Xbox Live hits 24m downloads News
Xbox 360 News by Games Industry.biz
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."
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Comments: 1-48 of 48 in total
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stuarty_2003
19/05/06 @ 09:24
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@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
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most recently on 19/05/06 @ 10:27
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stuarty_2003
19/05/06 @ 09:30
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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. |
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@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
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most recently on 19/05/06 @ 10:32
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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. |
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stuarty_2003
19/05/06 @ 09:36
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@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?
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most recently on 19/05/06 @ 10:38
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AtomicBanana
19/05/06 @ 09:41
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'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) |
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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. |
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stuarty_2003
19/05/06 @ 09:48
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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. |
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johnboy_johsnon
19/05/06 @ 10:01
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@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.
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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! |
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... 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. |
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"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?
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most recently on 19/05/06 @ 11:55
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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.
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BartonFink
19/05/06 @ 12:24
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blackdog there you go confusing sarcasm with idiocy again.
what a tard |
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bloodflowers
19/05/06 @ 13:31
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"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. |
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bloodflowers
19/05/06 @ 15:45
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"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. |
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effinwooly
20/05/06 @ 18:25
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LIVE is amazing for someone like me who has interest in PC games.........even the mosy sony fanboy would admitt that ..................yes ?
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Comments: 1-48 of 48 in total
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