Sony announced a landmark this week for its PlayStation Network: 20 million users worldwide, as of February 20. According to the presser, that breaks down to 5 million in the first 14 months of service, 5 million more 8 months later, and an additional 10 million the 7 months after that. There’s quite a few caveats to consider here, as that includes PSP and PS3 users as well as anyone who wishes to use the official PS forums, whether or not they own one of the aforementioned consoles.

However, more interesting to us is a note about the service generating $180 million life to date in revenue. It’s a stark contrast to Xbox Live’s reported $1 billion revenue since its 2002 launch, as of E3 2009. Based on figures from leaked to Seattle P-I this week, which said XBL had 10 million subscribers worldwide and a 56 percent Gold subscriptions rate in February 2008, we can do some fuzzy math. Assuming those Gold members paid the $50 annual subscription — or $4.16 monthly, the cheapest per month option — that amounts to $23.3 million for the month, not accounting for discounts or free Gold trials. Presuming no subscription growth for sake of argument — we know it’s growing — that’s $280 million annually, well over PSN’s life to date revenues. Say what you will about mean ol’ Microsoft charging for online play, the numbers seem to go in its favor.

[Via Joystiq]

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PlayStation Network snags 20M users, Xbox Live still way more profitable originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bad news first: there might be a bit more competition than you expected for that home theater giveaway. Good luck bringing down Netflix’s shooting star though, as if last week’s good news train wasn’t enough comes news that over a million Xbox Live Gold members have already downloaded and activated the Watch Instantly app since its NXE debut last November. That’s more than 10% of Netflix’s just announced 9.4 million subscribers who’ve already watched over 1.5 billion minutes of TV and movies through their consoles. They’re not the only ones happy, while streaming may be eating into DVD rentals, Xbox Live Marketplace rentals are up 174 percent year over year. The streaming library is up to 12,000 titles, with a “growing percentage” in high definition, for the rest of the celebratory details check the full PR after the break. Nothing left for us to say but congratulations and hey, if you get a minute, could you fix Nilay’s HD streaming on the Xbox? Thanks.

Continue reading Xbox Live tallies 1 million Netflix Watch Instantly activations, 1.5 billion minutes served

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Xbox Live tallies 1 million Netflix Watch Instantly activations, 1.5 billion minutes served originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xbox Live Gold subscription on sale at Amazon for $29.97 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You already know the Xbox 360 is getting new community features, a revamped dashboard, Avatars, and of course Netflix video — all things we’ve been excited about since we saw them in action at E3 this year. There hasn’t been much to go on since then, but we recently came across some short videos exhibiting Parties (which let users socialize and make plans while engaging in separate games and activities) and Avatar customization options; hopefully they’ll hold you over until the features go live November 19th. We won’t be held responsible for the brain deterioration caused by the vacuous marketing-speak accompanying the moving images, however. “It is where you get to enjoy entertainment — that’s the vision.” Yes, it is.

New Xbox Experience videos let you vicariously play dress up originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s New Xbox Experience has been pored over and dated, but now that Major Nelson has revealed it requires “at least” 128MB storage available to work, where does that leave suckers Core and Arcade SKU Xbox 360 owners? Enter the Xbox 360 Memory Upgrade Program, doling out free 512MB MU’s or $20 20GB HDDs to Core owners, and a $30 20GB HDD + 3 months of Xbox Live package to Arcade owners looking to upgrade. November 19, Xbox Live becomes a storage-only affair (that goes for Netflix streams too, requiring 8MB of free space), so grab your serial number and console ID from the current Xbox 360 Dashboard and hit the registration website. Impressive customer service gesture to extend functionality for all, or more evidence of a short sighted and flawed dual-SKU launch plan that’s cost gamers and developers alike? All we know for sure is we’ve probably figured out where the profits from those $149 120GB HDDs are going.

[Via NeoGAF]

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Simmer down folks — everything is going to be a-okay. Yes, ’tis true — Microsoft has indeed scheduled for Xbox Live service maintenance and Zune service tweakage to take place at the exact same time this coming Monday, but it’s probably not worth losing your mind over. In fact, Major Nelson goes out of his way to affirm that “when [Xbox Live] service returns, you will not have any new features and you will not have the new Xbox experience update.” Point being, your Zune Social, Zune.net forums, all of the Zune Marketplace and Xbox Live services will be offline for up to 24 hours (48 hours for the Zune suite) starting at 12:01 PST on September 29th, but don’t expect a Zunephone to pop out of your now-forgotten HD DVD add-on when things come back on. Or you can, but we’d be prepared for unprecedented disappointment.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Interesting that this didn’t get announced at E3, but Games for Windows Live is now free for all. Yep, totally free, cross-platform multiplayer with the 360 included — which obviously raises the question of whether Live will ever be free on Xbox. We think that’s a pretty safe no — unlike Games For Windows, Xbox Live actually makes money, which is pretty hard to turn down, and without a ton of competitive pressure from, say, Playstation Home, it’s hard to see why Microsoft would turn that funtime cash fountain off. Still, there’s always hoping, right?

