I was thinking. With an attach rate for Live of over 50% , and a 7 game average per console, that means MS has essentially no casual gamers buying the console.

Kirbytheslayer: Loves NinjaBread Man!

@CollapseControl: wow. That's a lot of gamers on COD4. Not too surprised. It's a great game.

I've been a live member since the month it started. I've never once regretted paying that 50 bucks a year. I love the xbox live.

That said, the last few weeks have been pretty bothersome. I wonder if they'll come out and explain the problem. Xbox Live has never had issues like this.

Smadubaku

You know, I wasn't one of the people who experienced huge problems getting online.
I actually just assumed it was my Ps3 and Xbox360 conflicting because I leave them both online at the same time [And I heard that the wireless on the 360 turns off for stupid reasons and I just bought it 2 weeks ago].

Seph

@syl1985:
"I couldn't care less for it at the moment, I don't like shooters on consoles."

Why bother posting in a thread about Xbox Live then.

DigitalHero

@CollapseControl:
10,000,000+ will be on when Master Chief's Adventures of Oz is released in 2009.

SXGlory

As of right now COD4 Matchmaking is working! But I don't think 10 Million members have their 360 on right now.

But there are 276,910 members playing COD4 online right now.

CollapseControl

@EnigmaNemesis: Indeed, 10mil from 17.7 is a whole lot higher than I expected.

Microsoft would be rapt with that attach rate - me personally, I couldn't care less for it at the moment, I don't like shooters on consoles.

syl1985

@ilyag: Good work, at least you weren't an arrogant douchebag about it!

scottyboy218

there's clearly a lot of people out there in need of some convincing as to the merits of a paid online gaming service.

Or a ton without broadband internet, or even internet at all!

/wink

EnigmaNemesis

"since we don't ever remember seeing that schedule..."

Nice journalism work there, Mr. Plunkett. Let me refresh your memory:

This announcement was made at E3 this past summer. They made a projection that they would reach 10 million Live subscribers by the following year's E3.

Here's just one of many links:

[blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com]

Scroll down to 9:04 PM.

ilyag

lets see how many people say

"Great now lets see if they can actually get the service to work.." or something of that nature

lifeinthefridge

Yeah, thats because the Silver accounts do't pay, so of course they're not going to get included. Me, I'll pass on those Gold accounts, ugh.

Ashkihyena

cool

jun581

I know quite a few 360s that have never seen the Internet and probably never will.

Jabbertrack

And I'm one of the statistics.
Go me?

Seph

Sorry, Plunkett, but the press release said there are 10 million subscribers IN ALL, not 10 million Gold subscribers. Your reading comprehension sucks.

"Our growth also continues online, where I'm proud to announce we have surpassed the 10 million member mark on Xbox LIVE, over six months ahead of schedule."

"At 10 million members Xbox LIVE is by far the largest social network connected to the TV, and in the months and years to come we'll look offer even more ways to connect and share experiences with your friends."

Notice where it doesn't say "Gold" or "paid" or "paying".

jsf49

10,000,000 x 50 + tax = cha.
17.7 mil x varying xbox prices = ching.

Terrorsaur

One of those days I *really* miss Peter Moore.

Aresef

@SXGlory: I agree with you with most of what you said, but theres some things I could have said in more details.

First, the cheaters. Theres way less cheaters on Live & PSN than there are on the PC, for any game. That's a solid point for console gaming.

But my point here is only about the cost. Theres no more cheaters on PSN than there are on Live, and they don't charge anything. Theres just less ways to cheat on a console than on the PC; it's not as easy as anyone finding a hack over the net.

But they shouldn't charge for it, as it's not paying for security in games.

Also, I'm not trying to promote a console over another; you might like the games better on the 360. The point is that there's no real benefit or advantage when you pay to play on a console or another that you don't.

QC8472

@GenMan: They are charging for the Diamond Card now.

KidU

@TheIrishNinja (XBL = IrishNinja2099, PSN = TheIrishNinja: no probs at all, i'm in one of the many sections of Orlando..

and i believe that, bellsouth is who we have back home, and as archaic as it sounds, they won't even install the lines for cable to my house..

i'm on Brighthouse's Roadrunner here btw

JerrD74

I tried to play some 360 today.. but I guess it was too much for my console to sit unused for a month, all I got was the lovely red rings.. Oh well, yay for warranties!

