AfterDawn: News

Xbox 360 downloadable content generates large revenue

According to Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business manager Kevin Salcedo, downloadable content for the Xbox 360 has so far brought in $240 million USD in revenue.

He also confided that games that have extra downloadable content see a 16 percent increase in their life spans.



Speaking at the Gamefest event Salcedo added that about $180 million USD of that total had been made in the last 12 months alone and that games that have downloadable content make $21 million USD more at retail, as long as the content is made available within 30 days of the game's release.

"Right now we have over 12 million users in over 26 countries, with USD 240 million in transactions revenue so far, with USD 180 million in the last 12 months alone," Salcedo said.

"On average, titles that have downloadable content on XBL marketplace have seen a 16 per cent [longer] period of people holding onto that title, which keeps them from selling to second-hand stores."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 6 Aug 2008 16:54

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• 19 comments

• DXR88

  No, Sh*t really wow thats Amazing, Kevin man your a genius. i kinda think that was the big plan when they made live Kevin, to create revenue. /sarcasm
  
  its good to see that MS is going through with there plans for and Xbox digital distribution, i really am looking forward to seeing what they come up with, i am more interested in the way they will handle server loading.

  7.8.2008 00:25 #1

• fgamer

  This keeps them more interested in the gaming industry with the Xbox brand than to ditch it like Sega ditched the hardware business.

  7.8.2008 00:30 #2

• ZippyDSM

  can we make live free now plz?

  7.8.2008 00:35 #3

• DXR88

  Originally posted by ZippyDSM: can we make live free now plz?Kevin, frowns upon your non-money generating remark. shame on you.

  7.8.2008 01:02 #4

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Originally posted by ZippyDSM: can we make live free now plz?Kevin, frowns upon your non-money generating remark. shame on you.money will be made from downloads silly, ALL downloads....yyeeesssssss.

  7.8.2008 01:04 #5

• DXR88

  Quote:Quote:Originally posted by ZippyDSM: can we make live free now plz?Kevin, frowns upon your non-money generating remark. shame on you.money will be made from downloads silly, ALL downloads....yyeeesssssss.Never that would Reduce the all mighty Kevin number crunching skills from 240 million to about 130 million.

  7.8.2008 01:07 #6

• DXR88

  you should be praising the almighty Kevin, has he has yet to charge us for turning on the console.

  7.8.2008 01:08 #7

• C4RN1

  Really that's a hell of a lot of money from just extra content. MS should take that money and put it back in their product or (lack of) customer support. I've heard people complaining about paying for live and paying for all the extra things and it's like a slap in the face.
  
  Others get suckered into the whole "xbox live experience", and just think it's going to be even worse. The new update is going to blow those numbers out of the water. Just wait in 6 months those numbers will be doubled.

  7.8.2008 07:53 #8

• AntSpliff

  If 49.99/yr (just a bit over $4/mo) is too much for an excellent gaming experience is too much then you should probably be doing something other than gaming like working more. I like the fact that XBL is not down for more than two hrs if anything goes wrong. When its free it takes a little longer for things to be fixed.

  7.8.2008 09:52 #9

• Hunt720

  Originally posted by AntSpliff: I like the fact that XBL is not down for more than two hrs if anything goes wrong. When its free it takes a little longer for things to be fixed.Unless you mean last Christmas...
  
  But we were compensated with Undertow.. Does anyone even play that game? Its like they couldn't figure out how to fix a system that people pay for by anticipating large amounts of Xbox Live subscribers signing up and loggin in around the time they got their new consoles... so to make up for their lack of foresight they handed out Bioshocks retarded little brother.. to SOME accounts.

  7.8.2008 12:33 #10

• ikari

  Now maybe it is just the games I play, but I purchased more arcade games than content for 360 games. I was really hoping more devs would jump on the board and make more levels, weapons, etc. for their games.
  
  Although, I am excited for GTA IV's Fall episode release!!! Did they ever say how much they were going to charge for it?

  7.8.2008 12:43 #11

• DXR88

  Actualy i liked Mass-Effect, bring down the sky on Xbox-live, it was my first game add on download, it was good for $5 USD
  
  but it really should be expanded, i agree that money generated should be poured back into whatever generated it. i don't see MS game and development division losing any-profits soon.

  7.8.2008 12:51 #12

• mspurloc

  Live Silver IS free.
  
  But I have to agree that $50 a year is too much for Gold.
  There should be more to it.
  
  Unless you're a full-time lamer and want to be playing other people all the time, there's no incentive to join.
  Now, if joining Gold included access to ALL content for no additional cost, then it would be worth it.
  Of course, "all content" would NOT include the eventual Netflix movies or Marketplace's own GROSSLY overpriced and outdated offerings. Personally, I'd like to see that stuff go away in favor of Netflix, along with Marketplace's stupid points system.

  7.8.2008 16:02 #13

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by mspurloc: Live Silver IS free.
  
  But I have to agree that $50 a year is too much for Gold.
  There should be more to it.
  
  Unless you're a full-time lamer and want to be playing other people all the time, there's no incentive to join.
  Now, if joining Gold included access to ALL content for no additional cost, then it would be worth it.
  Of course, "all content" would NOT include the eventual Netflix movies or Marketplace's own GROSSLY overpriced and outdated offerings. Personally, I'd like to see that stuff go away in favor of Netflix, along with Marketplace's stupid points system.your still charged for most downlaods and only get a free demos and such gold should be free so one can have all the features of live, and then would mean more money for MS because they can charge for all downloads and to give a hand out run promos of free stuff to build up interest, its win for all.

  7.8.2008 16:48 #14

• drach

  Don't forget the exorbitant prices you will pay for an upgraded hard drive to hold all of your downloaded stuff.

  8.8.2008 01:03 #15

• DXR88

  Originally posted by drach: Don't forget the exorbitant prices you will pay for an upgraded hard drive to hold all of your downloaded stuff.
  all you have to do is buy a 120 gig harddrive Open the harddrive case pull out your old 20 gig plug your new 120 in close the external case and your good to go the xbox does the formating for you. takes a hell of a long time six hours some times but it does format it.

  8.8.2008 01:23 #16

• DXR88

  BTW if your going to upgrade you HDD for the love of god unplug your console from the net, while its formatting. MS has but rarely does pull the live support when they see an sudden increase of HDD space. and yes they can your xbox records every little hardware change in an internal ram logspace, when this log space fills up your Xbox sends a code through live then your at the mercy of MS.

  8.8.2008 01:37 #17

• AntSpliff

  Hunt: I did hear that it was messed up on Christmas for a couple of hours which i said. If it was free how much longer do you suppose it would've been down? I wasn't on during Christmas but the 26th was just fine.
  
  
  Again as I read the posts and people complain about $50yr it means they should be earning more money. I'm not wealthy but that doesn't even put a dent into my finances. I don't even think about it when they deduct it from my credit card and I was a beta tester for XBL when it first started with that animal shooting game and NFL fever. I guess you can't please everyone. Why buy the system if it's too much to join?

  8.8.2008 10:50 #18

• AntSpliff

  Hunt: I did hear that it was messed up on Christmas for a couple of hours which i said. If it was free how much longer do you suppose it would've been down? I wasn't on during Christmas but the 26th was just fine.
  
  
  Again as I read the posts and people complain about $50yr it means they should be earning more money. I'm not wealthy but that doesn't even put a dent into my finances. I don't even think about it when they deduct it from my credit card and I was a beta tester for XBL when it first started with that animal shooting game and NFL fever. I guess you can't please everyone. Why buy the system if it's too much to join?

  8.8.2008 10:50 #19