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We’d been getting pretty used to getting an Xbox 360 Dashboard updates every other season or so, but it looks like it’s going to be a barren spring: there’s no update coming this spring, according to Xbox Live manager Marc Whitten. In an interview with Next Generation, Whitten said that Redmond’s focusing resources on “building the proper infrastructure and scale for the service” — which hopefully means those Live outages will soon be a thing of the past. Whitten also said that the Live team is working on a Live DRM update that’ll allow XBLA games to be re-licensed and played offline if you swap consoles, and that underperforming XBLA titles with Metacritic scores under 65 percent will be eligible for delisting. Sure, sure — just make with that wacky motion-sensing controller soon, okay?

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

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Here’s your heartwarming story for the day. Microsoft has teamed up with Companions in Courage in order to bring “hundreds” of Xbox 360 kiosks to children’s hospitals across the nation, and the gaming stations have already been installed at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center of Seattle and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County, California. The customized units are “hospital-friendly” and come pre-loaded with a variety of E and E10+ rated games, Y-rated television programs, G-rated movies and the Xbox Live headset / Vision camera in order for gamers to play online. Speaking of, each kiosk is wired to a private Live network which “allows hospitalized children across the country to play games and chat” with each other. There’s no word on where the stations are slated to arrive outside of the three venues already mentioned, but those interested in broadening the reach of the endeavor can feel free to donate to the cause.

[Via OhGizmo]

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It wasn’t all Zune gaming at Microsoft’s GDC keynote this morning — a lot of time was spent discussing Community Games, the new official name for XNA-based games. Amateur devs will get “creator identities” along with their gamertags, and Live members can rate, grade, and discuss your efforts. Of course, as we’ve heard, games can move from the 360 to PCs to second-gen Zunes, which is definitely pretty cool, but it’ll be interesting to see what that means for devs who want to try and take advantage of the 360’s horsepower — will they be restrict their code to a specific platform? While we wait for those answers, it looks like we’ll be able to get a taste of what Community Games have to offer right away — Microsoft announced that the first seven XNA-based games are available immediately, with an open beta to begin in spring and full-on launch by the end of the year. List of games after the jump — but what are you doing reading this when you could be playing?

Update: We just tried downloading RocketBall and the process is totally different than you’d expect. First you have to download the XNA Launcher, which is under New Arrivals in the Marketplace blade — but you don’t need a membership, so skip that, and the XNA ad that displays points you to the wrong thing, so ignore that as well. Then head over to the Games blade and select Games Library, but don’t open the Launcher, cause it’ll just kick you out. Instead, press Y to view the list of games and download one. So far the “YouTube of games” seems a bit convoluted — hopefully the next Dashboard update makes this all a bit simpler.

Continue reading First Xbox 360 Community Games to hit Live “immediately”

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Make no mistake, we’ve seen curious job postings lead to changes in our favorite gizmos before, and hopefully, a recent ad on Microsoft’s website is no different. A listing seeking a Program Manager explicitly states that it’s looking for someone to “be involved in the next release of Xbox,” and wants that very individual to be “part of the Xbox Live team that’s responsible for creating a completely new way for mainstream audiences to enjoy the Xbox and Live.” Better still, the description suggests that the team would be “building the games, the console interface and logic, and the server support for a totally new Live experience.” Granted, there’s nothing more to go on than this at the moment, but we can’t help but be a teensy bit excited about the notion of an overhauled Xbox Live.

