Xbox Live hits 24m downloads

By Games Industry.biz Published 19 May, 2006

Halo 3 vid proves most popular.

Microsoft has declared Xbox Live to be the world's largest platform for high-definition on-demand content, after a hugely successful E3 week saw over 1.5 million gamers connecting to the service.

Over 24 million pieces of content - ranging from game demos and videos to movie trailers, music videos and add-on content for popular games - have now been downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace service.

Five million of those were downloaded last week, when Microsoft's "E3: Bringing It Home" campaign allowed gamers around the world to access content which had been revealed for the first time at E3, including videos and demos of upcoming titles.

Over 600 terabytes of data were transferred over the network during the week, a figure which represents 30 times more data than is found in all the printed material in the US Library of Congress, according to Microsoft games boss Peter Moore, who thankfully did not go on to provide the standard British comparison of telling us how many double decker buses it equates to.

The success of the service during the week was also aided by a programme which allowed gamers to experience the Gold version of the Xbox Live service - normally reserved for subscription-paying members - for free, courtesy of sponsors Verizon in the USA and Adidas in Europe.

Unsurprisingly, the single most popular item downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace during the week was the trailer video for Halo 3, but the rest of the download chart shows that playable demos are more popular than videos in general - with the playable demos of Lost Planet, Test Drive Unlimited and MotoGP '06 occupying places two through four respectively.

"Only Xbox Live could bring E3 home in high definition for consumers around the world," commented Peter Moore in an official statement today. "While others talk about online entertainment in the console space, we are delivering it in glorious high-definition to the millions of members we have across 24 countries."

Picture of Games.

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Comments (48) Latest comment 6 years ago

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

  • Mildew #1 6 years ago

    Suppose it's being too optimisitc to have a Dead Rising demo........thought so........nuts!

  • OnlyMe #2 6 years ago

    /also looks forward to Dead Rising

  • #3 6 years ago

    600 terabytes
    Excelllent.
    The E3 stuff was a master stroke. NO-ONE can diss MS for that.
    Lost Planet demo you say - GET!

    The Live Arcade/Marketplace/Gaming experience really is second to none.

  • Narv #4 6 years ago

    omg as 1 Terabyte is roughly the equivalent of 50,000 trees turned into paper MS can now say they saved the rainforests by not cutting down 30,000,000 trees to bring you HD video and demos. :)

  • lambtron #5 6 years ago

    lol @ blackdog

    Given Sony's terrible attempts at Online so far I'll wait and see on that one. Of course if they do a really good job its possible they will outstrip live. But given they're not a software company I think I'll wait and see.

    24 million though 0_o

  • matrim83 #6 6 years ago

    @LeDilettante - Heh my sentiments exactly. And blackdog is it really neccesary to terminate each sentence with a ^_^ instead of a period. Dumbass.

  • thinktank #7 6 years ago

    O yes the playstation online service

    what exactly do you know about that again?

    Apart from the fact that it will obviously RULE!!

    /sarcasm
    Edited by 1 at 19/05/06 @ 10:25

  • stuarty_2003 #8 6 years ago

    @blackdog: That's assuming that Sony get their corporate arse in gear and come out with a good online service!

    There may not be a subscription for it, but I do believe the microtransactions they rabbit on about will cost more in comparison to Live.

    Added to that, I think publishers will be charging on a pay-per-game system. A very unified and well thought out service. Well done, Sony.

    Edit: @matrim: Is it really necessary to not end your question without a question mark? :p

    Edited by 1 at 19/05/06 @ 10:27

  • Hench #9 6 years ago

    As I am not an owner of Xbox Live, do you have to pay for videos (such as the halo 3 video)?

  • stuarty_2003 #10 6 years ago

    Hench, most videos and all demos have been free thus far. Some of the E3 "Bring it Home" stuff has been for Gold members only.

    The main difference between Silver and Gold is that us Gold boys get to play online.

  • Valver #11 6 years ago

    @hench,

    I think all the E3 HD vids are free.

    There are also lots of other game demo, again all free to download.

    What you do have to pay for are to upgrade demo Xbox Arcade titles to the full versions, and to get some extra gamepictures and themes.

    But most of the interesting content so far has been free...

    And you can do all of that from a Silver account, which again is free.
    HTH
    Edited by 1 at 19/05/06 @ 10:32

  • SwedBear #12 6 years ago

    Hench: Nope. Free (as are the demos).
    The only thing costing is some of the extra content for games (up to the publisher) as well as the full Live Arcade games. You can however play trial versions of the Live Arcade games for free.

    Blackdog: We'll see. You seem to be the ultimate Sony fanboy trusting them to do nothing wrong. My online play experience on my PS2 was sadly far below the service I got from Live and I will take a wait-and-see approach to see how the new Sony Live-service will work.

