DailyTech - Xbox Live Hits 10 Million Subscribers; Hands Out Freebies for Downtime

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Gadgets Xbox Live Hits 10 Million Subscribers; Hands Out Freebies for Downtime
Marcus Yam (Blog) - January 8, 2008 5:19 AM

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38 comment(s) - last by LatinMessiah.. on Jan 9 at 1:16 PM

Microsoft to give free Xbox 360 game to compensate for downtime

Microsoft revealed at CES that its Xbox Live service amassed 10 million subscribers (including both Gold and Silver memberships), a milestone reached in part due to this past holiday’s strong gaming industry sales. During the last quarter of 2007, Microsoft moved 4.3 million Xbox 360 consoles.

“During this past holiday season you helped us break a number of Xbox Live records. This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox Live in our 5 year history,” wrote Marc Whitten, general manager for Xbox Live on the Gamerscore Blog.

Throughout the holidays, Xbox Live users new and old experienced less than satisfactory service. Gamers widely reported problems using Xbox Live, which Microsoft said was caused by the influx of new subscribers.

“As a result of this massive increase in usage we know that some of you experienced intermittent Xbox LIVE issues over the holiday break,” added Whitten. “While the service was not completely off-line at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance.”

As an apology and token of Microsoft’s appreciation for its user base’s continued use of its online service, Whitten revealed that all members of Xbox Live will soon have access to a full Xbox Live Arcade game that will be available for download free of charge.

Full details regarding the offer will be available “in the coming weeks,” said Microsoft.

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How many paid subscribers?

By BladeVenom on 1/8/08, Rating: 0

RE: How many paid subscribers?

By MonkeyPaw on 1/8/08, Rating: -1

RE: How many paid subscribers?

By therealnickdanger on 1/8/2008 8:28:38 AM , Rating: 3

Assuming all 10 million were paying $50/year for service, that's half a billion generated annually, and that's before any monies exchange hands for Arcade games, video rentals, picture packs, expansions, and other downloadable content... Kudos, Microsoft.

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RE: How many paid subscribers?

By FITCamaro on 1/8/2008 8:40:40 AM , Rating: 2

Nothing wrong with that considering the billions it cost to set up the Xbox Live network. Not to mention the billions in marketing and development of the console.

I think the $45 for 13 months of service is a completely justified price considering what you're getting.

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RE: How many paid subscribers?

By themadmilkman on 1/8/2008 10:13:24 AM , Rating: 2

"Billions" to set up Xbox Live? Surely you jest.

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RE: How many paid subscribers?

By killerroach on 1/8/2008 10:23:14 AM , Rating: 2

Behold the power of Microsoft :)

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RE: How many paid subscribers?

By Samus on 1/9/2008 3:40:18 AM , Rating: 2

Supposedly Vista cost over 20 billion to develope and market, ie, the entire 5-year Vista project. When you consider Microsoft NET profitted more than that in the past 5 years, Vista-damage is technically already covered.

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RE: How many paid subscribers?

By Marcus Yam on 1/8/2008 11:00:56 AM , Rating: 4

Actually, the 10 million mark includes both Gold and Silver memberships. This is the way that Microsoft has always counted and announced its milestones, and to date the company has never formally (or willingly) revealed Gold membership ratio.

If this fact is still up for debate, Microsoft's Larry Hyrb's blog post reads:

quote:
The Xbox LIVE community continues to grow, reaching the milestone of ten million Gold and Silver subscribers, a full six months ahead of schedule.

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2008/01/06/xbox...

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RE: How many paid subscribers?

By zombiexl on 1/8/2008 11:04:32 AM , Rating: 4

Actually considering you can have multiple silver accounts on a system,, my wife and son both have silver accounts and I have gold. There may be more than the total # of consoles.

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RE: How many paid subscribers?

By mmntech on 1/8/2008 8:40:43 AM , Rating: 2

It would have to be gold since technically all 360 owners are silver members.

I actually applaud Microsoft giving the free game to all subscribers. It's rare Microsoft admits they made a mistake so take advantage of it.

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RE: How many paid subscribers?

By Wolfpup on 1/8/2008 9:19:57 AM , Rating: 3

quote:
It would have to be gold since technically all 360 owners are silver members.

No, they're not. You have to actively sign up for Live regardless.

And I read the original press release. That 10 million number *IS* counting Silver accounts, as they don't specify. (I found it extraordinarily hard to believe that over 50% of 360 owners subscribed to Live.)

And that also means this number doesn't mean much. I'd be getting counted three times, and anyone with multiple Live accounts on a system would be also, etc.

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Well Done Microsoft

By retepallen on 1/8/2008 6:12:12 AM , Rating: 4

Full credit to microsoft for this. They could have just said there was no problem and gone on with their lives, but it shows a commitment to provide good customer service when things do go wrong.

