Long Live Xbox Live Arcade 66
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.'"
live arcade (Score:4, Insightful)
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 (Score:3, Interesting)
I think this really describes it, I wonder how many of that 8% conversion is just people who bought geometry wars. A friend of mine got a 360 and a few games and they were OK, but we got bored of them pretty quick (DOA and Burnout) since it was mostly more of the same we had already been playing (DOA ultimate and .... well Burnout). I heard about the geometry wars thing here and told my friend about
Re:live arcade (Score:3, Funny)
You've got amazing reflexes or have been popping speed pills if you're able to get that far! I'm clearly too old to do it myself.
Re:live arcade (Score:1)
Re:live arcade (Score:1)
Re:live arcade (Score:3, Informative)
The full version is only available for purchase through XBLA.
Re:live arcade (Score:3, Informative)
That goes to Mutant Storm. A game I can actually 'finish'. Geometry Wars is just too damn hard. It is a good game, but hard.
I like the 'level' format that Mutant Storm has.
Re:live arcade (Score:3, Insightful)
the let down is that it costs $400 to play a few titles that could very well run on the $150 xboxes we already own.
Re:live arcade (Score:3, Insightful)
Ghost Recon- now that is the cake- and the icing.
Call of Duty- lotsa cake, but some fucked up icing.
PGR 3 - carrot cake- which is cake, but I hate all of the guys on line who have a fit when you rub fenders with them. How is it that a single game can attract so many self-righteous jerks who feel that I am being an asshole, just because I am not GOOD at a game, and therefore can't drive in a straight line?
Hell, I've
Re:live arcade (Score:2)
i dont care about nice shiny graphics either; but i would be lying if i said that they didnt enhance an otherwise good experience. to me, the graphics are the icing. a solid involved game is its own reward, but now i need
Re:live arcade (Score:1)
Re:live arcade (Score:2)
Re:live arcade (Score:2)
Oh, like the PC [wikipedia.org]!
New Market Strategy (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:New Market Strategy (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the main factor is the marketplace points. Consumers are making the purchase not with real money, but with some abstract points. What's 400 points when you still have 1600 left. Making purchases doesn't feel like you're spending any money. That, I think, is the real reason why the titles have such a high conversion rate.
Re:New Market Strategy (Score:5, Informative)
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 (Score:2)
This is the wave of the future from five years ago
Re:New Market Strategy (Score:2)
Amazon doesn't do the pre-payment. You get charged each time you make a purchase. Which you then have to deal with on your credit card bill. With XBLA I only charge my credit card occasionally.
And with Amazon, of course you don't get what you ordered right away, the usually have to ship it to you.
Except for things like audiobooks. Which is a *bad* thing to order from Amazon for compatibility reasons. (Do they still do audiobooks?)
Re:New Market Strategy (Score:2)
Re:New Market Strategy (Score:2)
On the first version of Xbox/Live, the games were tied to your Xbox.
Now they are tied to your gamertag. You can put your Live account info on a memory card, bring it to a friend's house, and download all of your games there.
When your Xbox Live account has been removed (you went back home) your friend will be left with the demo versions of the games.
Re:New Market Strategy (Score:5, Informative)
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:New Market Strategy (Score:2)
Thanks for the extra info.
Re:New Market Strategy (Score:1)
Excellent! (Score:2, Interesting)
But it's still a great achievement.
Re:Excellent! (Score:3, Informative)
Of course it's doing well... (Score:2)
Who'da thunk? (Score:4, Insightful)
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... (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:I am so sick... (Score:1)
Re:I am so sick... (Score:1)
Re:I am so sick... (Score:1)
Re:I am so sick... (Score:1)
Re:I am so sick... (Score:1)
Re:I am so sick... (Score:1)
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 t
Re:I am so sick... (Score:3, Informative)
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
Bottleneck (Score:2)
Re:Bottleneck (Score:3, Interesting)
If Microsoft had made the hard-drive STANDARD we could have downloaded bigger games.
For a game to be put on Xbox Live Arcade, it MUST fit on a memory card.
But then again, I don't think any of the games are even close to filling that.
Re:Bottleneck (Score:1)
Re:Bottleneck (Score:2)
Re:Bottleneck (Score:2)
BTW, what's the cheat code in your sig?
Re:Bottleneck (Score:1)
Re:Bottleneck (Score:1)
Re:Bottleneck (Score:2)
Re:Bottleneck (Score:1)
There is also only one instance of the account allowed to be in existence at once, due to various syncing issues. You c
Per cent (Score:1)
Isn't it "Percent"?
Maybe from a math standpoint they might be the same thing...
Re:Per cent (Score:2)
Going to the Arcade (Score:2, Insightful)
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
This wont last (Score:2)
Re:This wont last (Score:2)
Re:This wont last (Score:1)
A 2006 season pass lift ticket at Whistler is $1,329.
A 2005 kawasaki jet ski will run you around $10,000.
A great home theater system will run you at least $2000.
$400 for a gaming console that you will use heavily for several years is perfectly reasonable, especially when contrasted with typical alternatives that the target Xbox360 audience might select from. It's not even that exclusive of an audience - the recommended entertaintment spending for somebody with
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
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.
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
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 lik
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
It's a good thing, no doubt, I just think the article is making far too much of it.
maybe not (Score:1)
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.
Re:maybe not (Score:2)
the trolling is starting to get out of hand. you dont know the price of the ps3 yet, and i dont see how you found a way to bring in a swipe at the ps3 when the topic is about the xbox live arcade...
for all we know sony could pull a coup and release the "full" ps3 at the same price as the core x360. not unheard of for sony.