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Xbox Live Hits 24 Million Downloads

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the lot-of-lost-planet-playing dept.

Thanks to the 'E3 at Home' initiative, Xbox Live has served up 24 million pieces of content, and connected 1.5 million gamers. From the article: "Over 600 terabytes of data were transferred over the network during the week, a figure which represents 30 times more data than is found in all the printed material in the US Library of Congress, according to Microsoft games boss Peter Moore, who thankfully did not go on to provide the standard British comparison of telling us how many double decker buses it equates to."

68 comments

  1. Question by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 1, Funny

    How much of that was game content, and how much were system "upgrades" out to find and punish those nasty, evil, wicked console modders?

    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
    1. Re:Question by linvir · · Score: 2, Insightful

      From your tone, you seem to be against this. Back when I was playing Halo 2 on Live, modders were the most hated adversary you could meet. I remember a few members of my clan being disgraced and kicked out for doing it. So for the most part, anything that hurts modders is welcomed by players.

    2. Re:Question by Fred+Or+Alive · · Score: 1

      This is talking about stuff like trailers, demoes and the like, not software updates. Have Microsoft been any more vindictive about mods than banning consoles from Xbox Live anyway? (I personally don't mind if Microsoft don't want modded consoles on Xbox Live, that's up to them, it's their service, they can set the rules).

      Getting a load of downloads of free content like demos and trailers is nice, but I wonder how this compares to stuff like avatars and themes that they want people to pay for. Is their micropayment business plan working?

      --
      10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
      20 GOTO 10
    3. Re:Question by Fred+Or+Alive · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think there's a fair number of people who use mods for semi-legitimate uses (stuff like emulators, media players etc.)[1], or legitimate stuff like Linux. Microsoft doesn't particularly want people doing these things on the Xbox, so they refuse them entry to their super fun happy club.

      Of course the people who used mods to cheat at Halo are probably great for MS PR, as Halo players can equate "mod" with "stinking cheater". It's partly Bungie's fault anyway, data on the Xbox HD was insecure for ages before Halo 2, so did they do any kinda of data verification? Of course not...

      [1] I say semi, as emulators are a legal grey area, as AFAIK most Xbox homebrew uses pirate copies of the MS SDK.

      --
      10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
      20 GOTO 10
    4. Re:Question by linvir · · Score: 1
      Heh, you're preaching to the born again nutter in the front row of the congregation. I have a modded Xbox, and I used it for Xbox Live for ages. I was one of the good boys, and turned it off (the length of the power button press determines if it's on or off) for Live, but lived in fear of one of them finally getting a clue and checking for the obvious basic files that would be a sign of mods.

      Whenever you tell someone that you've got a modded box on Live, you have to follow it up with "But I'm not a modder" pretty quickly. The decisions made by the player reporting system for Halo 2 seemed to be practically random, so everyone is (was) pretty paranoid not to accumulate lots of bad feedback.

      The worst thing in Bungie's case was that modding Halo 2 was absolutely fucking awesome. It was well worth the effort even for the sake of a bit of messing around offline. It's easy to imagine people pathetic enough to cross the line and take it online. And how hard would it have been to md5 the cached map files before loading them?

    5. Re:Question by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 1
      I was referring to people who mod their consoles for stuff like Linux, Media Center, or even to play homebrewn or otherwise (cough) unsigned games. I'm all for that, as someone who enjoys emulation and tinkering.

      Modding a game in order to cheat at online play is a whole other ball of wax, and as someone who once tried to get into "Diablo" I'm with you 100% on how much that needs punishing.

      --
      Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
    6. Re:Question by bigman2003 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      According to Major Nelson ( http://majornelson.com/ ) the Oblivion horse armor sold ridiculously well.

      Even Major Nelson was telling people not to buy it- that it was a ripoff. I'm not an Oblivion fan, but if I were, I am sure that I would have downloaded the armor. The reason I would have downloaded it is that the system makes it so damn easy to buy stuff, that people think, "Yeah, sure, why not?"

      I think the micropayment thing is going well. I've spent (pissed away) about $100 on different things like XBLA games, and even a few themes. Stupid? Yes...profitable? Yes...