RE: Well Done Microsoft

By MikeO on 1/8/08, Rating: -1

RE: Well Done Microsoft

By MonkeyPaw on 1/8/2008 7:50:15 AM , Rating: 5

That's a good one. How many times has your phone service, cable, or high-speed internet had issues? Does your provider own up to it with a press release? Heck no. You're lucky to get them to pro-rate your account for the downtime. Yeah, the ideal solution is to never have a problem, but we all know it's never that simple.

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RE: Well Done Microsoft

By MikeO on 1/8/08, Rating: -1

RE: Well Done Microsoft

By omnicronx on 1/8/2008 10:11:31 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
Not f**king days, or weeks.

Why are you tripping out, it never went down, read the article. I was using xboxlive all Christmas and barely had any problems. I got dropped from the xbox live server once or twice, and for about an hour I was unable to redeem a card, but there was nothing to write home about.

In my opinion considering how many new users they had, things went quite well. I remember I bought cable homephone when it first came out, and they cable company had such a huge influx of people that my phone would go down for days at a time. Now thats something to complain about, it seems MS handled this situation quite nicely.

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RE: Well Done Microsoft

By Bioniccrackmonk on 1/8/2008 12:24:00 PM , Rating: 2

I dont know about your service provider, but if my cable or high speed internet goes out, I call Comcast immediately and they credit my account for the amount of time it was down. As far as my cell phone goes, I have had it over 5 years now and never had an issue with it ever.

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RE: Well Done Microsoft

By DFranch on 1/8/2008 8:30:47 AM , Rating: 5

Am I the only person who thinks people are blowing this out of proportion? they had a problem for like a week. XBL costs about $4 a month. That equates to $1. Now you get a free arcade game. It seems like a pretty good offer if the selection of free games is good.

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RE: Well Done Microsoft

By therealnickdanger on 1/8/2008 8:40:28 AM , Rating: 2

Indeed. I've been on Live since the very beginning, through all the little hiccups and trials and I can't say that I've ever been disappointed with the service. The rare occassions that I have encountered an issue with the service or my console, Microsoft has been overly accommodating to my demands.

Over Christmas and New Year's, I was a bit too busy with other things to really sit down a game a ton, but I only played Mass Effect, so I didn't even need Live. I'm sure that my Halo 3-playing freak of a friend, Chris, was probably going balistic, though.

To wish or state that "it should never break down" really only applies in Rainbow Fairy Gumdrop Land.

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RE: Well Done Microsoft

By LatinMessiah on 1/9/2008 1:07:48 PM , Rating: 2

That's true. It was out of their control for the most part and they had the decency to not only apologize, but also give away a $4-$5 arcade game. Plus, that's what STEAM is for....backup!

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Limbo

By homerdog on 1/8/2008 10:24:53 AM , Rating: 2

My friend's launch 360 died over the holidays so he went out and bought a new one for the HDMI. Due to the Live issues he was unable to recover his account on his new Xbox. What's more, since he had attempted to recover on his new box, his profile on his old HDD was invalid. His account was stuck in limbo for about 3 days, saved games and all.

To those of you who claim that the problems lasted about a week or so, I will tell you that I couldn't even access my dashboard for at least 2 weeks. I noticed this before Christmas and it went on until two days ago.

RE: Limbo

By zombiexl on 1/8/2008 11:07:12 AM , Rating: 2

I guess those of us with other things to do over the holidays didnt notice it much..

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RE: Limbo

By Bioniccrackmonk on 1/8/2008 12:29:56 PM , Rating: 2

And yet another typical smart ass response, do you have any real incite to give on this subject?

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RE: Limbo

By Razgriz20 on 1/8/2008 1:49:23 PM , Rating: 1

quote:
incite

I think you mean insight. =)

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RE: Limbo

By LatinMessiah on 1/9/2008 1:14:42 PM , Rating: 2

Obviously.

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RE: Limbo

By sweetsauce on 1/8/2008 2:50:17 PM , Rating: 2

If it makes you feel any better, i wasn't able to play cod4 on my bro-in-law's ps3 for a few days since it was down.

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RE: Limbo

By homerdog on 1/9/2008 12:33:45 AM , Rating: 2

I'm not really upset, but my friend sure was.

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Sorry but its not all 'gold'

By michal1980 on 1/8/2008 8:59:45 AM , Rating: 2

Micorsoft counts both silver members and gold members as one and the same for fluff pieces like this.

Not everyone that has a 360 signs up for live, even the free silver one.

RE: Sorry but its not all 'gold'

By michal1980 on 1/8/08, Rating: 0

RE: Sorry but its not all 'gold'

By Etsp on 1/8/2008 11:35:09 AM , Rating: 2

Your posts automatically start at 1 since you have a negative post average... However, I'll agree that your post deserves more than a 1.

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RE: Sorry but its not all 'gold'

By michal1980 on 1/8/08, Rating: 0

WOOT!

By Inkjammer on 1/8/2008 6:19:31 AM , Rating: 3

With all the free Xbox Live downloads generated because of this offer perhaps Root Beer Tapper will finally get the love and recognition it truly deserves.

Oh. Wait...