[Via GamesIndustry]

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It looks like we won’t be seeing another barrage of Xbox Live status updates like we saw in the past few weeks anytime soon, at least as long as that little lawsuit is going on down in Texas. That unfortunate word comes from none other than Major Nelson, who said in his podcast that Microsoft can no longer update gamers on the situation due to “legal issues.” Those constraints apparently even extend as far as the Major’s Twitter page, leaving gamers in the dark in the event of yet another Xbox Live outage. In case you missed it, the lawsuit in Texas was filed after the outage in December by three disgruntled gamers, who claim that Microsoft knew activity would be at a peak during that time of year but “failed to provide adequate access and service to Xbox Live and its subscribers.” No word on any progress in that suit just yet, but we’re guessing that Microsoft and Xbox users alike are hoping it gets wrapped up as soon as possible.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy, thanks Jonathan]

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While HD DVD and Blu-ray have both lost key supporters recently, Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace seems to just keep adding new content providers, this time bringing MGM and Disney-ABC Television Group to the fold. Conspicuous in that bothare exclusive Blu-ray supporters, Xbox 360 owners will — later this month — have access to ABC hits like Lost, Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives in HD the day after they air. So far, MGM’s announced just classic and catalog flicks like the Rocky series and The Usual Suspects, with “most” available in HD. Still looking for a Blu-ray add-on or built in HD DVD?

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We can’t say that we’re shocked to hear this — you know, considering just how long those Xbox Live holiday blues went on — but Microsoft is indeed being slapped with a class action lawsuit over the aforementioned outages. Reportedly, a trio of angered Texans are alleging that Microsoft didn’t abide by its own contract when network issues disallowed a good chunk of Live users from getting their fix over the past few weeks. According to the complaint, MSFT understood that the time of year would lead to increased activity, yet “failed to provide adequate access and service to Xbox Live and its subscribers.” Of course, we’re betting the Redmond-based lawyers point out that clause about not guaranteeing any minimum level of service, but who knows, maybe we’ll all end up with two shiny new Arcade titles.

[Thanks, Andre and Ben]

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The obvious answer as to why Xbox Live has been up and down (but mostly down) over the last couple of weeks is, of course, that the service has undergone a massive distributed denial of service attack. (Feel free to blame the illusory Sony / Nintendo fanboys, if you must.) Naturally, we’re already starting to see some of those rumors catch hold, in no small part due to the fact that while GM of Xbox Live Marc Whitten did offer a free game for peoples’ trouble in his public memo a few hours ago, he didn’t speak to the cause of the outages. We did, however, get some conclusive inside information from a trusted source, and confidently relay to curious Live users that the issues were not at all related to a malicious attack. Yeah, we know, it tones down the drama quite a bit (and actually makes the Xbox team look a little worse than if they were attacked), but the speculation that the service was out due to a two week long internet assault? The stuff of myth.

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Looks like Microsoft is going to do the right thing: as anticipated, Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten states in a letter to customers that, as recompense for nearly two weeks of outages, the group is offering up a full, free Xbox Live Arcade title free of charge. Sounds like it won’t be until the next couple of weeks before the offer is active, but it will indeed apply to “all” Xbox Live members, and assuming it’s for games worth more than 200 Microsoft points, it will be net positive for Gold users who lost about $1.64 worth of Live service over the last twelve days. Well done Microsoft, we think most will consider the stinging pain eased. Memo posted after the break.

Update: Confirmed, it’s Gold AND Silver members. If you have an Xbox Live account, Microsoft just gave you a free game.

Continue reading Microsoft hooks up Xbox Live subs with free Arcade title

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To all those who’ve been tipping us like crazy about Xbox Live going back down again: yeah, we heard, and we know you’re not happy. If you’re having problems (or even if you’re not), feel free to let us know in comments. Almost two weeks of outages, yeesh.

To all those sick of hearing about Xbox Live being up and down: feel free to stop reading here, there will be another news story along in a few minutes. But do remember that Xbox Live is possibly the most widely used paid gaming service in the world, so forgive us for keeping close tabs on this story. Mwah!

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Not that we’d put it past Microsoft or anything, but we can already smell a rumor brewing where there is probably none regarding the long-speculated and continuously denied plans to integrate an HD DVD drive into the Xbox 360. Granted, Bill’s got to have something to talk about on stage at CES next week, but we we’re not putting much stock in the pure speculation of a fresh Seattle Times piece, which, without sources, simply holds that “Microsoft could also make a splash by announcing plans to give the Xbox 360 an internal HD-DVD drive”. Yep, they could do that which has been speculated endlessly since the HD DVD drive itself was announced in 2006 — or not. Guess we’ll find out for sure next week. Just don’t get your hopes up.

Oh, and those Xbox Live outages we’ve been covering? Rumor has it that Microsoft is going to do right by its customers and hook up Gold members with a little something — at least according to an unnamed Xbox insider. Guess we’ll see about that too one once things stabilize on the Live front.

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Read - Live users to get a little something for the downtime? [Via Joystiq]

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