      --
      No reason to lie.
    7. Re:Question by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      I'm sure at least 25% of it is people downloading the DOAXBV2 trailer from E3.

      BOOBIES!

    8. Re:Question by personman21 · · Score: 1

      Maybe I played with the wrong people, but nobody on Halo 2 on Live had heard of /. Reads /., plays Halo 2, what is your gamertag?

    9. Re:Question by linvir · · Score: 1
      It was capicu, but I haven't been online since September last year. At some point the magic just died for me, and when I moved it wasn't worth jumping through all the (ISP) hoops to get my Xbox online. Turns out my new connection was too laggy anyway.

      Looking at those stats, it seems I had one last binge of Team Snipers before I left. A nice way to say goodbye.

      I'd noticed that noone on there had heard of Slashdot too. It was a weird little group of people. Lots of Microsoft fanboys in there, though a lot of them only by proxy (Bungie). I miss the days when I enjoyed Halo 2 online...

  2. Microsoft's using standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a figure which represents 30 times more data than is found in all the printed material in the US Library of Congress

    Since when did Microsoft start following standards?

    1. Re:Microsoft's using standards? by chrismcdirty · · Score: 1

      But how many Libraries of Congress per second did the data travel at?

      --
      It's like sex, except I'm having it!
    2. Re:Microsoft's using standards? by Deltaspectre · · Score: 1

      I believe at 5.6 hours/LoC

      --
      My UID is prime... is yours?
  3. measurments by B5_geek · · Score: 1

    It may be 30x more then the LOC, but how many VW Bugs would it take if they were full of backup tapes?

    --
    "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
    1. Re:measurments by Roody+Blashes · · Score: 1

      I don't know, but since the transfer medium you were trying to think of is a station wagon, not a VW Bug, I don't see what it matters.

      --
      If you haven't foed me yet, what are you waiting for?
    2. Re:measurments by Tibor+the+Hun · · Score: 1

      My monnocle almost fell out as I saw your snide remarque!

      If you would have been reading all the latest quantity meassurement journals, you would have known that recently it has been discovered that if you mate 3 VW Bugs, you will end up with precisely one wagon.

      The conversion for 2 VW Bugs into a wagon is QED, and I will leave it as an exercise for the reader.

      --
      If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
  4. Downloadin' Not Gamin' by Conception · · Score: 1

    That's 600 terabytes of sitting, waiting for downloads to complete instead of using the system. That dashboard upgrade better show up pretty soon.

    1. Re:Downloadin' Not Gamin' by nb+caffeine · · Score: 1

      Well, the 600tb number was listed as "data" so I wonder if that includes multiplayer game data as well. I wonder if this also includes the number of times I have to frakking restart downloads on their system

      --

      "Something's wrong with you...and I hope we never do meet again." - Deftones When Girls Telephone Boys
    2. Re:Downloadin' Not Gamin' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you serious? I've downloaded several game demos and a crap-ton of movies and have never had to restart a download even once. Maybe you have a lame internet connection?

    3. Re:Downloadin' Not Gamin' by GIGGAS2 · · Score: 1

      Yeah... the fact that you have to watch it download instead of being able to do anything during it sucks. That's a lot of space.

  5. MS Doing Something Right? by Stuart+Gibson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Microsoft have really impressed me with XBox Live and have used it to really deliver on the 360, so much so that, even as a die hard Nintendo Whore I'm picking up a 360 next week (Oblivion swung me over the edge).

    I'll still be getting a Wii, but I think that (and a lot of gamers seem to agree) the difference in titles and experience make two consoles justifiable this time round (first time ever for me).

    MS have made a lot of smart moves and deserve to keep a number two position this time round; just behind Nintendo :) Sony are in for a bumpy ride.

    --
    It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
    1. Re:MS Doing Something Right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So....

      You are buying the most defective piece of console hardware ever to play a game that looks and performs better on mid-range pcs and where you are forced to pay to just to play online and where you have no access to the massive mod community that most people buy the game for...Good plan!

      You aren't that bright are you?

      Don't worry, those of us smart folk who went out and bought the pc version won't laugh at you when you come back in a couple weeks crying about how the deliver truck just left with your 360 on its way back for replacement.

