temple. It has gone from strength to strength. Microsoft recently released some statistics on just what their service has accomplished in its short life:
* Xbox Live has now reached more than 4 million members and is growing every day. We anticipate by June 2007 more than 6 million gamers will be connected to the Xbox Live network.
* Xbox Live is the world’s largest platform for high-definition, on-demand content with gamers downloading over 70 million pieces of gaming and entertainment content from Xbox Live Marketplace in just the first 11 months of launch.
* More than 70 percent of connected Xbox 360 consoles are downloading content from Xbox Live Marketplace, home to 2,000 pieces of gaming and entertainment content.
* Xbox Live Arcade has now surpassed 12 million downloads in less than a year. The popularity of Xbox Live has driven major publishers and independent game developers to submit more than a thousand Xbox Live Arcade game concepts to Microsoft for review.
* Xbox Live Arcade games average a phenomenal 24 percent trial-to-purchase conversion rate with #1 title UNO reaching a trial-to-purchase conversion rate of over 50 percent.
* Since the launch of Xbox Live in November 2002, gamers have spent more than two billion hours on the network playing games online with their friends around the world.
* Over 9 million text and voice messages are sent via Xbox Live every week.
Those are some pretty impressive numbers right there, but Microsoft has high hopes for the future of Xbox Live. It is constantly improving. The highly anticipated camera peripheral is selling like hot cakes, and last week a number of features were added to the xbox.com website which allow deeper customisation of your experience (whilst you're away from your console, no less).
Next month, MS's bi-annual "update" will be heralded in, improving resolution support (1080p) and allowing group voice and video chat, amongst other things. So what's the moral of the story?
Got broadband? Sign up. Everyone else is.
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