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Long Live Xbox Live Arcade
Edge Online has a piece up talking about the success of Xbox Live Arcade. They wonder out loud if the Live Arcade won't end up being the most important next-gen platform in this round of the console wars. From the article: "Live Arcade's conversion rate - the proportion of people who upgrade the demo to the full, paid-for version - is extraordinarily high, according to Canessa: 'The industry average on PC is about 0.8 per cent to one per cent, and in the first generation of Arcade we were hitting about 8.5 per cent, which was fantastic. But in this generation of Arcade we're hitting up to 35 per cent, and averaging over 20 per cent across all the titles. I mean, we had to check the data to make sure it wasn't a mistake. It's absolutely unheard of.'"
teh arcade is a great draw, but the real success is geometry wars. its a runaway smash with alot of buzz. that and the lack of a wide variety of solid retail titles. buying a full version of a demo for a fraction of the cost of a regular x360 title [and happens to be more fun] is a no brainer. when the AAA x360 titles arrive, maybe thats when we should compare numbers.
basically people have a $400 machine and are dying to play something on it. no big deal. but for the time being, they need to give geometry wars most of the credit there.
There's really no wonder why this tactic works. The user ir provided with the ability to actually get hands-on experience with the product (one of the games from Arcade) and is able to play a decent amount of it. After this experience, much like iTunes, the user is able to simply hit a few buttons, enter a few bits of data (if that) and have the full version of the game they just became addicted to within minutes! This is a much better system since the user has to do nearly nothing except enjoy playing a game in order to be sold on the product. It is truely a new era: They already purchased something they wanted (an Xbox 360), now they are doing something they wanted to do (playing a game), and are able to obtain that same game without leaving their home!
Slant
Between the Spaces
I think this is great! But at the same time, I think seeing the situation one year from now will really tell the tale. Anyone who gets a new system is going to likely get the "whole experience" right away. And then, after paying for the year of service, if they stick around... that will be the true measure of how well people accept/like/obsess about the Live service.
But it's still a great achievement.
There isn't anything else to play on the 360 right now. There's what, maybe 20 full titles out right now. About half of them are any good. A quarter might garner repeat play. I'm not dissin' 360, all I'm saying is the numbers are skewed. Plus the numbers for XBox were taken over almost the complete life of the system compared to the few months the 360 has been out. Come back in 3 years and we'll probably see about 8.5%. The reason the PC numbers are so low is due to the fact that there are far more demos for PC than any other system. Almost every game for PC has a demo.
- Flash-based downloadable games
- Being able to IM your friends, no matter what game they're in
- High-score lists
Okay, granted, it wasn't clear that this stuff would readily trasnfer to consoles, and still be popular. What I don't get is, now that one console has shown these are far and away very popular, why other consoles don't pick up on it ASAP?I guess, to some extent, we have to wait and see whether Sony's PNP or Nintendo's online service do these things. But given how unenthusiastically the companies have been dragged into having a centralized online service, and the likelihood that Sony will focus on trying to sell its other media assets, and might neglect the gaming aspects of the online service (central IM, high-score lists, and there's still room for more features).
Arcade could have been so much more if MS had included a bigger hard drive. People would love to download full retail games, not only smaller games like Mutant Storm and Geometry Wars, but their diskspace will be severely limited to only a couple of titles at a time. If only the internet were faster, Live users could subscribe to streamed games. Alas, that's too much to hope for in this generation of consoles.
"Per cent"?
Isn't it "Percent"?
Maybe from a math standpoint they might be the same thing...
On one hand, I find it ironic that the most popular feature of a four hundred dollar console primarily propagandized as ZOMG POWREFUL is a service that lets you download games that could run on ten-year-old consoles.
On the other hand, I'm excited for what could be the "return" of the arcade, shifting from a physical place to an online service
The reason people are buying these is becase they have too much money, as evidenced by buying a Xbox360 at this point in the game, and having spent all that moneny and not being able to buy many games, a few cheap downloads start looking pretty attractive. Once prices come down, and somehting resembling mainstream buyers enter the market this situation will correct itself.
-- http://thegirlorthecar.com funny dating game for guys
There're some great games on the 360. Granted not as many as people might like, but there absolutely is enough great games on it already.
CoD2, GRAW, PGR3 are all best of breed games. Burnout Revenge is as good as you can get in its genre as well. FNR3 is the best boxing game on any platform. There's a good sports game for every major sports, except baseball (coming out in a month) and hockey (NHL 2K6 is buggy as hell).
Top Spin 2 is coming out in April, as is BF2. Both expected to be phenomenal games from what I've seen so far. Blazing Angels, coming out next week, looks like it's going to be amazing as well. Oblivion, coming out next week, is going to corner the RPG genre.
I own a 360 and I simply do not have enough time to play all of my games on it, even without the new games coming out in the next month and a half.
If you expect a video game platform that's been out only for 6 months to have a game library that's as big as some of the established platforms, you're just not being realiztic. You might've had a point in November, but your point is not a very good one at this point in time.
