MS memo: Xbox 360 to have 'biggest year in video game history,' XBL surpasses 10m users

by Ross Miller on Jan 7th 2008 6:15PM

Mercury News writer and Microsoft guru Dean Takahashi has published a memo penned by Microsoft games chief Don Mattrick, who expects that "Xbox 360 is on track to register the biggest year in video game history."

According to Mattrick North American hardware, software and accessory sales for Xbox 360 exceeded $3.5 billion, reportedly $1 billion more than Wii and $2 billion more than PlayStation 3. "When December data is added," he said, "we expect Xbox 360 in 2007 to have generated more calendar year revenue than any other gaming platform ever, including PS2 at its peak."

Mattrick's biggest claim comes in implicitly hailing the Xbox 360 as this generation's console winner. "History has shown that the eventual winner of each console generation was the console that generated the most 3rd party revenue, and according to the most recent NPD data, Xbox 360 generated more 3rd party revenue in 2007 than Nintendo and Sony combined."

Unsurprisingly not mentioned in the memo is the Xbox 360's performance in Japan. The memo also revealed some new Xbox Live statistics, including mention that the service has surpassed 10 million Xbox Live users, "over six months before our stated goal of July 2008 announced at E3 last year." We've compiled those after the break.

Halo 3 players have "logged over 1.5 billion multiplayer matches since launch – that's an average of 14 million matches a day."
"Since its launch, Xbox LIVE has hosted over 4.9 billion hours on the network – that's equal to 204 million days or more than 560,000 years of gaming."
"Right now Xbox LIVE Marketplace features over 3,500 total hours of downloadable content and has hosted more than 380 million downloads."
"More than 500 hours of content from the ABC Television Network, ABC Family, ABC News, Disney Channel and Toon Disney" is coming via the new deal with ABC and MGM.

[Via GameDaily]

Source

Tags: CES, don-mattrick, hardwaresales, microsoft, npd, xbl, Xbox-360, xbox-live, xboxlive

Reader Comments (62)

Third party means everything. See PS2.

Not necessarily, broad appeal means everything. The trick is that until this generation, 3rd party support = Broad appeal, because this new focus on "accessible gaming" was non-existant

3rd party support has always meant victory in the past, but now that the third parties really have no clear-cut choice for ALL of their content (with no platform satisfying all of the market), broad appeal itself shall win

Third party does NOT mean everything. See Wii.

i guess someone somewhere must be impressed? ...maybe not tho

I am. Think about how you felt about the Xbox 360 when it was first announced, and subsequently released. I hated the original Xbox, and felt that the 360 would probably be another dismal failure, and spell the end of a Microsoft console.

Skip ahead to now... and I'm glad I was wrong. The 360 is a great machine with a strong lineup of games, and I am really impressed by how well MS was able to turn things around.

RROD = dismal failure in my mind. I'd be scared to buy one unless Microsoft is going to send me a replacement FIRST with return postage for the failed unit. I'm not spending $400 just to wait a month for a replacement.

I'm not impressed with the 360 until there's a non-shooter game worth my time.

Dead Rising & Viva Pinata.

I thought his name was Dead Takahashi...

Ahh spin, making yourself seem like you're winning even when you're not

Of course, last generation when they were neck-and-neck with Nintendo for 2nd place (a contest they won), they won simply because they had more consoles on the ground (terms they now deny are criteria for winning), even though Nintendo made money while they pissed themselves a $6 billion pool of red ink

sorry, but the big 3's corporate arrogance really pisses me off

Aren't we bitter today? the only spin is you trying to spin something positive into something negative.. He's talking about this generation and you're crying about the last one..

They stated revenue, not net income. Is the 360 even making money now? The Wii is printing money along with the DS.

No, its just a rant about how they tend to change their terminology about what qualifies "winning" and what is important in a game console so often

MS is just an example in this case, everyone does it

Gamers are investing more money into the 360 than either of the other two consoles. The 360 is being played more than the other two. That's all this guy is saying. You feel that doesn't mean anything. That is all you are saying. No need to get angry. :)

Hmmm...this is the first time since the Genesis vs Super Nintendo days where all the systems are generally good. During the great PS vs N64 era, Playstation clearly had a more robust library. During the next-gen Sony once again dominated.

But this gen...I could think of dozens of reasons to own each system. Yes even the PS3. 2008 will be a great year for that system.

