Leipzig Latest – Microsoft on Future of Xbox Live
Potted history, predicted reach, ‘in-game enumeration of content’.
Microsoft’s third-party account manager Steven Blackburn gave a somewhat self-congratulatory presentation at Leipzig yesterday on the past, present and predicted future of its groundbreaking Xbox Live online gaming offering. The service is such an integral part of SPOnG’s day-to-day videogaming experiences that it's strange to consider that its only been around since 2002.
Blackburn made haste to roll out the figures to establish the reach of the current service, telling us that Xbox Live has a 60% attach rate to Xbox 360 consoles, in comparison with a mere 10% for the original Xbox. Not bad, but not enough for Microsoft, who it seems will not rest on its laurels until every single Xbox 360 (and soon, with Live Anywhere in mind, Windows Vista) gamers are signed up to the online service.
Want some more intriguing, mind-boggling stats? Blackburn’s got 'em. He estimates that Xbox Live is on track to reach 6 million subscribers (though was unclear as to when this milestone will be reached). Plus, he noted that in terms of player time, over 236,000 years have been logged on Xbox Live to date, with an average of 900,000 text and voice messages sent through the service each day. Amazing statistics, which Microsoft’s stats professors have cooked up in their special PR stats labs. The bottom line is Xbox Live has become very popular, very quickly.
Onto Xbox Live Marketplace which - according to Blackburn - is used by over 80% of current Xbox Live users, with 30% of users having bought up Microsoft Points in order to buy premium content. Want more stats? Here you go. Over 1 billion Microsoft Points have so far been activated, which in terms of real money works out at around $12.5 million. There have to date been about 45 million overall downloads via Xbox Live.
So, what about the future? It seems one of the big ideas is to introduce a shift in the way Marketplace works, towards what Blackburn referred to as "In-game enumeration of content." Which simply means being able to buy downloadable content in-game, without having to stop playing and return to the Xbox 360 dashboard.
The (fairly vague) example proffered by Blackburn was of a combat flight simulator in which players might return to a hangar in order to buy new planes, weapons and so on. You get the idea. Basically, Microsoft wants to figure out better, quicker, easier ways of ensuring gamers part with their hard-earned whilst playing Microsoft games. And hey, we’re not bitching here! Who can blame them? If the experience is worth it, SPOnG’s always willing to pay.
Other plans in store for Marketplace include better options for players to preview premium content before parting with their cash and a brief mention of the ways in which Marketplace will work as part of the overall Live Anywhere strategy – where gamers can play together, earn achievements and download content on console, PC and mobile versions of the same game.
Onto the next success story. Yep, you guessed it - Xbox Live Arcade, which stat-freak Blackburn claims is being played by 65% of connected 360 gamers and has delivered over five million downloads to date. The top five games in terms of downloads are, unsurprisingly: Geometry Wars, Uno, Marble Blast Ultra, Gauntlet, and Zuma. SPOnG will be contacting Microsoft to find out when and how the figures behind this XBLA chart were compiled.
Blackburn rounded up the presentation with a mention of the importance of achievement points (using the oft-cited example of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as a guide to how these work best); a nod towards the soon-to-be-released Xbox Live Vision camera (September 19, although already available in a number of Toys R Us stores Stateside); and a mention of Shadowrun, which will be the first proper multiplatform game set to show off the full possibilities of Live Anywhere (due early 2007).
SPOnG will be bringing you more from Microsoft’s GCDC press conference later today, so keep checking back for more from the floor.
Blackburn made haste to roll out the figures to establish the reach of the current service, telling us that Xbox Live has a 60% attach rate to Xbox 360 consoles, in comparison with a mere 10% for the original Xbox. Not bad, but not enough for Microsoft, who it seems will not rest on its laurels until every single Xbox 360 (and soon, with Live Anywhere in mind, Windows Vista) gamers are signed up to the online service.
Want some more intriguing, mind-boggling stats? Blackburn’s got 'em. He estimates that Xbox Live is on track to reach 6 million subscribers (though was unclear as to when this milestone will be reached). Plus, he noted that in terms of player time, over 236,000 years have been logged on Xbox Live to date, with an average of 900,000 text and voice messages sent through the service each day. Amazing statistics, which Microsoft’s stats professors have cooked up in their special PR stats labs. The bottom line is Xbox Live has become very popular, very quickly.
Onto Xbox Live Marketplace which - according to Blackburn - is used by over 80% of current Xbox Live users, with 30% of users having bought up Microsoft Points in order to buy premium content. Want more stats? Here you go. Over 1 billion Microsoft Points have so far been activated, which in terms of real money works out at around $12.5 million. There have to date been about 45 million overall downloads via Xbox Live.
