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Xbox Live Sees Surge in Usage
Arts Technica reports on a large increase in usage on Xbox Live since last month. Network monitoring company Sandvine Incorporated has passed on word that, since November 7th, the service has seen an 80% increase in usage. iTunes usage has also gone up considerably since Apple's latest software update in September. From the article: "[The week of November 7th], Microsoft released six new games for the Xbox 360--one of which was the highly-anticipated Gears of War--which spiked Xbox Live traffic. This traffic pattern is similar to the spike that followed the introduction of Halo II in 2004, says Sandvine, which managed to sustain Xbox Live's popularity after the spike for the first time. Sandvine CEO Dave Caputo said that 'the effect Gears of War and other games are having on networks indicates to service providers that online gaming is not just a craze.'"
If you actually followed the news a little bit, you'd know that they claim to have 4 million users of XBox Live, far more than any of their competitors...
If all you're interested in is game demos (and they are the cat's pajamas, there's no doubt about it), you don't have to pay MS a dime beyond the purchase of the 360. Silver accounts are free, and have the same access to game demos as Gold (paid) accounts.
To date, the only things a Gold account gets you that a Silver account doesn't are a) online multiplayer, and b) earlier access to the Gears Of War trailer.
Playing against people online - with all the benefits and convenience of Live's consistent interface and single login - is worth $50/yr to me, and it might be to you. But it's essentially the only thing you're paying $50 for.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
GoW is awesome. If the game mechanics aren't for then, fine. Also, who cares if the game only has 4 v 4 online? There gmaes with more players out there, play those. In my experience, games with massive amounts of people usually amount to a unorgangized mess in online play. I used to play in clans in a couple of different PC online games (UT for example) and although you could find public games that were 16 v 16, serious clan matches were almost aways 5 v 5 or something similar. If you like massive amounts of people, cool, but smaller amounts in no way limits how fun a game is online.
I LOVE 4 on 4. It's so much better than 12 on 12 (Call of Duty 3) or any other big game.
Most big games have so much chaos going on, that it becomes difficult to really come up with a strategy. The game becomes:
1 - Kill one guy
2 - Die
3 - Respawn
4 - Repeat
Gear of War brings the game down to a 'Survival of the Fittest' mentality. The rounds are short enough that waiting isn't a problem, but trying to stay alive is important.
They could not have done it this way with games with too many people.
Also, small maps means that the last guy standing can't go and hide in a corner waiting for the timer to run out.
No reason to lie.
I have played free multiplayer games on PC, and now pay the $50 for xbox live, and I can tell you that just being able to block users you don't like, report users who are abusing the system, etc., is well worth the $50.
Free means that anyone can sign up, create an account, abuse the system all they like, and then sign up for another free account with no cost. $50 a year means that if someone abuses the system, and has their account disabled - well, it costs them another $50 to come back on. At that rate, it is not financially viable for them to abuse the system too much.
I think the cause for the rise in Xbox Live usage is obvious: the wonderful, delicious Xbox Live-enabled games recently released by Burger King! Sneak King alone probably accounts for 80% of this recent surge.
-William Brendel