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XBox (Games) The Internet

MS Expects Half of All 360 Owners To Use Live 49

Posted by Zonk from the meet-new-people-and-swear-at-them dept.
Gamespot is reporting that Xbox chief officer Robbie Bach expects half of all Xbox 360 owners to use the Live service. From the article: "Bach confirmed that currently, only 10 percent of Xbox owners--some 2 million users--subscribe to Xbox Live. With the addition of the free 'Silver' version of Xbox Live, Bach believes that about 50 percent of the console's owners will go online via the 360. However, they will still have to pay to play games online via the new Xbox Live Gold."
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MS Expects Half of All 360 Owners To Use Live More

MS Expects Half of All 360 Owners To Use Live

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  • Not too outlandish... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RoadDoggFL ( 876257 ) on Friday September 30, 2005 @02:59PM (#13688080) Homepage
    When you consider that Xbox Live Silver will be free, will have barely any features, and will likely be forced down people's throats. Though I guess some of that expectation can be attributed to increased utility withing Xbox Live itself and more people with broadband.

    • Re:Not too outlandish... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Gogo0 ( 877020 ) on Friday September 30, 2005 @04:27PM (#13688926)
      Wait until MS pushes a firmware patch or something over Live and claim the next day that over 90% of owners "use" Live.
      Though to be fair, it would be retarded to not spin that for marketing.
      • yeah, since the basic and severley limited live service is going to be free, and early xbox1.5 consumers will be in a demographic that mostly already has a suitable high-bandwidth connection - obviously 50% to use live is a conservative estimate. How many will subscribe? -probably a high proporion of early adopters but a year in, when the cost of the console drops - a much smaller proportion since these are mostly casual gamers with lower disposable income.

        i saw a presention the other day that predicted the
  • All they have to do is sell no more than 400,000 units and they're set!

  • Incentive (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bclark ( 858016 ) on Friday September 30, 2005 @03:01PM (#13688096)
    What can you do with Xbox Live Silver? Download more content? I don't really understand what the incentive is for companies to release free downloadable content. I mean, they've already got your money. Seems like the smart thing to do would be to save any new content you create and release an updated or director's cut version later, or adopt the EA model and if the game is successful, just start releasing it every year with very small changes. Paid downloadable content makes sense, at least, but I don't see how big a part of the 360 strategy that is. The important number for Microsoft should be how many more people can they get to pay for Xbox Gold, especially if the price is going up compared to current Xbox Live rates.

    • Re:Incentive (Score:2, Interesting)

      by dootbran ( 467662 )
      I think silver being added in an effort to increase the sales of payed DLC. Not only does it let you reach a wider audience by not requiring them to pay a subscription first but it also separates the Live payment from the DLC value in the users mind.

      At them moment a lot of users probably feel like developers are double dipping by charging for DLC. Now they are being more explicit, multiplayer is $50/year while DLC and friends lists are free. Now even though I pay my $50/year, I don't see that DLC as being p
    • Free downloadable content is a feature of a game that adds value to the game, and allows developers to get games out faster by releasing stuff later. Wipeout Pure (for PSP) has been getting free downloadable tracks and it's been working out pretty good for them.
    • I don't think free is the focus. From everything MS has been talking about, the Live Marketplace is the interesting part to them and to developers - Small payments for new skins, levels, wallpapers and stuff. Some of it might be free, but so far MS has been mostly pushing it as a place to sell things (hence the name).

    • Re:Incentive (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Delphiki ( 646425 )
      One thing that I'm looking forward to doing with Xbox Live that you can do with Silver is chat with friends via text or voice, even if you're both playing offline, single player games. It's not a big enough feature to sell a lot of systems, but I think I'm definitely looking forward to it.
    • I don't really understand what the incentive is for companies to release free downloadable content.

      Many reasons: new content helps keep their game in the news and encourages new sales. Sometimes the content isn't even "new", it was stuff that was cut out of the game to meet a release date and has now been put back in. It allows the publisher to keep re-releasing the game with new maps and mods while keeping the price up; you could find Half-Life packages on shelves going for $50 just before Half-Life 2 sh
  • ...have one and actually play it!

    Take me for example. I have a PS2 and I've played a grand total of oh...30 hours on it in the past 2 years i've had it. But then, I went off to school and didn't want it with me so I gave it to my little cousin (on the condiditon he would be responsible with it and I wouldn't get in trouble over giving it to him).

  • Nintendo too (Score:3, Informative)

    by ShadowMarth ( 870657 ) on Friday September 30, 2005 @03:03PM (#13688125)
    Nintendo is trying to achieve 75% online penetration of the DS and Revolution market, and they're making good strides.
    • Are any games online on DS yet? I really haven't been following it, but didn't they push back most online games until next year?
    • " Nintendo is trying to achieve 75% online penetration of the DS and Revolution market, and they're making good strides."