Fujoshi

@Sophist:And that is 900k separate people, just today.

Sophist

Yeah, it's funny how minimal this XBox live problem really is, given that there are pretty much at least 100k people on Halo at any given time, 900k in a day; to reference today's stats as of yet...

Sophist

10 million seemed way too high.

Half the people I know with 360s don't have them connected to the Internet at all.

Major Nelson's clarification that it's 10 million Gold and Silver makes much more sense.

Marlor

It's 10 million GOLD AND SILVER. Nice bit of reporting you did on forgeting the and silver part.

Anyways yea that's still pretty nice. It begs the question how many are multiple accounts? Not that it isn't impressive but i'd say at least 1/3rd of those accounts are duplicates.

myd12

@syl1985: honestly, i know the demo sold it as a pretty but generic 3rd person shooter - rent it if you can. i went outta my way to play damn near every major ps3 release this year, and enjoyed heavenly sword, warhawk, folklore, and especially ratchet & clank, but nothing got close to what uncharted was like, game's just amazing graphics/fun story/gameplay, environment, the whole bit; even has great replay with rewards & such.

@JerrD74: where in FL, if i might ask? cause bellsouth here in miami is not the funk.

@Doshu: such a gyp. im visiting a friend there in march, if you guys dont have it buy then, ill uh, smuggle in the drums? i dunno, but its a crime is my point.

TheIrishNinja (XBL = IrishNinja2099, PSN = TheIrishNinja

Change the bloody headline! ie. to the correct one! It's silver and gold combined! And I bet you gold is 20% of this 10 million figure if that!

Maximus9

@Morberis: Except you know fat Xboxes are useless for xbox live and have been for a goodly while.

Honestly, didn't know that. I've never owned an xbox.

I'm guessing the Live for Windows numbers would be really, really small. No surprise why they didn't do a "detailed" break-down of the numbers. Somebody might ask about it. ;)

Doshu

@Doshu: if you own an xbox n have it connected, you're automatically a Silver member. to play games online, you need to pay for Gold.

JerrD74

@lifeinthefridge: you said it. not me:)

zanzibarlegend

@TheIrishNinja: syl1985 = Aussie, no rock band for him (or me). :(

@lionkitten: It's 10 million Gold and Silver COMBINED. Less impressive, I'd say.

That is less impressive. Am I right in thinking that there is no online for 360 if you don't have a live subscription (gold or silver)? If so, that means there are still millions of 360 owners who aren't playing online games at all. With the problems it's been having lately, I shudder to think how bad it might have been if the attach rate was higher.

Doshu

Microsoft touting Disney coming to Xbox Live?

I thought was the CES 2008, not E3 2007.

incredibilistic

@badasscat: Yessm, linkage: [www.majornelson.com]

syl1985

@Doshu:

Except you know fat Xboxes are useless for xbox live and have been for a goodly while.

I don't doubt that there might be some Windows Live only users, but they've got to be dam 9*^% to pay for the few games that actually have something that uses it.

Morberis

@EnigmaNemesis: That's more like it, I know of a ton of people that I can't play with because they don't have broadband access at home because all they're stuck with are rabbit ears or satellite tv...

...me included...

thank god for my hi-speed connection here in florida ^-^

JerrD74

@SXGlory:

/agree

I am a heavy PC gamer, but got so sick of shitty "punkbuster" software, and overall cheaters.

Live isnt perfect, but far better in that realm. And you are all on a level playing field with the same system, running the game the same.

@Kirbytheslayer: Loves NinjaBread Man!:

Huh?

@TheIrishNinja:

Huh Huh?

EnigmaNemesis

Time for a headline change, Kotaku!

And how about a correction too? Seems like one's in order here. The headline clearly says "10 million GOLD subscribers"

This is according to Major Nelson: "The Xbox LIVE community continues to grow, reaching the milestone of ten million Gold and Silver subscribers,"

badasscat

I pay 4 bucks a month for MS to deliver an online component that puts the competition to shame. I don't feel bad about doing it. Of course, I paid for Seganet back in the day, but at least then I was actually paying for a full internet service. I miss Sega. Why did they have to turn to crap?

