14 DAY TRIAL // Modern Warfare 2 might have set yet another record when it came out as it determined no less than 2 million Xbox Live users to get on the service at the same time, probably in order to enter multiplayer matches as soon as the game is released.
But it seems that the huge launch, probably coupled with the decision by Microsoft to actually ban a big number, by some estimates as high as 600,000, modded Xbox 360 users from Live, might have had the effect of limiting sales on the service, which has grown in 2009 to actually represent a significant revenue stream for the company.
One of the most interesting titles offered on Xbox Live is Trials HD, which has the player controlling a motor bike in a quest to get through some very tough courses. The entries on the Leaderboards for the game were set at about 15,000 in one week before Modern Warfare 2 was released and before the modded console ban was enforced but they dropped to just 9,000 in the week after that one.
Similar drop offs were also noticed in releases like South Park, Zombie Apocalypse and Tower Bloxx Deluxe. The data is taken from an analysis performed by Ryan Langley, an editor of GamerBytes, who is a regular watcher of XBLA.
It will be interesting to see whether players who have gone out and bought Modern Warfare 2 will only play the single player campaign and then return to getting their indie game fix on Xbox Live or whether they will be hooked on the multiplayer element of the Infinity Ward videogame and will set smaller titles up for a long decline, which might probably go until the early months of 2010. Langley is expecting both Leaderboards addition and sales to rebound rather quickly.