      PS: Perhaps you should'nt be running your mouth off about sales when the 360 is selling three times as poorly as the first Xbox and is being outsold 2-1 by a six year old console.

    2. Re:MS Doing Something Right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Almost every one of your "facts" is incorrect. FUD is more effective when you aren't speaking utter crap.

    3. Re:MS Doing Something Right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know about the 'most defective ever' claim, the 360 is clearly the most shoddy/defective console in a long time.

      But I have seen Oblivion on my pc and a friends pc and his 360, both of our pcs look significantly better running the game than on the 360. And neither of us have top of the line cards. Even if the 360's graphics weren't worse you are still stuck with the crappy controller. I can't imagine playing such a long game without my keyboard and mouse.

      My friend actually considers himself lucky that he has only gone through one dead 360 so far - although he is starting to worry now that temperatures are rising as Summer approaches.

      Regardless, people should just forget about Oblivion. Buggy as hell. Spend your money on WoW. If you are going to wander around in a huge computer generated world you might as well have fun while you are doing it...

    4. Re:MS Doing Something Right? by Psychotext · · Score: 1

      Does it somehow affect your life that someone else can have fun with something you don't enjoy? I can't say I'd like to live in your world - We'd all be driving the same cars, living in identical houses, dating identical looking people, playing the same games console or speccing our PCs with identical processors and graphics cards... don't forget one OS to rule them all.

      Move along, oh, and if you believe in what you're saying, don't post AC.

      --
      People that believe in their opinions don't post AC.
    5. Re:MS Doing Something Right? by AnyLoveIsGoodLove · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Oblivion is amazing. check it out in HD with surround sound. I've lost my wife for the last three weeks due to that game.

      I'm actually not sure about the PS3. Xbox is here now and it works great. Sure we all want more software, but the 30 or so titles they have out is enough for a start.

      I'm curious how the PS3 looks. I have a 1080i Sony and the xbox rocks.

      --
      "It's technical in a psychometric kind a way" -- C. Parish
    6. Re:MS Doing Something Right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you define fun as "Move to one area, collect x number of items in an area, move to next area, take time out for a group instance that you will wipe on because nobody knows how to play their class, hit sixty, get involved in loot drama in high level instance, quit"?

      God damn, what a waste of money. Save your dough and get Oblivion or Guild Wars.

    7. Re:MS Doing Something Right? by AlexMax2742 · · Score: 1

      You haven't been here in a while, have you. We're supporting Microsoft these days, at least when it comes to the console wars, and Sony's the bad guy for wanting to charge $599 for a console mnd being arrogant assholes to boot.

      --
      I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
    8. Re:MS Doing Something Right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It amazes me that people like you, who are singing the virtues of a non-online game, are waiting in line to get your hands on an advertising service that happens to let you play games against children (and childish adults).

      Yeah, it's slick looking and all, but if you pony up the fee they should get the damned ads of the screen.

    9. Re:MS Doing Something Right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If a game can keep you away from your wife for 21 days either she is really bad in bed or you are.

  6. What ... by LordKaT · · Score: 3, Funny

    24 million? What an odd number to be celebrating.

    1. Re:What ... by linvir · · Score: 1

      Paper Boys Win Award On Slow News Day!

    2. Re:What ... by Mille+Mots · · Score: 1
      24 million? What an odd number to be celebrating.

      Actually, it's an even number. 25 million, though...that would be an odd number[1].

      --
      Anyone else remember the Sesame Street '12345678910' hyper counting thing?

      [1] Just checking to see who's awake

    3. Re:What ... by TommydCat · · Score: 1
      Actually, it's an even number. 25 million, though...that would be an odd number[1].

      I'm awake... I'd settle for 24,000,001 for an odd number, but not 25,000,000 ;)

      --
      This comment does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the author.
    4. Re:What ... by noodler · · Score: 1

      no, 3 is an odd number.
      25 milion is still even.

    5. Re:What ... by adamlazz · · Score: 1

      Great!!! Just more n00bs to pwn.

    6. Re:What ... by Jarlsberg · · Score: 1

      It's not the number per se, it's the fact that they have served this many downloads in the week E3 was held.

