14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has just revealed, during a recent financial conference, that half of the 25 million Xbox Live members have a Gold subscription, meaning that they pay $60 a year to enjoy special privileges and multiplayer.
According to Dennis Durkin, the head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, Xbox Live is extremely important for the company, as are the Gold subscribers that, according to him, spend more than three hours a day on the Xbox 360's online service.
"Of our 25 million members, about half of them are subscribers to the business and pay us about $60 a year for that," Durkin stated. "So it's a very large business for us and for our partners."
While many of the Xbox Live Gold subscribers spend their time gaming, about 40 percent of that time is now engaged by other Live services, including Netflix, Facebook or ESPN, which means extra visibility for Microsoft's partners.
Even if around 12.5 million paying subscribers, all of which pay $60 a year (as of the latest price increase), sounds very good, the company says that the digital transaction revenue from Xbox Live is even greater than the subscription services.
"This is a great opportunity for our media partners to stay connected with their customers and to sell them goods that they care about in their home," he said. "Whether that's game add-ons, movies, music, or clothing for their avatars, this is a very big business."
Microsoft is holding more and more offers these days in order to lure in the rest of the Xbox Live members, who are just using the Free subscription, formerly known as Silver.
The latest of which is the Xbox Live Rewards program, which offers free Microsoft Points to members of the online service for completing certain tasks, and even more to those that are already Gold subscribers.