Microsoft produces NXE stats

By Robert Purchese Published 11 December, 2008

Avatars more popular than Milky Bars.

Microsoft has produced some statistics to prove Xbox Live is more popular now the New Xbox Experience has launched.

No solid numbers were given, but apparently there has been a significant upswing of activity since the arrival of NXE on 19th November.

The amount of new friends added per Xbox Live member has risen by 33 per cent, according to Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb.

A Kingdom for Keflings, the first Avatar game, went on to record the second best first-week sales ever for an Xbox Live Arcade title. And even the ageing UNO, which was patched to include Avatar support, felt the rush, as sales rocketed 650 per cent in one day.

Film downloads rose by 49 per cent, apparently, and TV episode demand increased by 30 per cent.

All of this, we're told, comes off the back of unique visitors to Xbox Live rising 66 per cent over the last year. Of course, more console sales will help to account for this figure.

There are now over 14 million people using Xbox Live, although presumably not all of those pay the GBP 40 a year for a Gold subscription.

Sony's great challenger, PlayStation Home, enters open beta today. The PS3 maker will no doubt hope to trigger a similar reaction among its community.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • muscleblade #1 3 years ago

    The Party system is fantastic. The Avatars are redundant and distracting imo.

  • Bealsy #2 3 years ago

    because we're all so excited about walking around a virtual world staring into space....

  • Mooks #3 3 years ago

    I really don't like the new avatars it might be ok for a 12yo but it just seems a bit childish as an adult, I also dislike not being able to set the default startup to be my games list having to move everytime you log in is becoming irritating.

  • b00n #4 3 years ago

    I don't mind the avatars, but it's not like it changes anything substantially. It's fun to make one and have a look at the one's of your friends. It doesn't give me a hard-on though.. But overall I think this NXE make-over is successful.

  • bad09 #5 3 years ago

    "The Avatars are redundant and distracting imo."

    This.

  • systems #6 3 years ago

    I can't be bothered with the avatars and friends display. If you've got more than 10 friends (and are over the age of 10) you might as well press the trusty guide button and sort your party out that way (and start your game).

    They only stuck those avatars in to cash in on desperate people (aka "casual gamers";) walking around shops looking for a Wii this Christmas. It's just pointless. They should have included clan support instead of pissing about with MiiToo.

  • seasidebaz #7 3 years ago

    I tried Keflings last night. Bad frame rate, dodgy collision detection, tearing, and a general lack of gameplay made me delete the demo after about 90 seconds.

    That, and the fact that I had finished all the demo content in that space of time...

  • Arwin #8 3 years ago

    The avatars outright suck. I can't make anything that even remotely looks like me, and regardless of whether or not I'm a total freak, I can do this in the other avatar systems so I'm still blaming MS / Rare. ;) However good job on getting them into games already (though you could say that pool, bowling, chess, chequers and the likes in Home are similar things)

    That said, anyone seen the video of the Red Bull Air race thing in Home? Now there's a level of interaction I didn't expect from Home itself!

  • Roamer #9 3 years ago

    There are now over 14 million people using Xbox Live, although presumably not all of those pay the GBP 40 a year for a Gold subscription.

    Nope, but once they've signed up they have to go through a ridiculous process where they have to call customer support, wait in line, talk to some rude customer rep before being able to cancel their subscription - incredible!

  • SleepyMagpie #10 3 years ago

    "I really don't like the new avatars it might be ok for a 12yo but it just seems a bit childish as an adult"

    You sure you have the right hobby, man? Gaming in general is still considered childish by broad swathes of the population..

    NXE GUI upgrade is generally a success I think. The avatars really don't bother me this way or that, but I must give Rare and Microsoft - that with them - 2 mates and I were able to make avatars that really resemble one-and-other, and they've made a few people laugh when they saw them.

  • miiiguel #11 3 years ago

    I'm over 30 and I like it, it's fun. Although I understand that there's a certain time fram when one must prove he's not a kid anymore, and bash "childish stuff". Not patronizing here just saying, been there.

    And I'm a bit curious here, reagarding: "desperate people (aka "casual gamers";)", why are casual people, "desperate" ?

  • SleepyMagpie #12 3 years ago

    I hope I never grow up.

  • Dizzy #13 3 years ago

    NXE has been great.. the Avatars... well... there are ok. Not essential but I had some fun seeing avatars of people that I know in real life that really looked like them. The avatars will probably become more important in avatar-supported games. Anyway... it certainly is a casual addition, but it doesn't annoy the serious gamer IMHO. I can imagine the girlfriends playing around with this a lot more than the guys.

  • woodnotes #14 3 years ago

    It's nice to see all of Sony's community managers in this comments thread - on the ball today.

  • beholdthelantern #15 3 years ago

    Anybody paying £40 a year for Live subs is a mug! You can get it for ~£27 for a 12+1 (13) month card - don't ask me why it isn't just a 13 month card - which works out at pennies over £2 a month for the best online gaming there is. Bargain.

