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Xbox Live passes a million users News

Xbox News by Tom Bramwell

16 July, 2004

Microsoft has announced that there are now over a million users of the Xbox Live console online gaming service, which makes it into one of the fastest-growing online services of any description in the world.

The company announced the milestone for the service, which it originally set for itself as a target for June, in a statement last night - revealing a number of other statistics in the process, such as the fact that over 160 million hours have been spent on the Live service so far (around 20,000 years) and that an average of 265,549 hours are played each day.

According to Microsoft, the growth of the service is three times faster than other consumer online services such as internet access and information service America On-Line or digital video recording service TiVo.

The statement also listed the top 15 cities around the world in terms of Xbox Live user base, and while 12 of the cities were in North America, there was room in the top 15 for London, Seoul and Tokyo, with the latter being particularly surprising given the low installed base of the Xbox in Japan.

"Great game content has been and will continue to be the key to the success of Xbox Live," according to Microsoft's corporate VP of worldwide marketing and publishing, Peter Moore. "What really sets the service apart from others is that we make it incredibly easy for consumers to get online, find their friends, join a game and start playing right away; Xbox Live is a great experience every time they play, regardless of what they play."

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Comments: 1-15 of 15 in total

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disc
16/07/04 @ 12:24
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yawn...

online gaming is so last year...
onyxbox
16/07/04 @ 12:27
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yeah, it's all pen stroking and touching now !
Merefield
16/07/04 @ 12:53
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oooer!
Tweakmonkey
16/07/04 @ 13:03
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Most impressive. Are they making a profit though?

Very strange to have Tokyo in the list. Did they publish actual figures? Tokyo is a very big city so I suppose it *might* be possible.
Edited 1 times, most recently on 16/07/04 @ 14:05
Eighthours
16/07/04 @ 13:18
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Xbox LIVE is great.....if you ignore the fucktards. What is it about online gaming that brings out the imebeciles? Once you've got a good friends list though, Xbox LIVE is unbeatable.
gizmo
16/07/04 @ 13:33
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I was on xbox live last night till 12.30am. Playing MM3 capture the gold with a couple of 'real' friends - you know how hard it is to get together as you get older!. Absolutely, totally, completely unbeatable. Haven't laughed and cursed so much in ages.
mcmonkeyplc
16/07/04 @ 13:40
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Only one of my "real" friends has an xbox and he hasent got xbox live yet!

Getting it though in october just before the holy one is realeased upon us all.

Is that offer of a free xbox live game still available when you refer a friend?
mcmonkeyplc
16/07/04 @ 16:47
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Mr programmer you misunderstand. I have xbox live. My friend does not.
perilikid
16/07/04 @ 17:59
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Took me a while to get onto Xbox Live but I'm finally on, and I don't regret it at all. Admittedly it can be difficult avoiding... umm... ungentlemanly conduct... but once you find some people who have the same aims as you, the hours can fly by.
Bill Gates is Evil
16/07/04 @ 21:26
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can halo 2 add another a million?
westernmusic
16/07/04 @ 21:34
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does it have motorbikes?
Tweakmonkey
17/07/04 @ 10:24
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"can halo 2 add another a million?"

Yes - probably because these, like the first million, will be largely free sign-ups which get terminated after 1 month.
Khab
17/07/04 @ 17:23
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The presence of Tokyo is a bit puzzling - I think it may be down to the Live userbase not being very concentrated at all - that is that the bulk of subscribers do not live in large urban areas? If this is the case, a place like Tokyo would always show up just by being so bloody big.
3william56
19/07/04 @ 05:59
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Fastest *growing* in the world? Of *any* description? Bullsh*t. I put up a photo web page, my mum and brother looked at it, which is 300% growth in 1 day, or 109,500% p.a.

Beat that Billy No-Gates!
Tweakmonkey
19/07/04 @ 10:23
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lol - good example 3william56 :-) That Xbox statement about growth is indeed marketing b.s.

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