  • #13 6 years ago

    No, only extra games or content for games costs money (and themes and gamerpictures of course)
    All demos and movies are free (for now....) (EDIT - too late by far!)

    And I'm begining to think I made a good choice ignoring blackdog - almost every thread I go to has some kind of comment "Blackdog, you're an idiot" stylee thing.
    I would advise others to do the same - total fanboy to the point where he's going to say xbox Live is shit!
    Edited by 1 at 19/05/06 @ 10:36

  • stuarty_2003 #14 6 years ago

    @Blackdog: What's the Sony Online service going to be called?.............OR are they so far ahead with planning and implementing it that they forgot to brand it?
    Edited by 2 at 19/05/06 @ 10:38

  • octo #15 6 years ago

    It would be interesting to know how many people took advantage of the free gold offer to play their games over live. Also, how many now take up the service after the trial.

  • morriss #16 6 years ago

    This service is the 360. It really is fantastic. You can take the piss out of MS, Moore and the rest but there's no escaping that XBox Live is a truly fantastic medium.

  • AtomicBanana #17 6 years ago

    'The last point will not stand for long ^_^
    Won’t be long before the Playstation 3 steam rollers over the first 4 points also ^_^'

    Hey, it could steam roller over anything considering how big, heavy and ugly it is ^_^

    /trolling off (I don't mind the ps3 at all, but I do mind mindless fanboy trolls such as this one)

  • thinktank #18 6 years ago

    Totaly agree stuarty

    Do you realize that M$ provides major servers in all three contenets, aswell as all the logistics that goes along with providing an online network and actively works with developers incorporate their games onto live.

    Sony don't and won't be, there leaving that to the idividual developers. Do you think that will be free??

    You will probably end up paying seperately for every game you buy if you want to play on line. We get online play, free demos, free trailers, Free trial arcade games the OPTION to buy themes, picture packs, full arcade games, game add ons. All for £40 a YEAR, and were getting music videos, movie clips and community downloads. Not to mention one of specials like the E3 "bringing it home".

    This is M$ bread and butter, its what they do. It is most certainly not what sony do, their are a hardware company.

    Your living on a dream if you think Sony can provide the same kind of service as live, their pushing their budget to breaking point as it is with the PS3 hardware, they litteraly can't afford a service like live. Thats why their passing the buck onto developers and trying to hide it by telling you lot playstation online will be FREE, i'm sure the basics will be, but not online gaming no way.

    I'm not trying bash the PS3 (too much :) ), I't just ive seen this all b4, the hopes they inject into their fan base, remeber all the talk of the broadband revolution that the PS2 was apparentky ment to be the HUB off. Never happened did it. I just don't want you sony lot to get overly dissapointed, especialy if your paying £425.


  • stuarty_2003 #19 6 years ago

    Blackdog's Survey said:-

    "The MS numbers game:

    Over 1.5 million
    Over 24 million pieces of content
    Over 600 terabytes of data
    30 times more data than is found in all the printed material in the US Library of Congress.
    World's largest platform for high-definition on-demand content.

    The last point will not stand for long ^_^
    Won’t be long before the Playstation 3 steam rollers over the first 4 points also ^_^"



    The Sony Survey said:-

    "The Sony Numbers Game

    Two HDMI outputs
    Six USB ports
    Three Ethernet ports
    Seven Bluetooth Controllers at once"

    Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=59106
    It's fun reading stuff from a year ago.



  • bauhaus #20 6 years ago

    i gotta admit, xboxlive is wonderful

    it. just. works.

  • #21 6 years ago

    Please don't quote Blackdog, I ignored him for a reason :p

    I think everyone who uses it loves xbox live, I know I do.
    This is not to say that the Sony service will be bad - I'm not so much of an MS fanboy to say that - but MS have been working on Live for many years now - and experience is key. Sony have very little experience and even less success. I doubt their on-line service will be much good at first. But of course I hope it will be, so that competition drives better results for all gamers.

  • johnboy_johsnon #22 6 years ago

    @blackdog, please tell me your user name isn't based on the band of the same name. I would be highly disappointed if it is.

  • WicKeD #23 6 years ago

    Kudos to Microsoft for achieving such numbers, they're meaningless to me mind! But the content wasn't. It was great being able to see so much E3 footage in HD! :D

    Hopefully they'll do coverage like this more often on Live. Push the boat out even, and get even more behind the scenes footage, developer interviews, stage demos, you know, make more of a show outta it!

  • Kelduum #24 6 years ago

    ... who thankfully did not go on to provide the standard British comparison of telling us how many double decker buses it equates to.

    Hmm, thats about... oh... 2550 double decker busses, end to end, worth of books.

    Or a stack of DVD-Rs as tall as 137 double decker busses are long.

    Thats quite a bit.

    What can I say... I was bored.