Smadubaku

@TheIrishNinja: The games a hundred and something dollars here and doesn't grab me, seems sort of generic to me.

I am saving my 'gamer money' (as my missus calls it) for a few choice DS titles and Harvey Birdman Wii(I'm a sucker for the show).

I bought GH3 on the Wii so I cant get any DLC not to mention good sound... sucks, but I got it on the Wii as all my friends have them = guitars easier to acquire.

syl1985

PC users don't need to pay. What am I missing by not giving microsoft money every month to play a game?

manok

@Kirbytheslayer: Loves NinjaBread Man!: im so sick of you telling me these things, right after i just bought that metallica pack new.

@Smadubaku: im finishing that game tonight. borrowed from a friend, but i gotta go buy it just to show support for such a fine product. why this one didnt get more hype is beyond me.

TheIrishNinja

@QC8472:
Everyone is entitled to the opinion on whether it should be free or not.
Personally, the free unregulated aspect of online PC gaming is what prompted me to give up playing with people online - too many cheaters, primarily. I gave XBOX Live a shot shortly after it launched, prompted by friends , and ever since I have never looked back. Really, I don't even notice the 50odd bucks. I can see where this may be an issue with younger players who may not have that disposable amount. But I don't need even more unmonitored children on Live than there already are.

SXGlory

@TheIrishNinja: Agreed. Uncharted is a really good game. I thought it was everything Tomb Raider wished it could have been. PS3 owners all need to play that game.

Smadubaku

@TheIrishNinja: Whiner. There is a bonus for Gold subscribers. Any DLC that you guys buy gets a 10% discount if it was previously used.

Kirbytheslayer: Loves NinjaBread Man!

@Samaridino: As for the 10 million,Im guessing that includes original Xbox owners too,and if so I findd it a lot less impressive.

I suspect a few of them are xbox1 and (to a much, much lesser extent) live for windows users. Even counting them, it's at most 20-30 million users of Live in total. So, at the very least a 33% of all Live users are paying for the Gold subscription. I'd never pay for it myself, but 10 million (or >33% attach rate) is still nothing to scoff at.

Doshu

There seems to be some skepticism about whether it is 10 million GOLD or not... if it is GOLD, I am stunned, and wonder if that number includes the numerous free trials currently being enjoyed by Christmas recipients.

tufty

@Pornosaur: After a few reinstalls of steam mine is FINALLY working fine - even with the additions of new games it is still coping. *knocks on wood*

syl1985

Update:

Major Nelson has the press release up. It's 10 million Gold and Silver COMBINED. Less impressive, I'd say.

lionkitten

@syl1985: you dont play uncharted? that's a shame, man. awesome game.

i see your point, if the DLC doesnt interest you (right now, im only buying the rock band stuff, natch) but i nabbed a 13 month XBL card off of ebay for like $35, so its not as bad as you might've heard - again, depending on how much online gaming youd see yourself using your xbox for to justify it.

TheIrishNinja

Is this ACTIVE 10 million accounts, or simply they have accumulated 10 million accounts over the years. Cause past numbers they have given simply noted how many accounts were made.

Kyle81

@KidU: Xbox Diamond Card

GenMan

they should make xbox live silver have free online but with no matchmaking/stat tracking and no/limited achievement support.

hungry_for_worms

I'm an older gamer, early 30's, so the $50 a year isn't that big of deal for me. I like the matchmaking in xbox live with maybe the exception of Team Fortess 2. It's always preformed reasonably well besides the last couple weeks. The matchmaking portion of most computer games have always been hit or miss for me. I still can't get Steam to update servers right unless I hit refresh a 100 times. Don't even get me started on the matchmaking in Battlefield 2 or the first Call of Duty for PC.

Pornosaur

@lionkitten: Exactly right. Only half the country HAS broadband, right? So that's pretty good penetration for Microsoft to get half it's console owners to pay for their service.

Smadubaku

@TheIrishNinja: 100% agreed. There are not nearly enough perks for being a Gold subscriber. Maybe a free arcade game each year? Or a Edge card style discount on transactions? Just something other than just multiplayer.