  7. Uh...Ok? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I guess if you are part of the Xbox 360 marketing/PR types up there in Redmond:

    1) Can't brag about sales numbers - the 360 is dead in one region and getting outsold by a six year old console in another

    2) Can't brag about backwards compatibility - I guess they have given up

    3) Can't brag about graphics - mid-range pcs with 200 graphics cards are already looking better than 360 games(and without the low framerates, screen tearing, jaggies, and texture filtering problems) and it looking more and more likely that 480p Wii games aren't going to look any different than 480p Xbox 360 games(and after all that shit talking Xbox fans did about the Wii, ouch!)

    4) Can't brag about the online service in general - Microsoft is the only company that forces people to pay just to play games online - which comes out to an additional 200-300 dollars on top of the console price over four to five years

    5) Can't brag about reliability - there are people getting stories written about how they are now up to their fifth 360 replacement unit

    Microsoft is going to have one hell of a mess on their hands when they are forced to catch up to Sony and Nintendo in November and switch to free online gaming. Refunds for the suckers who have been paying all these months? Free games? An apology?

    1. Re:Uh...Ok? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow. That was a freaky post.

      What does any of that have to do with anything? Was that cut and pasted from someplace else?

    2. Re:Uh...Ok? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you want to challenge any of them?

  8. Conversion by the+darn · · Score: 1

    Aha! So, we finally have a figure for the elusive LoC unit. It turns out 1 LoC = 20 terabytes. Now, if only Google would add this to its unit conversion feature.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas un post.
    1. Re:Conversion by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      I always though it was 10 TB. DId they recently build a new wing?

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  9. LoC by thefirelane · · Score: 3, Funny

    Everyone knows 1 Library of Congress is a standard unit of measurment

    1. Re:LoC by Fred+Or+Alive · · Score: 1

      What's the conversion between a Library of Congress and a British Library? We're a bit out of date in the UK and still use Imperial measurements for some stuff...

      --
      10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
      20 GOTO 10
    2. Re:LoC by Mille+Mots · · Score: 1
      And the audiobook version is known as 'Tone LoC.'

      --
      Funky cold sig

  10. P2P savings by 9mm+Censor · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Imagine the savings from a P2P network for that.

    1. Re:P2P savings by TommydCat · · Score: 1
      I seriously doubt any gamer would knowingly give upstream bandwidth when they're trying to play a game that requires low latency. Perhaps if it were P2P only for the duration that you are actually downloading (or until you notice and press A).

      Doesn't Blizzard's WoW patching model work similar to this (shares until you hit complete and start the patch process)?

      --
      This comment does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the author.
  11. Another Comparison by docdude316 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I wonder how this compares to the amount of data that is transferred via the trackers that a site like empornium or pirate bay indexes? That would be a comparison figure I'd like to see.

  12. Ooooh... by non0score · · Score: 1

    I can't wait for the 25 million announcement!

  13. Silver or Gold? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Sorry, but how many of them are Gold subscribers? And did they just download the free stuff, or did they actually buy?
    The original Xbox had something like a 10% Live subscription rate, it would be nice to know how many 360 gamers are converting their Silver subscription into Gold...

    1. Re:Silver or Gold? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Regardless of Silver or Gold, if Microsoft wants to sell advertisement space, 24 million is a pretty nice number.

  14. Comparison by Jack+Sparrow · · Score: 1

    So how many of the target audience have actually seen the extent of printed material in the LoC to actually say "Wow!! THAT much??"

  15. It could be more... by e03179 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I bet they'd have 40 million downloads if the user interface was easier to use. Sitting there waiting for a slow download of a 100Mb file is discouraging. It's hard for them to keep be on the download screen. I'd rather quit of the download and do something. That's why I'm using my 360 anyway...to be entertained - not to watch a slow progress bar.

    --
    -516
    1. Re:It could be more... by Jarlsberg · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is apparently being adressed, so hopefully we'll see this being sorted soon. I downloaded the Tomb Raider Legends demo recently, and while I'm happy you can do this finally, I had go do something else for the hour it took to download (on a 4MB connection no less - the download service is obviously capped).