      Um, you mean 75% penetration of the DS & Revolution user base. The DS & Revolution markets are everyone that plays video games on a hand-held or a console... If Nintendo were to achieve 75% of that market, I'd be a little surprised.

    • Re:Nintendo too (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by Phantasmo ( 586700 )
      Well Nintendo doesn't have any online games yet, but their service is getting a bit of press attention and I think they can beat Microsoft in terms of total number of online players. The service will be free and from what I've read I think it'll be pretty easy to find your friends or even random players with a similar record. The fact that it'll be free (as opposed to Live's $6/month) can't hurt! However,
      There will be no voice chat in official Nintendo games for the DS.
      There has been nothing announced regar

      • Re:Nintendo too (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Castar ( 67188 ) on Friday September 30, 2005 @05:00PM (#13689275)
        I don't think lawsuits are what Nintendo is afraid of - they're afraid of a bad user experience for the new gamers they're trying to usher in.

        If you've played online on Live or PS2, you'll understand. The language, while offensive, is nothing compared to the childishness, the racism, the homophobia, the sexual harrasment... Imagine being in High School, except everyone is anonymous and thus can't be held accountable for anything they say. (cf. John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory) I'm a hardcore gamer, not easily offended, and *I* certainly don't want to play with voice chat in SOCOM or BattleField. It's like swimming in the raw sewage of humanity.

        If your last gaming experience was Super Mario Bros. 3, and you're enticed back in to gaming when you have kids, a wife, and a mortgage, you don't want to be called a mexican jew lizard in Mario Kart by some 14-year-old in Alabama. You might not sue over it, but you're sure not going to play online any more, regardless of whether you were warned or not.
        • You are so right on this. The US online console markets are downright offensive. Unlike PC gaming where there "might" be an administrator, console games are mostly peer to peer.

          Screamers have rendered my headphones obsolete. The languages and racists comments are beyond acceptable. I ALWAYS thought I have seen it all. But I am proven wrong everytime.

      • Any online service that involves children is worried about child abusers using the service to find victims.

  • What's the point... (Score:3, Funny)

    by five40kix ( 853950 ) on Friday September 30, 2005 @03:22PM (#13688307)
    If I can't play games with the silver package...then I might as well go online with something called a PC!
    • go ahead and sit in your crappy office chair in the basement illuminated with a flourescent light bar and muck up your keyboard with your cheeto cheese covered fingertips and play WOW then with your face 9" away from your 17" monitor then. I'm gonna sit on my couch and play some kickass games on my big ass tv with my kids and friends.

      pc gaming != console gaming

  • Just One More Feature And I Would Sign Up.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BRock97 ( 17460 ) on Friday September 30, 2005 @03:28PM (#13688375) Homepage
    You know, how hard is it to add keyboard and mouse support to the 360? Come on, seriously. Sadly, I am a gamer that was raised on the keyboard and mouse for my first person shooters and until I can have that on my console, I won't jump ship. Everything else is finally there, IMHO. Broadband connections, hi-res display via HDTV, most of the things that the PC was able to hold over the head of the console game systems. Just not this last thing.

    Sadly, though, I can see why they are doing it. I firmly believe that a user with a keyboard and mouse will have an unfair advantage over the controller user with the auto-aiming. And it isn't like it would be hard for Microsoft to do something about it. How about different lounges in the games based on what you were using to control the game? Seriously, you let me use a mouse/keyboard combo, and I will sign up for your Live service.
    • Why would MS include mouse and keyboard support? To kill of PC gaming? That'd be simply brilliant by them! :roll eyes:

      If there was no PC gaming, there would be no graphics card industry. There'd be no need to upgrade your motherboard and CPU every 2 years. Yes, it'd be brilliant of MS to include mouse and keyboard support for the X360 so they can have a hand in killing off nVidia, ATI, Intel, AMD, and every other PC manufacturer that depends on consumer upgrades every year or two in order to stay in busin
    • Sadly, though, I can see why they are doing it. I firmly believe that a user with a keyboard and mouse will have an unfair advantage over the controller user with the auto-aiming. And it isn't like it would be hard for Microsoft to do something about it. How about different lounges in the games based on what you were using to control the game? Seriously, you let me use a mouse/keyboard combo, and I will sign up for your Live service.

      You're right about that, because it's been done before with Quake 3 on th

  • Woah (Score:5, Funny)

    by Digital Vomit ( 891734 ) on Friday September 30, 2005 @04:11PM (#13688764) Homepage Journal
    I read that as "MS Expects Half of All 360 Owners To Live"

    That's one harsh console.

    • " I read that as 'MS Expects Half of All 360 Owners To Live'
      That's one harsh console."

      Actually, that's a pretty sweet console. If MS only expects half of 360 owners to die... half of 360 owners become immortal?

      I'll buy two 360 bundles to get a 75% chance!
    • Ether that or Microsoft expects half of the boxes to be purchased by the undead.

    • Re:Woah (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Only the strong will be able to survive the onslaught of entertainment that Xbox360 will cause.

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