KidU

@syl1985: It's around $50 US a year for Gold. And Silver (the free account) still lets you download content for games (for the most part...a very select few things are only for Gold members) and arcade titles and movies and whatever else. You can even play Final Fantasy XI online without Gold. Gold membership just gives you the priveledge of playing games online (which is like...the main thing).

dowingba

@EnigmaNemesis:
Aye, that it does.
Seems every system needs a mascot.

SXGlory

sorry, but charging for online play on a 360 title when it's free on the pc and ps3 is not something we should accept.

Microsoft wants you to pay to play one of THEIR games? Fine, but don't charge for any game that's third-party, more so since the other platforms (ps3, pc and possibly, someday, the wii) have that same multiplayer gameplay.

The online play is the same (fun & number of players) on my 360 & PS3, while it's crushing any consoles on my PC.

It's simply not true that the multiplay is better for a paid service, tested that myself.

QC8472

@Sparx88: spin it any way you want, its still 10 million paid accounts. Thats $500,000,000 a year assuming they paid for one years service at a time. Apparently that doesn't buy working servers.

GenMan

Oh yeah, price differences = I am aussie

syl1985

@nutmaniv: ah, i see. well, to be fair, when not bittorrenting, i cant say ive experienced much lag, but im hoping to keep it that way when getting into SFII HD and the like down the road, or say, Left 4 Dead.
ok then, uh, id like some other gold bonus, like freebies or at least XBLA discounts, then.

TheIrishNinja

@TheIrishNinja: I only got my 360 a couple of months ago - but I don't see the point (right now, mind you) in paying $100 a year to then buy games for 5-10$ or new DLC.

Of course, as the service matures there will be more available to woo me in. Right now, I'm not sold - I do my online multiplayer gaming on the PC, I do my couch multiplayer gaming on the Wii and I get my "hardcore" single player fix on the 360.

I have a PS3 for, well, nothing at the moment.

syl1985

Source Luke? The direct quotes I read on liveblogs all said that he announced 10 million XBL members, which seems like it would include silver. Where did you see it quoted as "10 million gold?"

HAGE

@dowingba: a large chunk are probably still using their trial subscription, but still assload of money indeed

TheHun

@TheIrishNinja:

Sorry for the double post...There's already dedicated servers for some Live games. Its just that most dont use them because...

A. Most just dont need it
B. You have to go through a lot of BS to get a dedicated server on Live. From what I understand it requires writing a specific program for Xbox live to take you from the XBL servers to the game servers.

nutmaniv

They failed to mention that 5 million of those subscribers signed up two weeks ago... but I'm assuming that's the case, because there isn't much other explanation for the massive outage I experienced.

crapsh00t

Not exactly an accurate number, they dont factor in silver accounts or that maybe about 25% of those are people with multiple accounts.

Sparx88

Still a tad short of the "One Billion".

chip5541

That's only like, 500 million dollars a year Live is bringing in. Oh wait. That's an assload of money, isn't it?

dowingba

@ara: How can I type that bad? I must attend to some of those talent shows...

ara

I still regret paying for my gold subscription.Only used it for a couple of games of Halo3 and thats about it.

As for the 10 million,Im guessing that includes original Xbox owners too,and if so I findd it a lot less impressive.

Samaridino

Whoa really? I thought the 10 million number included silver. Thats pretty crazy.

nutmaniv

@syl1985: funny, there's non-shooters too. i play uno, bomberman, ninja turtles and the like, some katamari even.

anyway, props to them, let's start seeing the incentives for us gold members - dedicated servers and the like, no more of this stripping options from the silvers.

TheIrishNinja

No surprise there, they force you to pay for playing online, easy money for them. I've been vocal about it earlier, but it's just a bucket full of bullshit to charge extra to unlock the online gameplay as the gamer already payed for the game. Every other system let's you play the game you bought, Xbox360 just doesn't.

ara

@ilyag: Eh, it's noticeable.

NathanX

@DigitalHero: The point was that I thought it was a high attach rate. My personal opinion about the service taqcked on the end.

your post on the other hand provided nothing to the conversation so how about not posting anything at all?

