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Squilliam on 20 January 2011
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mai said:

Squilliam said:

 Based on feedback from a developer I know with access to industry publisher data. Live >> PSN >> Wii in terms of downloadable sales numbers and revenue.

I believe VGC did publish some revenue numbers for WiiWare&VC quoting FADE LLC, and it was around $120M in 2009, XBLA landed somewhere under that mark if my memory serves me right. I'm not sure how it was calculated so you may twist info the way that puts XBLA above WiiWare&VC (e.g. include Live Gold subscriptions into revenue), or the situation might have changed for the last year, but I'm sure it doesn't look like "Live>>PSN>>Wii", closer to "WW&VC~XBLA>PSN" I think.

BTW "feedback from developers" is what's called an anecdotal argument unless you make a poll with rightly chosen sample.

'According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, Xbox Live is the only online gaming business outside of World of Warcraft that generates "substantial money."'

http://au.xbox360.gamespy.com/articles/110/1104553p1.html

"Microsoft says about half the service’s 25 million users paid an annual fee to play games online like “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” in the year ended June 30. That would be about $600 million. Sales of products like movie and TV show downloads topped subscription revenue for the first time, Dennis Durkin, Xbox’s chief operating officer, said in an e-mail.

The remarks suggest the business generated more than $1.2 billion in sales last year, exceeding analysts’ estimates. Success in online gaming is crucial for Microsoft because the other products in this unit include the barely profitable Xbox game console and mobile-phone software that’s losing ground to Apple Inc. and Google Inc."

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-07/microsoft-xbox-live-sales-probably-topped-1-billion.html

That proves that the Xbox Live service is on top.

Then you have: http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/7152/wiiware-grows-30-in-2009-revenue-reaches-60-million/

Which is 60M plus 60M for VC. Even if you argue that it increased 50% YOY since them that still leaves overall revenue quite far below Xbox Live.

Then you have Sony:

"Sony boss, Kaz Hirai talked about PSN revenue recently, which is something that rarely gets discussed. Microsoft rarely talks about revenue from its Xbox Live service normally as well. However, Dennis Durkin, Microsoft COO indicated that in 2009 for the first time XBL revenue crept past $1 billion.

According to Reuters, Hirai revealed that revenue for PSN this year was around $870 million. He stated that revenue “nearly doubled” from last year where it was approximately $434 million"

http://gamer.blorge.com/2010/12/25/sony-playstation-network-service-revenue-approaching-1-billion/

So yes I am quite comfortable saying Live >> PSN >> Wii







Tease.