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
Well said - nickelodeon games and live chat won't make up for an overall lack of software and certainly don't justify a $400+ investment in dedicated equipment.
First-to-Market envy eh?
"No one will buy a $400 console just to play $5 games"
It is a $300 console, but you are still correct.
Many many people, although, will select a $300 360 over a $600 PS3 when these $5 games are also in the equation.
I guess the difference is that when I go home, I can actually play these games on my 360. Not gonna happen on PS3 or Rev tonight.
The PS3 and the revolution will both have some kind of xbox love arcade functionality to them, be it the downloadable nintendo back catalogue or the PS2 game streaming thing. If anything I think the Nintendo back catalogue could be a very important feature for the revolution, Nintendo has some sweet games under its belt and I'd love to be able to play all the NES/SNES/N64 classics (legally) on the same console.
I also don't think GRAW, CoD2 and next week Oblivion count as an "UTTER" lack of good software.
"Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane." - H.P. Lovecraft
I wish the folks who knock the 360 for the "utter lack of good software" pointed out what type of games they're actually looking for. The 360 already has plenty of sports games, racing games, and a handful of FPS titles. They're pretty decent as well. It's only got one platformer game as far as I know (Kameo), only one fighting game (DOA 4), and no RPGs yet.
So, is the problem that you love a certain genre and it's not there? (And as an RPG fan, I can agree on that point) Or is it that you've played the 360 games and just don't like them? Or are you just a Sony fanboi who will 3 Sony 4EVAH!!!!
-- jchenx
If the article point is that this is what's helping the 360 win the next-gen race right now... that's stupid. It's the only next-gen console out. It is currently winning by default.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
You might not play $5 on a $400 console. I probably wouldn't either. But most of these games are going into homes with families. I know my parent's computer is an email/solitaire machine. If I lived at home, I am sure my mom would be happy to play these games on a big screen
It's a good thing, no doubt, I just think the article is making far too much of it.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Have you played the "nickelodeon" games? I have played the Marble a lot. It was fun! It was a blast! My friends and I spent hours beating each others times on single player levels. I think people want to play games that have fun and exciting game play. I might add that Marble has no load time to replay a level - NONE, and the HD graphics are great on a big screen. I have to disagree with you disparaging the fun arcade games as "nickelodeon." Implying, I guess, that only children play them? I am 27 and my friends all around that age. One friend has not bought anything except arcade games for his box .
You misinterperated my point that games such as those don't justify a $400 system. I in no way disparage small, addicitive, and creative games - espeically the practice of selling them a la carte online with a simple interface. It's a great idea - and so far it's been well executed, but it's not something that needs to be exclusive to Xbox. The fact that you have friend our age (we share the same approximate vintage) owns no game save the ones he buys online proves the argument that Xbox Live is arguably the only reason to buy this $400 piece of equipment. That was my point - a lack of genuine releases. Love nickelodeon games, love the concept and marketing. Hate that the Xbox diverts attention from it's shortcomings by waving this flag of Xbox live Arcade,
Fine, I agree. Xbox doesn't have much out yet, even for $400. I can't even find it anywhere. Oh well, plenty of other stuff to do.
There's something I can agree with .... hey wait! It's YOU! You're just trying to promote your pro-WoW agenda!
Why wouldn't it be? These arcade titles are cheap, easy to get into, easy to get and install and because of Xbox Live are collabrative on some level (whether that be a friends sorted HiScore board or direct xbox live head to head).
We are social creatures. We want to watch what our friends watch and we want to play what our friends are playing. This console generation's war may be decided more on which console allows us to play with our friends and less on which console has the best games and hardware.
By allowing us to see what games our buddies are playing and what thier scores are, Live Marketplace may have just stumbled into the most viral marketing models we have seen yet.
Ves
Generic Space FPS
Driving Game
Sports
Action
RPG
Weve played them all, there are dozens of top level quality games of each genre that you can get used for cheap today. Whats the draw?
needs new game mechanics, new ways to play. Something we havnt seen.
i dunno, what do you think will go over better: people that can download demos and indie software, or "retro" AAA - titles that have already been rated and proven fun?
honestly, the live arcade serves a purpose, i dont think that the rev or ps3 download services will even be in the same level of competition. they have huge back libraries and way more loyal fans to those series, whereas microsoft doesnt. i think the live arcade will survive, but MS marketting can NOT position it as a competitor to someone like nintendos full first party back catalog. live arcade will be an alternative to the rev and ps3 solutions, not a superior solution.
This is the stupidest article ever. It might as well say "M$ releases pointless statistics in hopes of keeping their share price up." So few 360s are out and the only people who have them are the type of gamer who buys every game that comes out. The also take in consideration that all the games constantly get pushed back. When it came out in November, January was when all the games were supposed to come out. January rolled around and everything got pushed back until March. Now that it's March a couple titles got released but the majority got pushed back until summer - most all the way until fall. (I work at GameStop, I know my release dates).
The Arcade is just another way for Microsoft to take your money. It's nothing revolutionary and Nintendo and Sony will have the exact same thing on their consoles.