So, what about the future? It seems one of the big ideas is to introduce a shift in the way Marketplace works, towards what Blackburn referred to as "In-game enumeration of content." Which simply means being able to buy downloadable content in-game, without having to stop playing and return to the Xbox 360 dashboard.
The (fairly vague) example proffered by Blackburn was of a combat flight simulator in which players might return to a hangar in order to buy new planes, weapons and so on. You get the idea. Basically, Microsoft wants to figure out better, quicker, easier ways of ensuring gamers part with their hard-earned whilst playing Microsoft games. And hey, we’re not bitching here! Who can blame them? If the experience is worth it, SPOnG’s always willing to pay.
Other plans in store for Marketplace include better options for players to preview premium content before parting with their cash and a brief mention of the ways in which Marketplace will work as part of the overall Live Anywhere strategy – where gamers can play together, earn achievements and download content on console, PC and mobile versions of the same game.
Onto the next success story. Yep, you guessed it - Xbox Live Arcade, which stat-freak Blackburn claims is being played by 65% of connected 360 gamers and has delivered over five million downloads to date. The top five games in terms of downloads are, unsurprisingly: Geometry Wars, Uno, Marble Blast Ultra, Gauntlet, and Zuma. SPOnG will be contacting Microsoft to find out when and how the figures behind this XBLA chart were compiled.
Blackburn rounded up the presentation with a mention of the importance of achievement points (using the oft-cited example of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as a guide to how these work best); a nod towards the soon-to-be-released Xbox Live Vision camera (September 19, although already available in a number of Toys R Us stores Stateside); and a mention of Shadowrun, which will be the first proper multiplatform game set to show off the full possibilities of Live Anywhere (due early 2007).
SPOnG will be bringing you more from Microsoft’s GCDC press conference later today, so keep checking back for more from the floor.
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Comments
RiseFromYourGrave 23 Aug 2006 13:35
1/11
Xbox live is brilliant, and theyre right to show off about it.
but one thing slightly bothers me, if youre buying extra content in-game, could it be that people end up buying content that they wouldve got in-game for free had the system not been introduced?
for example, people are working on that flight sim and then get told theyre using this system, and decide to make the last couple of secret planes or levels (that they had intended you to unlock by achieving certain goals) cost you points/cash
then they do the same with the next game, and the next
i guess its up to the developers to be fair, but lets face it theres some c**ts out there
but one thing slightly bothers me, if youre buying extra content in-game, could it be that people end up buying content that they wouldve got in-game for free had the system not been introduced?
for example, people are working on that flight sim and then get told theyre using this system, and decide to make the last couple of secret planes or levels (that they had intended you to unlock by achieving certain goals) cost you points/cash
then they do the same with the next game, and the next
i guess its up to the developers to be fair, but lets face it theres some c**ts out there
PreciousRoi 23 Aug 2006 15:34
2/11
very good point, and one which has concerned me in the past...what would happen is a game would be released and then there would be no further downloadable content even though that ability was touted...with no method of extracting further revenue, what does it profit a developer to make and release new content? With the possibility of making money on it, letting the dev team work on some additional stuff (perhaps stuff that didn't make it into the finished product on time) makes more sense. It would suck if someone started pulling s**t like that, I just don't think its as big a concern as you might think.
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soanso 23 Aug 2006 16:58
3/11
They could also do some v. cool things with it.
Release a game and get feedback from the players, then make new content for it that gives the players more of what they want.
It'd be like when Capcom brought out SFII on the snes and everybody wanted to play as the bosses.
Cheat mags full of questions of how to do it and eventually someone came up with a solution that involved cheat codes, multiple action replay carts and some luck.
And then right after that Capcom released the upgrade 'turbo' version.
These days you could make it a download and everybody would be happy.
Release a game and get feedback from the players, then make new content for it that gives the players more of what they want.
It'd be like when Capcom brought out SFII on the snes and everybody wanted to play as the bosses.
Cheat mags full of questions of how to do it and eventually someone came up with a solution that involved cheat codes, multiple action replay carts and some luck.
And then right after that Capcom released the upgrade 'turbo' version.
These days you could make it a download and everybody would be happy.
tyrion 23 Aug 2006 17:35
4/11
RiseFromYourGrave wrote:
i guess its up to the developers to be fair, but lets face it theres some c**ts out there
Remember when console gamers laughed at PC gamers for having to patch games in order to play them?
How long before a 360, Wii or PS3 game makes you pay for patches because they couldn't be arsed to get it right first time?
Bundle it up with some "additional content" that wasn't ready for the management-imposed deadline to hide the fact that its actually an update for the game engine.
Who'll be laughing then?
BlackSpy 23 Aug 2006 18:31
5/11
I guess it's true that stuff that would have been free will now be billed for, but it may also mean that games life spans are extended - it may become harder and harder for EA to update all their titles yearly.
