" there are 40 million users who have signed up for an online Xbox Live account. "

That's all that article mentioned. It says nothing about 50% Gold subscribers. You're just assuming now....

Unfortunatelly, it is impossible to track this. I've bought some imported games too (all originals of course) and they don't count for this chart. My Vita and its games were bought in USA and counted for NA charts.

Probably people buy just because of the hype. And if your friends buy the new version, you have to buy it too to play online with them. Talking about me, I normally buy just one of the yearly versions per gen, since we only see big jumps in this kind of game after a new consoles is released.

Look at the other articles I've provided previously (or better yet, do a little bit of research yourself). Every time Microsoft cites numbers, they've always cited XBL accounts. Additionally, they've also cited multiple times that 50% of users were gold subscribers.

Here's an example from Techcrunch in 2010: http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/02/microsoft-only-50-percent-of-xbox-live-users-pay-for-gold-subscription/

The data says 25 million total subs / 12.5 million gold subs. Therefore, by Jan 2012, it was 40 million, and likely to assume 20 million gold subs.

So you have a baseline of 20 million gold subs as on Jan 1st, 2012. If you don't believe there are more today, you're really trying to be obtuse and argue not from a place of reason, but bias.

So you have a few options in which to believe:

1. Users are not subscribing to gold as often as they were in 2010. You'd need to back this up, and that argument is something you have to prove, not me.
2. Not as many users are registered online as there were in 2012. Again, you'd have to back this up.
3. Or, I'm right, and that there are somewhere between 45-50 million registered XBL users, and approximately 50% are gold users. Even using lower metrics, say 45m and 40% being gold users, you still get 18m gold users.

So please, provide some sort of coherent counterpoint with data to show where my numbers are wrong. Until you do that, you're assuming far more than I am, because you've provided no data, whereas I've provided multiple references.

Wow, a thread about software sales on Brazil became a thread about the worldwide number of gold subscriptions on Live.

Well, I am probably the oldest Brazilian gamer around and the sales only get one thing right: football games sell well here, making kids, unfortunately, stop playing for real and preferring a controller over the green fields, thus creating this horrible generation of players for the National Team...

About the titles: real gamers don't buy games in here; they import them, usually from the US, or have them brought from Paraguay. I got about 50 titles for my Wii and hundreds for PC, and 90% of them came from Amazon, after I sent them to a friend coming from the US. So, the chart people are talking about in this thread only counts for the "soccer" moms and daddies who actually buy games in Brazilian shops. Besides, there is also piracing, which is very strong on Xbox and used to be so years ago for the Wii.

Well me and my friends brought almost all games in brazilian shops... I'm a real gamer (I guess)... I brought a lot of game in preoder on Sony Style and Submarino... I buy games in Americanas, Ponto Frio, Saraiva and Walmart (I brought the MGS HD Collection in Walmart per R$80).

Of my near 40 retail gamer I think at least 25 were brought in official shops in Brazil... GT5, Uncharted 3 and Killzone 3 I brought in preorder/release at R$200.

Hi, Thomaz. Nice to meet ya (although weird as it is adressing Brazilian folks in English... I guess I need to do it to not get kicked). I have also bought games in our shoppings, like Americanas and Submarino, but how many times is it possible to get brand new releases at R$ 80? (Which is about 35 US Dollars nowadays). I think it is cool that you have many games that got taxes paid in our country, but I'm pretty certain those were games one, two or even three years old to be at that price when you bougth them. I just don't think it is fair neither waiting so long nor paying more than a hundred US bucks to have a new game. Oh, and all my games are original too.

I love the fact that both God Of War: Collection and God Of War 3 chart here still. Though I wonder if the Brazilians don't know about God Of War: Origins Collection.

That just made my day, I was looking for it at a good price!

It was in August when I go with my girlfriend to buy something... I found and brought it at R$80,00... the 360 version was R$60,00.

But seems like a promotion because it is over R$100,00 in Walmart... I brought in the past both BioShock per less than R$40,00 each in some supermarket too.