Fuckwit.

syl1985

" but with 17.7 million consoles sold worldwide (and no numbers on the number of Silver subscribers) there's clearly a lot of people out there in need of some convincing as to the merits of a paid online gaming service."

You think? There are a lot of people without broadband still, and lots of gamers who just want to play offline and have no interest in online gaming (or don't think they do anyway). !0 million is a lot. PS3 hasn't even SOLD 10 million consoles, and there's 10 million PAID memberships? not much to scoff at there, I'd say.

lionkitten

COD4 matchmaking for the PS3 was an excercise in time masturbation when I logged on this afternoon. If there are that many people playing the game on the Xbox 360 then there must be about 900 people playing flawlessly on the PS3 right now.

InsipidWays

@SXGlory:

Well, it works Mario and friends!

EnigmaNemesis

@scottyboy218: Hmm. Are you being sarcastic and calling me arrogant? Well, you're damn right I'll be arrogant considering that I, as a regular reader of Kotaku (not a writer or industry insider) clearly remember this announcement made when it happened (and my memory is usually not even very good), and it took a 5 second Google search to find about a dozen different sites mentioning it.

You don't think it's lazy not to do this minimal amount of research before publishing a news story?

(I'm having a bad day. Can you tell?)

ilyag

@AznSmith:

It actually depends.

I wonder what the actual numbers are gold vs silver? How many gold are promotional items (free gold cards in games) and reimbursments for issues?

I know I dropped my gold account after the 13 months. There just wasn't allot I wanted to play online. Since I am now a silver status although I havent DL anything in months I wonder if I am included in that number?

chip5541

Ha, ha. 60% adoption and it is still getting spun like "there are a few people out there who need convincing."

I guess when they give 360's away for free the article might read "but a few did not take the consoles as they weren't interested. Where's your success now M$?!"

(I joke with you Kotaku out of love.)

WaterMedia

@Terrorsaur: you're an idiot, you think sales tax goes to microsoft? TAX goes to the government

AznSmith

i think that the other 8 million or so don't have it because either they are too far away from the router and think 100 is too much to pay for a wifi adapter or they dont have broadband... my 2 cents

AznSmith

@seiryuu:

Like what, same grinding over and over and the same loot and so forth?

And WoW has like 9 million subs, half in which are gold farmers ... lol

Oh and it is $15 a month instead of $2-$5 a month. (less than people spend and Shitdonalds!)

EnigmaNemesis

@Crazyeyez15: Haha, you got that right mate.

dnzperson

well this is my second year paying for live and i will have to say that right now live is thee best choice for online gaming... ooo let me rephrase that 3weeks ago live was the best choice for online gaming.

Crazyeyez15

This really may not be the best time to brag about the number of Gold subscriptions, 10 million subscriptions mean 10 million gamers pissed of about the outage over the holiday season. I still think it's ridiculous to have to pay for online pay after already overpaying for games. Oh and to some people that seem to be confused the article doesn't say that 17 million consoles have been sold this holiday season but that many total since the launch. Stupid Sony would be destroying MSFT if they didn't freaking lose the GTA timed exclusive and DMC exclusive.

AznDevil

@Smadubaku: Yeah but those Warcraft players get a lot more than matchmaking and are unlikely to pay for other services.

seiryuu

@red: Half is a niche? I don't agree with you.

The last number they announced a few months back had it at 5 million or so GOLD members. 10 seemed high (this posting). Thought maybe it had gotten to 6-7 range. Still a decent number. If the majority of those subscribers regularly play online games, I would not consider that to be "Niche"

I'm not a big online player myself (can't stand the other ignorant players), but there are millions and millions of people out there playing Warcraft, Halo, Gears of War, and so many others. How many Warcraft subscribers does Blizzard have - something like 16 million? That's a buttload of online peeps.

Smadubaku

u do know the 17.7 million is shipped right? lol

Yoko_Yasha

Hm. That's pretty high. How much is this? $50 a year still? The cost of a game to get all the benefits for a year? Not bad, so not surprising if that people people signed up.

Congrats if that number doesn't count all the people stuck on auto bill. I got stuck with about 6 months extra after my original Xbox stopped interesting me because of that.

Plus... I just don't game online that frequently.