PreciousRoi 23 Aug 2006 18:37
6/11
Worry about this on something other than the 360...LIVE! has always provided free gameplay patches independant of additional content. And always will, Gates willing...*crosses self
Seriously though, this is already a horrible problem, games being sold at retail that are incomplete and broken...
Shenanigans! I call Shenanigans upon these dicks!
Seriously though, this is already a horrible problem, games being sold at retail that are incomplete and broken...
Shenanigans! I call Shenanigans upon these dicks!
PreciousRoi 23 Aug 2006 18:44
7/11
BlackSpy wrote:
I guess it's true that stuff that would have been free will now be billed for, but it may also mean that games life spans are extended - it may become harder and harder for EA to update all their titles yearly.
You're supposed to think of it more like: Stuff that would never have existed before, you can now have the privelege of having the option of paying for.
BlackSpy 23 Aug 2006 21:19
8/11
Most of the stuff that never existed before that I will have the privilage of paying for will be
- unique pumpkin launcher gun in Halo 3, purchaseable on October 31st only
- Four new colours, plus two cammo patterns in Need for Speed: Gangsta
- A new design of shop front in GTA: Village People
- More music than I know what to do with in Guitar Hepoes: No Copyright Infringed
ie, total garbage with scarce any novelty value but possibly impulse purchasable. And, for the price of a chocolate bar, why not?
- unique pumpkin launcher gun in Halo 3, purchaseable on October 31st only
- Four new colours, plus two cammo patterns in Need for Speed: Gangsta
- A new design of shop front in GTA: Village People
- More music than I know what to do with in Guitar Hepoes: No Copyright Infringed
ie, total garbage with scarce any novelty value but possibly impulse purchasable. And, for the price of a chocolate bar, why not?
RiseFromYourGrave 24 Aug 2006 00:02
9/11
due to the limitations of the internet, i cant decide wether your last sentence is total sarcasm or just a tongue in cheek explaination of how insignificant and minor you think these charges are :P
but i must say, it would suck if companies were pulling things like 'design a character/vehicle' features, or pulling certain colours/designs that they knew would be popular out of those features, so they can charge you at a later date. imagine some people working on an fps, designing, modelling and animating the guns. they make a brilliant nuclear minigun rocket launcher, and the first thing that pops in their minds is how much they could charge for it because 'k1dz l0v t3h m1n1gUnZ'. it just aint right! they may even design weapons/levels/characters with monetary worth their foremost concern
they can make it seem like your getting some rare piece of custom gaming, but in some cases you could really be getting charged for the polish, content and depth that the game should have had upon release
buy a metaphorical chocolate bar or two every other day, months down the line youll find youve spent quite a lot. and most of that chocolate shouldve been free.
but i must say, it would suck if companies were pulling things like 'design a character/vehicle' features, or pulling certain colours/designs that they knew would be popular out of those features, so they can charge you at a later date. imagine some people working on an fps, designing, modelling and animating the guns. they make a brilliant nuclear minigun rocket launcher, and the first thing that pops in their minds is how much they could charge for it because 'k1dz l0v t3h m1n1gUnZ'. it just aint right! they may even design weapons/levels/characters with monetary worth their foremost concern
they can make it seem like your getting some rare piece of custom gaming, but in some cases you could really be getting charged for the polish, content and depth that the game should have had upon release
buy a metaphorical chocolate bar or two every other day, months down the line youll find youve spent quite a lot. and most of that chocolate shouldve been free.
tyrion 24 Aug 2006 07:34
10/11
PreciousRoi wrote:
Worry about this on something other than the 360...LIVE! has always provided free gameplay patches independant of additional content. And always will, Gates willing...*crosses self
Don't worry it will come to all platforms.
There have been a few instances of "expansion packs" for PC games that have "rebalanced" aspects of the original game. I also seem to remember a Halo or Halo2 update that changed the on-line play balance.
All that needs to happen is that we get used to paying for the extra goodies. We expect some to be available on day one, or just after the game launches.
Then we start to get games launched "on time" without slippage, and there's stuff available for download from day one. Downloading it just happens to stop you from being able to get stuck in that corner on level three.
All of a sudden you have paid for a patch. It may not happen on PS3, 360 or Wii. However it will happen.
DoctorDee 24 Aug 2006 08:48
11/11
BlackSpy wrote:
it may become harder and harder for EA to update all their titles yearly.
EA (or whoever) doesn't want to update its titles yeary. It wants to continually flow out upgrades, and add-ons for a constant stream of easy money.
Or more likely, get you to subscribe to a game channel, for a certain amount per month, ongong you get a steady flow of stuff... it eases their deadline schedule, elimiates retaier and distributor margin and shipping costs, It eliminates over stock and buy-backs.
The rich get richer and the rest of us get ripped off.
Of course, the free market will save us by rewaring the most competitively priced - but for that you need competition, and that seems to be going the way of the dodo.