^at least thats what i make out of the article below

Europe makes up "less than a quarter" of Xbox Live

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/

Thursday 31-Jul-2008 9:02 AM I don't think Europe is ready to lead an online life through the TV, says Xbox Euro VP Chris Lewis

Europe makes up "less than a quarter" of Xbox Live's total membership, mostly down to language differences, Euro Xbox VP Chris Lewis has revealed.

Speaking in the latest issue of Edge, Lewis said this expectedly leaves the US with "the lion's share" of Xbox Live users.

"We don't normally break out the European element of our Live membership," said Lewis. "I mean, I know what it is, but I don't want to get rapped on the knuckles by being too explicit with you. I will say to you as a percentage of that overall total, it's just less than a quarter.

"And I'll tell you also that a large part of that is in the UK," he continued, "partly because of the language aspect, the fact is you need, on a community service like Live, enough people of a similar language orientation to get a community so that it starts to really blow out.

"Up until fairly recently we just haven't had enough on the service for non-English-speaking folks. In France, for example, we've only recently started to get figures where you've got enough French-speaking folks getting a rich enough experience to talk about it meaningfully to their friends. "

When asked if he thought Europe is ready for leading an online life through its living room TV, rather than a PC, Lewis responded that he didn't think it is, but that he thinks "the time is now".

"The whole industry is getting really close to the inflection point where that's what people just crave and I just know that we will offer the best experience," he said. "I just know we are so well placed to continue and invest and develop the service like nobody else can."

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do you think they can increase the % share in europe?

Maybe it's because europeans don't want to get bent over by paying £40 a year for a service that should be free.

Or I could make a joke about fat Americans sitting in front of the tv too much.

What ion storm said.

they should make it free

Ouch to all of the responses.

First, I don't think paying $60 a year is asking too much for a good XBox live experience.

Second, lots of Americans are overweight, but I am Canadian so I'll leave that to the Americans to defend lol.

The second part....

Or it could be that the barrier to entry in Europe isn't quite worth the costs in some, if not many, instances.

Why do you think Europe gets passed over on video games from Japan too? It's not because of fat Americans, or the price of XBL.

It's because in order to do business in mainland Europe, you need to translate everything into English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Ukranian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Polish, and Greek for starters. And you have to pass the BBFC, PEGI, and USK for ratings boards (that I know of).

All of that adds up to extra cost of content. And if your trying to debut a small piece of content onto XBL, it might make it not as worthwhile as one may believe.

However, with Europe becoming more intergrated, and a strengthening economy, and English being a more universal trade language, it'll become more important.

But then again: it's vastly easier to just put the content out for the American and Canadian audiences. Huge install base, everyone speaks English for the most part, and there's 1, unified, ratings board. So it's a much lower barrier to entry, and that's the key.

Full online community on console is NEXT GEN

Just look at the Wii ...

 this.

lol @ libellule