You know what though? this may be unrelated, but back in those days I hated both consoles. N64 had PASTEL EVERYTHING, and the 3d graphics on Playstation were just bad, pixelated and "unstable" looking.

I agree with your SNES/Genesis comparison though. I like all 3 consoles for their own reasons. I'm so glad we moved past that.

Hey, who cares about Japan when you're making that kind of dough?

I don't want to say Japan is insignificant these days, because there's a lot of potential sales over there. But they're not the bellweather of gaming that they used to be. This is proof that you don't need Japan to be a massive success for yourself and your partners.

Making dough? I guess you forgot about the multi-billion dollar RRoD warranty extension M$ continues to pay out the ass for.

kudos MS, you've won...this time

Sounds like Dr. Claw shaking his fist at Inspector Gadget.

Well 360 is doing fairly well, you guys can bash it all you want,but thats a hell of alot of money, so MS is doing something right.

Good job MS. Now take that shit ton of money and make a reliable piece of hardware for the gamers who are shelling out their cash.

Thanks.

That explains it, they were only expecting to have 10 million users. Thats why Live is effed up right now. WHOA WE AREN'T READY FOR THISSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

well, now that the console war is over ...

what are you guys up to? how about that obama? and why can't we have another season of arrested development?

I hope Obama is not shoved down people's throats by the liberal annoying brigade, the guy seems genuinely intelligent, pro active, and charismatic. I hope he rubs both sides of the aisle the right way and is given the opportunity to steer our country in the right direction and show the world that we are still the leading beacon of freedom and democracy.

Oh yea the xbox 360 rules, but so does the PS3 and the Wii in their own way.

Colin: You win!

Obama Edwards in '08

Sorry man, I'm a Thompson man.

A Friend of Fred, if you will.

I would not be surprised at all if it surpasses PS2 in total revenue. EA actually made more off the 360 in 2007 than ALL other consoles COMBINED. That includes wii, ps2, ps3, ds, psp etc etc.

I suppose $3.5 billion is easy to do when you're getting ~$50 a year from 10 million people as a subscription price alone. Don't forget the $100 wifi add-ons, at least one extra $50 wireless controller for each 360 purchased, $12 battery packs for said controllers, and let's not forget the $100 20gig hard drive for everyone who bought the core version of the console.

I'll give MS this much, they know how to milk all the money out of their consumers.

Oh this again?

Not all 10 million are paying, I think they get half of that. $250 million in sales for Live, that leaves $3.25 billion unaccounted for, likely in places that aren't Live subscriptions.

and Sony don't with there $300 memory stik

those numbers are from software revenue, genius. Not accessories and xb live subscriptions. Did you read the article before shooting your mouth off? I personally like the options MS has given, I didn't need the network adapter so I didn't spend $100 on it, I didn't need the hd-dvd add on so I didn't buy it. Any system for years now requires you to buy a second controller so that argument is stupid too. And $50 for xb live is well worth it. I got a PS3 this November and the PS Network is embarassingly barren in both features and users.

The 360 is hands down the best console right now. Period.

Eric, please read:

"According to Mattrick North American hardware, software and accessory sales for Xbox 360 exceeded $3.5 billion, reportedly $1 billion more than Wii and $2 billion more than PlayStation 3."

Lates.

@superstar90
I assume by the "oh this again?" you meant my listing of so called "optional" things to bring it up to par with something else? I'll give you that a wifi add-on is optional, and I'd even give you the extra controller(s) and battery packs. However, to play online with a 360 you have to shell out about $50 per year, and I'm fairly sure you have to have a storage device. If you're not going to play online with a 360 you're either going to be playing Mass Effect or Oblivion by yourself or something that is multiplayer, so either way you have to spend extra cash to play multiplayer.

@Laughingtarget
I'd assume that more than half of that 10mil are paying for the gold subscription, but even so I'll let that slide. Like the article says it's all in the add-ons and accessories, a 20GB HDD for $100 is by no means a bargain (reference point: the HDD I bought for my computer was ~$80 for 111GB). They are price gouging on most of their accessories, but there's nothing anyone can do to stop it, and thusly that $3.5bil isn't the accomplishment they're making it out to be.