    2. Re:It could be more... by Nightspirit · · Score: 1

      Has something changed recently? I had the 360 for about a week 1 month ago, and was downloading 1 gig demos in 10-15 minutes.

    3. Re:It could be more... by Jarlsberg · · Score: 1

      Could just be my region. I'm in Norway, but for all I know the MS download server might in a central hub in Germany. (Which, incidentally, is where they're sending my 6 month old Xbox 360 which just died a few days ago.)

  16. That's the problem, really. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft just plain has bad security, and then they blame the modders for the fact that MS was dumb enough to write a networking protocol that absolutely trusts the client.

  17. Comparing Apples To Libraries by nick_davison · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Over 600 terabytes of data were transferred over the network during the week, a figure which represents 30 times more data than is found in all the printed material in the US Library of Congress, according to Microsoft games boss Peter Moore, who thankfully did not go on to provide the standard British comparison of telling us how many double decker buses it equates to."

    Ignoring that the library of congress figure considers text strings only with no consideration of the detail stored in images printed at however many hundred dpi whereas Microsoft Live's downloads contain 600 terabytes of image and video files plus the word "l33t"

    Compared on like terms, either:

    Microsoft have offered 600 terabytes of data in all forms whereas the library of congress contains billions of times that once you consider the information needed to describe the images in the books, the paper used, the binding, font choices, fading of inks, etc.

    or

    The library of congress has around 20 terabytes worth of laregely uniquely ordererd text strings whereas Microsoft have downloaded the same four bytes that reconstruct to "l33t" a few million times.

    Microsoft's spokesperson then went on to compare the Microsoft XBox 360 to having several hundred times the power of a Ferrari which he points out only has a few relatively simple processors in it.

  18. Can we please no longer do this by Polska12 · · Score: 1

    Typical Slashdot response ( bear in mind I love slashdot but god there are a lot of cynics ): You mean M$ sending patches for a POS system running a POS OS, I hope M$ fails. They produce nothing but garbage, forget things that they actually create instead of talking about, forget that they brought the everyday pc to the everyday person. Instead M$ is all that is evil and everything they make is awful. I just bought a 360 and wasn't a big fan of the original, I think the 360 is a very cool console, and LIVE is truly an amazing service. So can someone explain why most of the responses to posts on /. are everything sucks, linux rules, M$ is the devil? -P

    1. Re:Can we please no longer do this by wed128 · · Score: 1

      To tell ya the truth, we're just pissed because we can be. We're annoyed at having to fix the computers of friends and reletives that are constantly infected with spyware, etc. We're pissed at the lack of commercial software for our OS of choice. There are many reasons for the saltyness of the average slashdotter.

    2. Re:Can we please no longer do this by Polska12 · · Score: 1

      That's fair enough I understand that Windows as much as any other OS has it's shortcomings don't worry about that. However is Linux was the mainstream OS chances are we'd all be removing spyware from our friends'/families' pcs just the same. All I'm saying is that clearly there are areas that each OS has to improve but I firmly believe that MS did a great job with the 360 and it really upsets me and discourages me from reading comments below articles on /. because everyone is such a naysayer. To the point that if someone on their own makes something cool there are 30 posts saying how it's old, big deal, it should do this, blah blah. The constant negative mood is what upsets me most, that's all. :-) -P

  19. And... by LKM · · Score: 1

    He's comparing "stored data" to "retreived data". That's a bit of a meaningless comparison.

  20. Aaaaw bless. Not as much as Firefox downloads by tod_miller · · Score: 1

    Which hit 50 million ages ago in 2005. Don't try and impress us with security update download information. Hype up the xbox360 y'all!

    If you bought one, lol for you then. I am going to be burning up your CPU with my cell.

    'nuff said

    --
    #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
  21. yea by MeridianBlade · · Score: 1

    I assumed this!

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    For the latest Wii News, reviews, and downloads. http://www.wii-volution.com
  22. XB 360 downloads by Holmesey · · Score: 0

    How many were upgrades & how many were games? It could be glitches or anything else but thats alot of downloads in 1 week!

    --
    Talk later, Holmesey For free Domain names, PSP's & I-Pod's click