US, January 8, 2010 - Truth be told, the Xbox 360 doesn't have a particularly strong lineup of exclusive titles. So what sets it apart from its competitors? Xbox Live. Microsoft was first to implement many of the online and community features that are now considered standard in current-gen games and Sony and Nintendo have essentially been playing catch-up ever since the 360 was launched in November 2005. Xbox Live is cemented as the strongest online community out of all three modern systems but it's easy to forget the service is over seven years old. When it launched way back in 2002 it certainly wasn't as robust a service as it is today. Join us as we take a look back over the last seven years and chart all the major developments in Xbox Live's life.

At E3 2002 Microsoft unveiled its plans to establish an online gaming service for the Xbox called Xbox Live. The membership fee was set at $49.99 a year, which is what it still costs today. Microsoft was adamant about getting users online quickly and easily. A standard was set so that every Xbox Live-enabled game would include voice chat. In its news article at the time, IGN wrote that Xbox Live "could very well be the all-encompassing future of gaming." That November, Microsoft delivered the service and the future had begun.

"We believe these early days are the days when we'll be tested and will be proving ourselves to them. We're very confident in our plan and we think at the end of the day all third parties will realize it benefits them to publish their games for Xbox Live." -- Xbox Group PR Manager David Hufford, November 15th 2002

Four months after its launch Xbox Live already had 350,000 users. The Xbox Live Starter Kits were beating the tar out of Sony's PS2 network adaptors, selling 44 percent more units. Popular early titles included Mechassault and Ghost Recon. The next step would be to make downloadable content available for retail games, a feature that is obviously standard today. In August the service was upgraded with more user-friendly features like Live Now and Live Web. Live Now let gamers access friends from their Xbox dashboard, whereas previously they could only do so from within a game. Live Web attached an Xbox Live account to a PC so you could scope out which friends are online. Microsoft also started XSN Sports as a way to set up tournaments for its first-party sports games. The service never took off, though, as Microsoft closed its sports division the following year.

"With the availability of downloadable content now on Xbox Live!, we're making a big step toward keeping gaming current and adding an additional element to the industry." -- Vice President of Xbox J Allard, March 4, 2003

In April 2004 Microsoft began upgrading Xbox Live again with a new set of features codenamed Tsunami. Most significantly, this added the ability to send voice messages with friend requests. By now the user base was 750,000 people strong and would hit one million in July. Electronic Arts joined the party and started putting its games on Live late in the year. Then, in November, the Xbox Live Arcade went online, allowing gamers to download classics like Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, and Pole Position to their console. Originally, an installer disc needed to be ordered from Microsoft.

"While Live Arcade is a good idea, there are a few concerns. First, if you are going to play someone online, both of you need to have purchased the games package. That leads to the second concern -- cost. A $10 minimum for something like the Namco Arcade package seems a little steep." -- Xbox Editor Hillary Goldstein, October 7, 2004

In July 2005 Microsoft announced it had secured two million Xbox Live users. The impressive growth was no doubt fueled by the massive popularity of Halo 2, released towards the end of the previous year. That summer, Microsoft started assuring gamers it would be easy to transfer their Live accounts to the Xbox 360 when it arrived in November. The new system brought an all new Xbox Live experience with features such as the blade system, Silver and Gold accounts, the Marketplace, and the Gamer Card.

"We've designed the Dashboard, the Xbox 360 Guide, and Xbox Live like a computer, so that you can choose your own path. Let me give you a quick example. While playing PDZ (Perfect Dark Zero), you can pause it, switch tasks to answer an email, and then download Joust to show your friend who just walked in. When you're done goofing arond with Joust, you can switch back to PDZ." -- Corporate Vice President and Chief XNA Architect J Allard, October 3, 2005

With retail releases being scarce early in the Xbox 360's life, gamers turned to the Xbox Live Arcade for their fix. The regular stream of smaller, inexpensive games became a platform of its own. In September Microsoft announced it would have two exclusive downloadable episodes for Grand Theft Auto 4 available from Xbox Live. Also, this was the year horse armor was released as a downloadable add-on for Oblivion.

We also introduced on the console this whole idea about one unique identity, which would ensure that you are the same user no matter where you were. This was driven by frustrations we had all experienced with previous online gaming experiences where it was so hard to get into games to find your friends. -- Group Marketing Manager for Xbox Live Aaron Greenberg, February 9, 2006

At E3 2007 Microsoft announced Xbox Live had eclipsed the seven million user mark. 2007 was also the year Halo 3 hit store shelves. Early in its life Halo 2 acted as the backbone of Xbox Live and helped transition users from the first Xbox to 360. This year also saw the release of the Xbox 360 Arcade SKU with just a 256MB hard drive.

