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.'"

Comments

live arcade

[apoc06]

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.

Re:live arcade

[Saige]

PGR3 only has the demo version of Geometry Wars. You can download the demo from Live Arcade to get the same thing there.

The full version is only available for purchase through XBLA.

New Market Strategy

[Slant675]

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!

Re:New Market Strategy

[bigman2003]

I agree with you that the points thing is important.

But it is not just because it isn't 'real money'.

I buy XBLA games because it is EASY. I don't have to go find my wallet and take out my card. I don't have to type in a bunch of numbers, I don't have to fill out any personal information and wonder how much spam I am requesting. I don't have to worry about whether or not my information is going to the Russian mafia.

I just click the 'buy this' button, and I'm done. Easy on-line purchasing has finally arrived. And I'm willing to give them $50 every few months (load up my points) to make it happen. Even putting in more money is easy.

I really don't give a shit about $50, or $100. I don't mind spending it if the process is easy, and it seems like I am getting something for my money. This just works well.

Imagine if QVC could do the same thing...

Re:New Market Strategy

[Saige]

XBLA games are tied to both the box they were downloaded on, and the gamertag that bought them.

You can put them on a memory card and play at a friend's place - if they have access to XBLA, then they can play the full version as long as your gamertag is logged in, and even copy it to their hard drive. But once your GT is gone, they revert to demo versions.

However, the box you bought them on has the full version available for every person who uses that 360. So you could technically be playing two copies of that game at the same time - one on the box you bought it on, and one on another with the buying gamertag logged in. And yes, this is intentional.

If the box you buy it on dies, and you end up with a replacement, you can redownload the game, but then you lose the ability to have other accounts play the full version without the purchasing one being logged in. You can try calling support in such a case - more than once they've worked with people who have had to send in their Xbox to get fresh versions on their new Xbox that properly link to that box.

Re:Excellent!

[ab8ten]

But Live! Arcade is part of the no-fee section of Live! You only need to pay a subscription if you want to play muliplayer online. The content download, high score tables etc. parts of Live! are free.

Who'da thunk?

[interiot]

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).

Re:I am so sick...

[gorbachev]

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.