Please change name to asshat

HAHAHA, yeah, MS really nickel and dimes you eh? Oh wait, I just bought a Wii for my girlfriend, and I now know how Nintendo makes massive amount of cash: CONTROLLERS! You see, in order to play every 2 player game on the 360 or PS3, you need to purchase a second controller for $50. However, in order to play every 2 player game on the Wii, you will need: a second Wiimote ($40), and a second nunchuck ($25) to play Wii games. You will also need 2 classic controllers to play most VC games (2x$25). You will also require 2 Gamecube controllers (2x$20), and a Gamecube memory card ($20) in order to play backward compatible GC games. So as I see it, 2 player on the 360 or PS3 costs an extra $50, while 2 player on the Wii costa an extra $175. Now THATS nickel and diming.

Also recall that those 10 million are not necessarily paying, they count Silver in with that total

So basically, 10 million 360 users have broadband, because who would pass up silver even if they didn't want to pay for Live proper?

@AirIntake: I don't know where you are buying your controllers for the Wii, but you are getting ripped off. Each nunchuck should only be $20, as should the classic controllers. That's $20 off for you. GameCube controllers can be purchased new for $10 (brand is Intec), so you save another $20. GameCube memory cards can be found used in any game store in the country for as cheap as $2.50, depending on brand. I've seen 1016 block cards sell for around $10 (off brand) when used.

Shop around and stop buying all Nintendo brand stuff and you won't get nickel and dimed nearly as badly.

Wow! Amazing the amount of 360 haters on this page! You guys can say all you want and twist it all you can, but the fact stays that these are great numbers and the 360 is winning this generation. This might change in the future but it does not look that way for now. I am very happy for the 360, because I knew Microsoft was going to get their act together after what happened to the original xbox. I am also a happy owner because I had the greatest gamming year this year and still enjoying the tons of games I bought.

Cheers...

You do realize that *Microsoft* is the one twisting things in to a positive story, right? Or are you too much of a fanboy to see that these "great numbers" were carefully chosen to make you feel that the Xbox 360 is winning?

Of course MS is going to talk about revenue. Because in terms of hardware units sold and net profit, they're behind Nintendo. And of course MS is going to talk about 3rd party game revenue. Because that's their strength.

All companies are going to toss out numbers that make them look good. Try not to eat it up so readily. MS definitely has its problems, namely the shoddy hardware (but thanks for replacing all the RROD units, seriously), and its poor performance in Japan. So sorry if we're all rolling our eyes at MS's claim to victory. The console war has only just begun.

I'm going to get attacked by people for saying this but...

all talk, no game

I'm sorry. Microsoft is just boasting about what they've accomplished. They're talking, not doing.

Look at Sony (just as an example). They know they're not #1 and they know they may never be #1. But even if they were only slightly behind MS and had a great amount of success, I don't think they'd boast about it. They never got cocky when it came to the PS2 dominating.

All Microsoft is doing is taking pride in a war they haven't won yet.

They didn't get cocky with the PS2?! What world are you living in? They released a system (PS3) that the average gamer would never afford because they got cocky, they told everyone to wait to buy the PS3 because they xbox 360 was "xbox 1.5" because they were cocky, Crazy Ken said everyone who wants a PS3 should work two jobs so they could afford a PS3 because the sales of the PS2 made them cocky. It must be nice to just kind of erase some of these instances and have the gall to say Sony did not get cocky about the PS2, la la land must have nice weather this time of year.

not cocky? Sony should be listed under the definitions of cocky, Sony has been cocky ever since they entered the video game market, i'm not saying MS isnt getting cocky but Sony has been plenty more cocky.

You do realize that this was an INTERNAL MEMO that was sent to employee's and not a press release? Of course it's going to be filled with the "Go Team" type of verbage.

If you think that any company doesn't gloat, you've never seen a press conference.

And if you think that Sony doesn't gloat, you've never heard Phil Harrison.

FYI... when you have to discuss revenue of such ridiculous size and don't mention anything about profit, something might be wrong.

Yea it's easy to say that the 360 is "winning", but wtf does that mean? Yea they have the most revenue, but does that matter when you don't profit? Why not just take the numbers for what they are. Companies really like revenue, but they love profit. I think MS's games division finally turned one in their 6 years of existence, so it's definitely an indication that they're heading in the right direction. Of course, it took Halo 3 to do it, but hey, the same can be said about Wii Sports for the Wii.

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MS memo: Xbox 360 to have 'biggest year in video game history,' XBL surpasses 10m users

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