2NinjasTapedTogether

From MjrNel :

"The Xbox LIVE community continues to grow, reaching the milestone of ten million Gold and Silver subscribers, a full six months ahead of schedule."
[www.majornelson.com]

As others have said, the number includes silver as well.

The Major then went on to say:

"Seriously, I don't know what you were thinking to say they had 10 Million Gold members, that's pretty ridiculous."

Haha, just kidding... It's a fucking joke okay ;-)

dnzperson

@red:

Huh?

That is pretty impressive considering 20% of the world has broadband.

EnigmaNemesis

so basically, slightly over half of all xbox 360 owners have ever put it online, and a fraction of those actually played online. thats not an awesome figure. but it is what i expected. fully in line with my belief that online gaming is a niche that most people who play games arent interested in.

red

@KidU: Charging for the Diamond Card? That's funny. If that wasn't the greatest waste of 1/100th of a cent in the history of mankind. I got one. The only time I tried to use it on one of the advertised coupon deals it was refused and they said they had never heard of it. Quizznos I think. I had to hang my head and slink out of the store like a beaten puppy. Threw it away on the way out.

Now they're charging for it????

Smadubaku

So did they give anything special to the 10 millionth subscriber? A slew of arcade games perhaps? 50,000 Microsoft Points? A Master Chief Plushy?

Dennen

@red:

BTW, it is even MORE impressive if you think it is less than 20% as well.

So 10 million Live users, out of almost 18 million 360s, in a world with barely any broadband. Wow!

EnigmaNemesis

[www.oecd.org],3343,en_2649_201185_39574076_1_1_1_1,00.html

??

Ok you can get the link from here ...

[en.wikipedia.org]

If the above didnt work!

EnigmaNemesis

@red:

one of my pet hates is westerners failing to grasp their level of privilege within the world we live.

That has so much relevance!

Anyways, my bad it isnt 20% of places that have the web, it is 18.8 percent ... I was SOOOOO off!

[www.oecd.org],3343,en_2649_201185_39574076_1_1_1_1,00.html

EnigmaNemesis

@red:
last time MS checked the subscriptions it were something around 65% Gold Subscribers... I think it was on IGN... have to Google it

Garo

@Smadubaku: link to that gold subscriber announcement or it didnt happen. i cant find ANY information about the number of GOLD SUBSCRIBERS, those that play online, not silver and gold combined like this posts figure, which is simply everyone who plugged their 360 into the internet sometime.

@EnigmaNemesis: wherever you got that figure, they should check their sources. thats nearly 1 and a half billion people. i doubt that many have access to their own PC, let alone broadband internet. one of my pet hates is westerners failing to grasp their level of privilege within the world we live.

red

@EnigmaNemesis:

You are right. 10 million PAID, is a lot ... I don't care who you are or what you're a fanboy of.

Personally, a console without online gaming is a sad, lonely little console [looks over at his Wii].

First, everyone complains that MS doesn't release Gold numbers, and then pretends that a 2/3 payday isn't a big deal. Whatever. Online is fun, I pity the people who won't allow themselves the experience.

SeeOne

That's actually a lot higher than I expected, I wouldn't have been surprised at that many Silver members but that's an awful lot of Gold. I wonder though, how many are people who've signed up for a Gold trial over Christmas... ;)

PhotoBoy

@red:

I posted saying that almost 20% of the world that has access to broadband uses it.

The site shows that 18.8 people of people per 100 in areas with broadband, have it as customers. That is 18.8 percent that is clearly in that oecd link!

Anyhow ... I dont see how you can think that over 60% of Xbox 360 owners are on Live is not impressive. That is a damn high saturation, especially considering the lack there of broadband worldwide.

But I ask you, what do you find impressive then? The name MSFT swapped with Sony, PC, or Wii perhaps?

