Xbox Live reaches 2 million members

[Melf]

From Gamestop:

Just over a year ago, Microsoft proudly announced that its broadband online gaming service for the Xbox, Xbox Live, had reached the one-million subscriber mark in under two years. Today, the company announced that Xbox Live has reached another milestone: 2 million subscribers. The second million subscribers came in at an even faster pace, at little more than just a year's time, which is the equivalent of adding one Xbox Live subscriber every 30 seconds.

Xbox Live is currently the most successful console-based online gaming service, providing gamers easy access to online multiplayer gaming sessions, real-time voice chat, and instant messaging. An explosion of more than 200 Xbox Live-enabled games, including current Live top dogs Halo 2 and Forza Motorsport, has led the charge.

Microsoft expects the numbers to increase with the launch of the Xbox 360 this holiday season. Each console will come with a free basic Xbox Live service, dubbed "silver," which can be upgraded to "gold" level for a fee. The silver level will have limited features, such as the ability to create a digital identity, use voice chat with other gamers, and access the service's marketplace feature. The gold level will upgrade the service to allow online gaming and video messaging.

Not bad for a year's work.

[Yoshi]

That's pretty impressive, though still a very small percentage of the overall gaming populace. It will be interesting to see if XBL actually has an impact on the next generation. I doubt many, if any, people bought Xbox units because of Live.

[Error]

I thought for sure Yoshi would mention how WoW did it 5 times faster or something

[Jeremy]

Give him time, and two million is simply fantastic.

[Thief Silver]

That's pretty impressive, though still a very small percentage of the overall gaming populace. It will be interesting to see if XBL actually has an impact on the next generation. I doubt many, if any, people bought Xbox units because of Live.

... I did.

[Jeremy]

I can see many college students buying an Xbox for Live as well.

[EvilMog]

The only thing stopping bigger gains than this is availablilty and cost of broadband.


Oh and I think its great they have 2 million subscribers now. More variety in games. Anyone remember online gaming on the DC? I remember playing games with less than 100 people online at a time and thinking that was a lot.

[ChaoofNee]

I wonder how many of those are 2 month trial accounts in limbo.

[Rumpy]

I thought for sure Yoshi would mention how WoW did it 5 times faster or something

Speaking of which, Blizzard just announced that subs have hit 3.5 million. The Chinese have gone WoW crazy and are up to over a million already (launched in the US in Nov 2004 and China was like 6 months ago).

Using 15 bucks a month as a basis for everyone, that's $52.5 million a month. That's insane.

[mollipen]

That's pretty impressive, though still a very small percentage of the overall gaming populace. It will be interesting to see if XBL actually has an impact on the next generation. I doubt many, if any, people bought Xbox units because of Live.

I never, ever would have purchased an Xbox if it wasn't for XBL. I think I own one single-player Xbox game. Pretty much everything I play on it I play online with friends or other people, and never touch the single player side of the game.