Xbox Live Sees Traffic Surge
Massive traffic increase in US following Gears of War release
Sandvine, a US-based broadband monitoring service, has reported an 80% surge in Xbox Live traffic in November. The figure is based on a random sampling of homes across the US.
The surge came following the release on November 7th of six new titles. Tellingly, Gears of War was one of them. The killer app has been a huge success for Microsoft, having sold over a million copies worldwide. It's no coincidence it came out the same week as the user surge; the title took the top spot as most-played Xbox Live title.
The rush on Xbox Live mirrors the release of Halo 2 in 2004 when the number of Xbox Live users quadrupled. There would seem to be a pattern emerging…
Dave Caputo, president and CEO of Sandvine said: "The effect Gears of War and other games are having on networks indicates to service providers that online gaming is not just a craze." It's certainly a growing area of focus and competition for hardware manufacturers. Sony made its first downloadable games available for the PSP today and Nintendo's Virtual Console launched for the Wii last week.
With this increasing competition in an area that they've traditionally dominated, Microsoft will be pleased to see its online service continuing to grow in strength. This news comes only a few weeks after the addition of downloadable telly to Xbox Live's roster of services in the US.
The surge came following the release on November 7th of six new titles. Tellingly, Gears of War was one of them. The killer app has been a huge success for Microsoft, having sold over a million copies worldwide. It's no coincidence it came out the same week as the user surge; the title took the top spot as most-played Xbox Live title.
The rush on Xbox Live mirrors the release of Halo 2 in 2004 when the number of Xbox Live users quadrupled. There would seem to be a pattern emerging…
Dave Caputo, president and CEO of Sandvine said: "The effect Gears of War and other games are having on networks indicates to service providers that online gaming is not just a craze." It's certainly a growing area of focus and competition for hardware manufacturers. Sony made its first downloadable games available for the PSP today and Nintendo's Virtual Console launched for the Wii last week.
With this increasing competition in an area that they've traditionally dominated, Microsoft will be pleased to see its online service continuing to grow in strength. This news comes only a few weeks after the addition of downloadable telly to Xbox Live's roster of services in the US.
Read More Like This