  • Darren #16 3 years ago

    Well I have three Avatars for each of my three LIVE accounts (UK, US and Japan) but although I like them, they're really pretty useless as none of the games I play use them and I rarely even access the Friends section, instead I find it easier to use the Guide button to access my Friends list and send/read messages.

  • Byzanite #17 3 years ago

    Im with Sleepy Magpie and Miiiiiiguel!

  • phoenixology #18 3 years ago

    I bought my 1st film download the other week.

    Maybe it was because of NXE? Who knows?

  • merkdot #19 3 years ago

    phoenixology: I wanted to do the same, but the selection was a bit poor.

  • GamerG #20 3 years ago

    I love the NXE, looks so much cooler than before and i'm not surprised its been helping noobs find their way round or rather has been encouraging them to do so, as its a piece of piss!

    Good work MS

  • Skooch #21 3 years ago

    The Avatars are not aimed at the kind of hardcore gamers posting on gaming sites...I am looking forward to when people start realising that fact so everyone can stop moaning. There were so many people dissing the NXE before they even saw it and now hardly anyone would actually choose to go back to the old dash if they could. The party system is fantastic, it looks a whole lot better and is more accessible for casual gamers. MS did a good job, let's all just enjoy it!

  • Fab4 #22 3 years ago

    The only decent thing about NXE was the copy to HDD. Even the party system is poorly conceived.

  • kinky_mong #23 3 years ago

    The amount of new friends added per Xbox Live member has risen by 33 per cent

    Well in my case that's because of Left 4 Dead not because of NXE.

    I've had loads of people (three) say my avatar is a spot on recreation of me. Still see them as pretty pointless though. And what does annoy me is that you can't change the NXE defaulting to Spotlight when you turn it on. I want it to start on My Xbox not fecking adverts!

  • Skooch #24 3 years ago

    "And what does annoy me is that you can't change the NXE defaulting to Spotlight when you turn it on. I want it to start on My Xbox not fecking adverts!"

    +1 - that is probably my only gripe.

  • SEVQA #25 3 years ago

    “Sony's great challenger, PlayStation Home, enters open beta today. The PS3 maker will no doubt hope to trigger a similar reaction among its community.”

    Hardly a challenge or comparison as one you can pay up to 40 quid a year to use its full functionality verses one that’s completely free. Errrm I prefer the one I pay 40 quid a year for.

    NOT!

  • andywilkie35 #26 3 years ago

    "And what does annoy me is that you can't change the NXE defaulting to Spotlight when you turn it on. I want it to start on My Xbox not fecking adverts!"

    +1 too, that too is my only fault with it so far

    I agree with some people's comments about the avatars too....what do they do exactly? I own Scene It BOS so it was cool for a game to have my avatar there, but that got boring really quickly so what other purpose do they serve?

  • Wash #27 3 years ago

    I think as avatars see more use, and are featured more in software built with the NXE in mind we'll see more operations and have greater enjoyment of them.

    At the moment, apart from the sparse initial costume choices and making him go cross eyed - i dont own any avatar games. A game like fuzion frenzy with avatar support would be fun, or a mario kart esque racer with them.

  • glaeken #28 3 years ago

    I still find the concept of NXE and home totally off. Personally I have a game console to play games. I turn the thing on and lauch my game. I don't spend time browsing a flashy menu.

  • Bluetooth #29 3 years ago

    I look ugly, both in real life and avatar form, so I used my girlfriend as the avatar. Dressing her up in the things she should wear but never does gives me a semi

  • miiiguel #30 3 years ago

    on avatars: I mean..., fair enough, anyone is entitled to not like it, but it is rather innocuous, innit?
    It entertainmed me for about 2 hours and missus for a whole lot more (she does moan about few clothes or something...), so it's good! :)
    Edited by 1 at 11/12/08 @ 13:03

  • Ryze #31 3 years ago

    I honestly don't mind the avatars, as they're not intrusive to the XBL experience bar the requirement to choose one for each profile used.

    As far as the NXE is concerned - the installs and the party system are absolutely awesome, and the new interface makes it easy to quickly browse and see what's new and popular without even having to faff with horrid menu after dull menu.

    Overall I think it's great, but could do with an optimisation patch to reduce some unnecessary freezing in places.

  • metalangel #32 3 years ago

    After the mrs. and I both made avatars, they have served NO PURPOSE. I do quite like being able to change what wibbly wobbly graphical effect my camera has on the dashboard though, is that new?

  • BBIAJ #33 3 years ago

    Ummm... nope!

    Dashboard camera support has been in since LIVE cam launched.

  • Farzlepot #34 3 years ago

    Of course the stats are higher! My Xbox used to boot straight into whatever game I had in the drive at the time I switched it on! I never even SAW the dashboard half the time, unless I switched games! Now, since the NXE, it boots straight to dashboard and I haven't figured out how to stop it yet...