EnigmaNemesis

@EnigmaNemesis: i couldnt find a figure of 18.8 worldwide anywhere in all that mess. i found a figure for 13.6 within the developed western world. which is smaller than your figure and concerns only the rich westerners i mentioned in the first place. youre merely demonstrating what i referred to.

moreover, ignoring that youre wrong, if the figure WERE 20 or 18, thats a billion and a half. also ignoring that we have no figures for gold subscribers (certainly not numbering 10 million) lets say it WAS 10 million for a nice round number. thats less than 0.7%. of a figure youve vastly artificially inflated.

so i really dont understand why you keep posting the wrongness, since it would support what youre trying to say rather more to accept that youre wrong, thus making the figures add up, given the numbers in the oecd report YOU JUST POSTED, to about 6.25% of broadband owners using xbox live as silver or gold subscribers.

which still isnt impressive, and still counts silvers.

red

10 million people paying for nothing. What a horrid statistics.

Mayu-mayu

Who would have thought people would want to play Multiplayer online?

Genius Microsoft, Genius!

I would like to request that all the fanboys who think that paying 50 dollars a year is "nothing" happily send me 50 dollars and I'd like also request that anyone who thinks Microsoft or anyone could do this without charging for it kindly look toward PCs and PS3 and realize that Microsoft is making a MINT off of it's online division.

Scuba Steve

They did include all those 1 month free subscribers that are currently gold members after they got the console for Christmas, didn't they? Very wise. ;-)

El-Suave

@EnigmaNemesis: i see the 18.8 now. the latest figures the wiki site only links to, not the year older figures it actually contains. you could have linked to that instead. of course that pushes the percentage down even further.

you didnt say "that has access to broadband", youre saying that only now. you said the world. "20% of the world has broadband"..."20% of places"..."in a world with barely any broadband". you cant obfuscate whats been said on the intertrons. its written down as you go along.

and finally, i remember when everyone slung fanboy accusations at YOU around the ps3 launch. the 360 is my favourite platform, ive used live since it launched, i own a wii and... i spent a lot of money on a gaming pc in 2000. i dont care what platform you want to name, or all of them combined. online gaming figures are a drop in the ocean. what do you want me to say? xbox live is a great service and more populous than any other? i do say that. doesnt change that relatively few xbox owners use it.

red

And, this is why Gold isn't going to be free.

Imagine calling your boss and throwing around the idea of knocking $500 million out of your revenue. He'd fire you on the spot for even suggesting it.

Moonshadow101

i'm one of those out of Live. And I'm happy with that.

Pinguin_

This is sort of a long time for a factual error that appears in the title of a post to go uncorrected. 10 million is good no matter which way you slice it, but there's no reason to believe all 10 million are gold subscribers.

[www.majornelson.com]

MaxVest

This success just proves the inevitability of Sony to charge for Home/XMB increased functionality.

NightOwl

@Jabbertrack: Amen. Broadband is not that widely available in places other than large metropolitan areas.

Chilly Hollow is smack in the middle of a large metro area and doesn't have it, either. We can get satellite but that won't work with xBox Live due to the upload lag times.

Chilly Hollow

@lionkitten: I couldn't agree more. Why the OP decided to try to spin this as a potentially negative comment on the amount of subscribers NOT with a gold account to me says more about the OP then M$.

10 million *paying* subscribers (not just Gold accounts counting promos) means half a BILLION dollars in revenue. Anyone thinking Live is goign to go free (or needs to to compete with PSN) should really think again. If anything, PSN will haev a fee by the end of the year once they install Home and a better functioning XMB.

NightOwl

There are not 10 million paid subscriptions to Xbox Live. Misinformation/Bad wording FTL

Tanod

I just canceled my Gold "Live" account, after my second "free month" card ran out. Go ahead ask me how I got 2 free months…yep they keep sending me these things every time I send my 360 back.

I have been through 4-360's. As a consumer at this point, I can't in good conscience give them anymore money. Not to mention the issues I have had the past few weeks with "Live". I know they will fix the issues, but they lost me as a customer. I have been paying for live since the original XBOX, but I'm all done. I have no issue with the "Live" service, or the 360 (when each is working) or the price of "Live", this is just a matter of principal for me.

-EDGE-

@viet0ne: You comparing PC gaming to console gaming. Different types of mediums for gaming. You might as say handheld gaming is the same as PC gaming.

Those "minimally" better features are enough to convince gamers to pay the monthly/yearly fees so there's something there you are not comprehending. How many games have dedicated servers and what are the gaming stats on those dedicated servers?

