People forget that Nintendo has done "online" decades before except only in Japan. And Nintendo's GC-era argument that people weren't ready for online was true. Not until the last 2 years did the audience for online significantly grow.
Straight from the hard sourced facts from Wikipedia (watch where I bold now):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox#Multiplayer_gaming
"On November 15, 2002, Microsoft launched its Xbox Live online gaming service, allowing subscribers to play online Xbox games with (or against) other subscribers all around the world and download new content for their games to the system's hard drive. This online service works exclusively with a broadband Internet connection. Approximately 250,000 subscribers had signed up within 2 months of Xbox Live's launch.[8] In July 2004, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live had reached 1 million subscribers, and one year later, in July 2005, that membership had reached 2 million."
XBox 1 sold 24 million in its 4 year lifetime. Launched in USA November 15, 2001 and everywhere else within the span of 4 months. According to this Live which came out on the one-year anniversary of XBox was put in motion. By January 2003 it had 250,000 subscribers. A year and a half later in July 2004, that number quadrupled to 1,000,000 subscribers. One year after that in July 2005 the figure doubled to 2,000,000 subscribers. XBox was ended by of XBox 360 later that November so that number probably didn't move much since that July.
2,000,000 Live-ers out of 24,000,000 XBox-owners-in-general equals 1/12 or roughly 8.33% of all XBox users.
Now watch this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360#Xbox_Live
"As of December 31, 2006, Xbox Live has over 5 million subscribers.[1]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_Live#History
"Xbox Live hit a milestone in July 2004, [1] when it achieved 1 million subscribers; and again in March 2007, when it achieved 6 million subscribers."
According to VGChartz XBox 360 has sold just under 10 million units. It launched November 22, 2005. That 2005 July the figure was 2 million XBox Live users. By the end of last year, 2006, Live had multiplied that figure 2 1/2 times up to 5 million. 3 months later in March 2007 it's 6 million.
Round XBox 360's numbers up to 10 million and you have 6,000,000 Live-ers out of 10,000,000 XBox 360-owners-in-general. That's 3/5 or 60% of all XBox 360 users.
8.33% vs. 60%. YOU do the math.
Microsoft had money to burn so they could go out there and subsidize things like this whether successful or not. Nintendo doesn't waste money so they looked at how much people really wanted it and outside of a vocal minority obviously not many. They put together broadband online access for some GC titles (Mario Kart: Double Dash) but obviously not as many people were willing to go for that. Online play was thought to be a 6th gen thing. It REALLY is a 7th gen thing. And now that the 7th gen is here look who's suddenly developing their online strategy: Nintendo!
People tend to have tunnel vision that tells them that their immediate reality is ALL of reality when it isn't. YOU might have wanted online play but what about most people? You and your FRIEND might have wanted online play but what about most people? You, your friend, some kids across the street, and your COUSIN might have wanted online play but what about most people? "Most People" is a mass-market business' favorite topic.
I feel Nintendo is going to do marvelous with this online thing and bring something fresh to the table. They are not just gonna go: "OK, play online and have fun!" They are going to, yes, innovate the online experience and bring new types of games to the table that use the online play feature in a more integrated way.
People complain about the friend codes but tough. There's kids to protect. Who wants to give easy access for some pedophile to get access to kids? It's really not all that much a hassle I don't think. Isn't it like punching in phone numbers? I'm very anxious to see what they do with it. They've actually got the experience in this field so I'm not as worried as some others are about them pulling this off.
They're gonna do all this and it's free. How can anyone put down this company? I can't understand it. Neutrally I think XBox Live and Nintendo's online will end up being collectively equal services. XBox Live would give you the unfettered freedom but with a cost and Nintendo gives you more intergrated online play experiences for free but with cumbersomeness of friend codes. And has anyone played with Playstation Network service on here? I'd like to know how it works. Get a fuller picture of online play, you know?
John Lucas
Words from the Official VGChartz Idiot
WE ARE THE NATION...OF DOMINATION!
