Greenberg: Xbox 360 Multiplayer Gaming Has Doubled in Past 12 Months
The July 2009 NPD data gave us a lot of information on sales, but Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft’s Director of Product Management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, released one additional tidbit about the Xbox 360–hours spent playing multiplayer games on Xbox Live has doubled in the past 12 months.
“#Xbox360 stat not covered in #NPD data- over last 12 months 1.7 billion multiplayer gaming hours, 2X previous year,” Greenberg tweeted yesterday.
I wonder if the 1.7 billion hours is a worldwide basis or only a U.S. one? Assuming he’s talking about the U.S. only, let’s take a look at how much the increase can be attributed to the increasing installed base, as compared to increasing user interest in playing more multiplayer games.
At the end of July 2008, according to NPD data, the Xbox 360’s U.S. hardware installed base stood at 10.93 million units. At the same time period this year, the Xbox 360’s installed base now stands at 15.70 million units. In other words, on 12 month basis, the Xbox 360’s installed base increased about 44 percent. All things being equal, you would expect a 44 percent increase in multiplayer gaming–instead, it doubled. What’s causing it? Your guess is as good as mine.
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More and more people are duped into paying for Live.
