Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Long Live Xbox Live Arcade

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the geometry-wars-as-halo-killer dept.

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.'"

2 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. live arcade by apoc06 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  2. Who'da thunk? by interiot · · Score: 3, Insightful
    WHO KNEW these activities would be popular???
    • 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).