  • Darren #25 6 years ago

    I looked to see how many downloads I'd made last night and I found out it was 259!!! :o

  • Xerx3s #26 6 years ago

    "Over 600 terabytes of data were transferred over the network during the week"

    Yeh, we know, we where there when the H3 trailer dl % crawled up. Time to concider a torrent system ms? or perhaps priority for premiums? ;p

    Blackdog, your such a twat, arnt you? I mean, your reciting the sony pr without considering that sony said exactly the same and even more about their ps2 online service. We all know how well that concept turned out to be eh? The ps3 online concept is much different from that (with some things stolen from xbl). Although sony will claim lots of great statistics, it will most likely fail at what matters. Provinding lagless online play with highspeed HD dl's & full intergration where devs have the pro's of online, but not the con's. And even IF sony would be capable of making it work (yes, that also means outside japan), they would still have to fight with key XBL franchises such as halo. So far, ive only seen titles of sony that seem remotely interesting offline but nothing online. Im sorry, but sony just doesnt have the trackrecord for online that ms does. Can you show me the 'Halo 3' titles for sony's online service this e3?
    Edited by 1 at 19/05/06 @ 11:55

  • Yossarian #27 6 years ago

    considering the amount of time it took MS, one of the world's experts in software solutions, online networking yadda yadda, to stagger the development, beta-testing, and rolling-out of Xbox Live in countries around the world, and to refine and hone it over the course of four or five years, I really can't wait to see what Sony, a hardware company with nowhere near MS's clout in the online realm, are going to deliver with their worldwide release in November.

  • #28 6 years ago

    As far as I can tell xbl is pinned on the requirement on a MSN passport.
    Does sony even have such a service?
    At this rate Google could knock together a console in 6 months and provide a better on-line experience.

  • Narv #29 6 years ago

    Hey don't forget that Sony have enlisted Gamespy as their "Live" experience middleware providers.

    Should be great ;)

    /delusion off

  • Xerx3s #30 6 years ago

    Your joking? 0_o

  • BartonFink #31 6 years ago

    blackdog there you go confusing sarcasm with idiocy again.
    what a tard

  • Narv #32 6 years ago

    Your joking? 0_o

    Yes I am, but they're not.

  • Xerx3s #33 6 years ago

    Im immortal. -_-

  • bloodflowers #34 6 years ago

    "the rest of the download chart shows that playable demos are more popular than videos in general"

    Also:
    The sky is sometimes blue.
    Lead is heavier than sponge.
    Bears shit in the woods.

  • #35 6 years ago

    /anal cap on
    Lead is heavier than sponge.

    not strictly ture, but it is denser.
    /anal cap off

    And yes, of coure the demos will be the most popular thing on Live - it's a games machine after all! Man, I love that Lost Planet one!

  • peterfll #36 6 years ago

    The service is really very good, and I couldn't care less whether Sony beats it or not.

  • dllord #37 6 years ago

    @jamesphilp, where do you get these "anal caps" that you speak of from? :|

  • Feanor #38 6 years ago

    How are Sony going to offer a service like Xbox Live if they don't charge anything? Hosting content for download ain't free and Sony's not a charity.

  • #39 6 years ago

    dllord
    I'd rather not say, I'm not proud of it!

  • bloodflowers #40 6 years ago

    "How are Sony going to offer a service like Xbox Live if they don't charge anything? Hosting content for download ain't free and Sony's not a charity."

    I'd speculate that either a) it won't materialise, or b) the content will be so expensive that it supports the service. That or they could just take the hit, but that doesn't seem like it would fit with $onys current style. Whatever they come up with, it couldn't be very much worse than PS2 online. Well, you'd hope so anyway. I guess PS3 owners will find out when they go to buy all the parts of Warhawk that were disabled for shipping, like plasma guns or extra rockets.

  • moggsy #41 6 years ago

    Xbox Live is excellent. Sony are talking the talk but until they walk the walk it's all just a lot of hot air.

  • Xerx3s #42 6 years ago

    Bloodflowers, your forgetting another option: PS3 sells and so will the games, sony could add a euro or 2 onto of the price of every game to finance the service. That way, everybody pays, wether they like it or not and sony can still claim a 'free' service.

  • effinwooly #43 6 years ago

    LIVE is amazing for someone like me who has interest in PC games.........even the mosy sony fanboy would admitt that ..................yes ?

  • admir #44 6 years ago

    who cares pc gamers download shit everyday

  • thinktank #45 6 years ago

    Why do you download shit?

  • admir #46 6 years ago

    its free

  • fawe3 #47 6 years ago

    Hihi, two words and all bold xbox live boasting is put on back seat.

  • Xerx3s #48 6 years ago

    Pfff. I dont need to dl shit, i can make that meself.

    Anyway, the trailers on xbl are alot better than the crap from ign & co and you dont get any sucky yankee 'join the military now!' adverts.