14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is ready to show off the success of the New Xbox Experience and has offered, less than one month since launch, some pretty detailed statistics regarding how many people use Xbox Live and its various services.
At the moment, there are more than 14 million Xbox Live accounts active in the world, although Microsoft still refuses to say how many of those are Gold accounts, which require a monthly subscription. Overall, the number of Xbox Live visitors increased by 66% but part of this figure is the direct result of more gaming consoles being sold worldwide.
After the November 19 launch of NXE, film downloads increased by 49% and demand for TV episodes delivered via streaming rose by 30%. Also, Kingdom for Keflings, an Xbox Live Arcade title to be the first to offer Avatar support, has had the second best ever first week of sales in the history of the service, which Microsoft attributes to the fact that players can see their Avatars in the game. Sales of UNO, an older game introducing Avatars via a patch, also went up by 650%.
Major Nelson, the guy who unveils NXE related news, says that if Xbox Live were a city, it would rank amongst the biggest in America. Still, there’s a significant number of Xbox 360 buyers who never get interested in hooking up to Xbox Live.
The New Xbox Experience was released in November. It aims to make the Xbox 360 easier to use and more social friendly. It’s part of Microsoft’s attempt to push the console it makes as a family friendly entertainment center. So far, the sales of the Xbox 360 are better than those of the PlayStation 3 from Sony, and the Japanese company is rushing to release Home, its much delayed social space, to counter the popularity of NXE.