"All I can say is that Microsoft is an incredibly smart company and I never fail to be impressed by just how clever they are. Don't forget this is the company which pioneered Live, which I believe will ultimately be far more impactful on video games in the long term than something like the Wii controller." -- Lionhead Founder Peter Molyneux, September 6, 2007

In February Microsoft launched its XNA Community Games program, allowing bedroom programmers to release and sell their own games through the Xbox Live Marketplace. Xbox Live broke the 10 million user barrier in March 2008. At E3 this year Microsoft announced the "new Xbox experience" (NXE), including Netflix support and Avatars. The first Summer of Arcade showcased four high-profile XBLA games including Castle Crashers and Braid.

"My impression of Home is that it seems to be Second Life for hardcore gamers. It's a virtual world and I think there was some excitement around that when it was announced a couple of years ago. At that time things like Second Life and the whole virtual world phenomenon was popular. But I think it feels kind of dated a couple of years later... We looked at doing virtual worlds and really the stickiness and longevity of that type of experience was really hard to make work. That's why we invested in things like the New Xbox Experience and really integrating into the platform.

I think that's been a different approach that we've taken. We've even seen other companies like Google and their 3D world that they've since canceled. I'm not really sure that world will really thrive in the living room on the console environment but we'll have to wait and see." -- Director of Product Management for Xbox Aaron Greenberg, December 10, 2008

On January 6, 2009, Xbox Live reached 17 million users. Games on Demand brought full retail games to the Xbox Live Marketplace in the summer. In July, Microsoft rebranded XNA Community Games as just Indie Games. The second Summer of Arcade brought us the excellent Shadow Complex and the fall of 2009 introduced social networking to Xbox Live with Facebook, Twiiter, and Last.FM integration. The release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 saw another surge of activity on the service in November.

"The more mainstream consumer is following the lead of their friends and word of mouth plays a big role here so if your friends have an Xbox and your friends are playing on Xbox Live, then that's where they're going to go." -- Director of Product Management for Xbox Aaron Greenberg, December 10th 2009

As we begin 2010, Xbox Live is still in a league of its own. The infrastructure Microsoft built and the standards it put in place have made for the best online console gaming, the best community features, and the largest stream of downloadable content. Sony and Nintendo have tried to implement many of Xbox Live's features into their own consoles, but they've always come after Microsoft and often are a pale imitation.

So where does the service go from here? This week Microsoft announced the Xbox Live Game Room, a plan to bring the arcade experience back to your 360. Your Avatars will be able to roam around a virtual arcade and play the classics with your friends. But Microsoft's biggest push this year is with Project Natal, so we can expect new Xbox Live features built around the motion-sensing technology.

Link to original article: Clicky

What do you think? apart from a couple of comments like the 360 lacks a strong exclusive lineup I think it is a very good article, it is easy to forget how far xbox live has came over the last 7 years, amazing actually!

Also please note, this is a topic about the xbox 360 and xbox live ONLY, any trolling, off topic banter or flaming WILL be reported.

Yep almost a 5 year member of Xbox Live and definitely enjoyed the experience. First game I played online (first game I ever played on Xbox actually) was Burnout 3. Damn I was good at that game.

Also that article didn't mention Crimson Skies. That was one of the big early Xbox Live games. Loved that game so much.

I'm waiting the year it is a free service to finally jump in...

ahhh live, you have been worth every penny, mech assault and ghost recon were the first games i played on you ... member since day one... kinda makes me want to see if anyone is on mech assault

I honestly don't think it will ever happen, xbox live has cost the same since it started back in 2002, if this is anything to go by I can't see the price ever going below that, besides, they don't need to when people are happy paying it for the service they get in return, £0.14p a day (£4.20p a month I pay and you can get it cheaper still if you look around) isn't exactly a lot to pay for a decent online service!

Great service!
I was present since 2004- when Halo 2 arrived:)

Halo is like 3 AAA exclusives.

You should mention the arrival of Halo 2 in 2004- there can't be any serious discussion on history of XLive without mentioning the arrival of Halo 2 in late 2004, because Halo 2 was THE catalyst for onlinegaming on consoles and especially for XLive. 

I didn't write it, IGN did but I agree, they did leave a lot of big games and events out, Halo 2 and 3 were huge for xbox live!

OK, I had just overflowen the article. They are mentioning Halo 2, but in 2005.

i played on live for a month when i first got my 360, then played the hell out of it when phantasy star unverse released, since then ive never played online on 360.