Tepoz

Well people can play this all they want but thats 10 million people paying for a service that 300 million get for free so its always bad news that people are paying for something that is offered for free as a standard for over 20 years.

500 million a year of income and their service is minimally better than PSN. No Dedicated servers for games means XBL is still on par with PSN no matter what. I dont see how people can compare half a dozen features that XBL has right now over PSN that don't enhance the online gaming experience and only enhance the social experience. While PSN has a feature that puts PSN level with XBL and thats dedicated servers.

viet0ne

Convert or be destroyed. Resistance is Futile

ErickTheRed

I think the numbers would be higher if there were more access to broadband.

mooseyfate

This is a horrible time to brag about how many people use a service that hasn't worked consistently for over three weeks straight now.

Suck it Microsoft. The service has been good for me prior to the start of the holidays the year but damn, the holidays are over. They are going to have to make up a new excuse why it is sucking so much ass if they can't fix it soon.

Adam In Texas

@EnigmaNemesis:

And I only asked that question about swapping the name, is because I am trying to get a feel for why you dont find this remotely astounding, considering the lack there of BB in the world, and this being a BB only machine and still pulling over 60% of systems sold on Live.

EnigmaNemesis

@red:

No, you dont have to like the service at all. Just dont say this isnt impressive when no console before it has even come a hair close to it.

EnigmaNemesis

@EnigmaNemesis: Wow, I agree with you, the downplaying of Live's numbers is stupid.

Sixtail

There's just too much we don't know for this to be used as a meaningful statistic. Is this 10 million active accounts, or just accounts created? Does this include all the original Xbox accounts? If so, then it looks more like 25% of Xbox/Xbox 360 purchasers connected their consoles to the Internet at some point. I would assume higher for 360, but we just don't have enough info to make that 10 million figure mean very much.

Also, post is still erroneous.

MaxVest

People like to go on an on how PC is free but really it is not. Most of the servers are hosted by individuals with money out of their own pockets for server for the games and ofter servers for voice chat services like teamspeak and Ventrillo. MS wanted to centralize matchmaking and voice chat and all the online features but the problem is this used to be handled by the game manufactures and factored into the cost and thus when the game lost popularity the manufacture would cut their servers.

There are other online services that use large amounts of resources that are free look Aim, Yahoo Messanges, ICQ, hotmail gmail etc. So there may be a model for a free console service to work. And maybe if Sony can make a good case of this MS will follow suit(we can hope). But I don't think there is any denying they are offering something that cost money to provide I don't think they are just pocketing gobs of money while whispering "suckers" under there breath.

My downloads from live are consistantly faster than PSN I'm sure this is partially due to dedicated bandwidth and servers. And maybe partially due to MS online experience that has spanned numerous OS's. PC users should see that this is even changing in there landscape try to download that newest demo and you will find that you are in a huge Queue to download or you can pay a premium cost for priority access. Im pretty sure this is why they dont let silvers get 1st grabs now cause they want to save that bandwith for the paying customers as a perk and a week later demand is down and ready for the silver users to partake.

Konchu

Im curious what the number of actually gold accounts are. I would imagine there are alot. Just looking at Halo 3's attach rate would make me think at least in the US they around 30-40% cause that games is all about the online(that is not to say some people didn't buy it for the campain or bought because the hype).

Konchu

@EnigmaNemesis:

Your 18.8% statistic is pretty useless. You're applying an overall stat to a subset of the population. The only way that would be valid is if both the broadband-enabled and xbox-buying subsets are uniformly distributed among the entire population. Unfortunately, I'm guessing that there's a lot of overlap between the two subsets, which does nothing for your initial point (WOW! 60% online 360s from 20% broadband penetration).

kftgr

World of Warcraft is considered a juggernaut for having its 9 million subscribers, so 10 million Live Gold is hardly small beer. Even if it's 50 bucks a year instead of 15 a month, Microsoft has managed to create an impressive paying userbase.

chinasky

goddamnit kotaku

I had to check the address bar because I thought this was a 360 fan site or something

how about some cool news!

whoooa

LPLUNKETT: That's 10 million Gold AND Silver subscribers, as posted in Major Nelson's blog.

[www.majornelson.com]

TomeOne

seriously though, lets see if they can actually get the service to work now

BurgerBat