Xbox 360 DLC has brought in $240 million

by Alexander Sliwinski on Aug 6th 2008 12:30PM

Microsoft recently revealed that the Xbox Live Marketplace has seen over $240 million in revenue, with $180 million of that occurring in the last 12 months. Gamasutra reports the company also revealed that games with paid DLC make an average of $21 million more at retail if the content hits within a 30-day "sweet spot," causing customers to hold on to the titles longer.

Gamasutra's piece also delves deeper into XBLM issues like content testing and the submission process, but we're surprised by that spike in revenue over the last year. It means the Marketplace made $60 million since its inception in late 2005 and then raked in $180 million over the last year. We'll take that as a sign customers are getting comfortable with this newfangled digital shopping thing the kids are talking about.

Source

Tags: microsoft, money, revenue, xblm, Xbox-360, xbox-live-marketplace

Reader Comments (72)

Shame they used that money to buy FFXIII port rather then fix Hardware failures. I refuse to buy a 360 until this has been fixed.

I heard they used the money to hire prostitutes with AIDS to kill orphans.

Oh. And cake. They also bought cake.

Well my 6th 360 has lasted almost a year so far so I think they may have finally fixed it for newer consoles. It seems like it's only the old ones that are crapping out still.

New Sku's dont RROD, as proof I submit several peices of evidence:

1: The drying up of the onslaught of RROD stories

2: The drying up of the anecdotal "I have been through 85,000 360's."

3: I own a launch console, an elite, and a Halo edition, and not one has ever red ringed. My Halo edition was actually knocked off it's table by my cat and still plays just fine (also the power card was chewed through, but a simple splice fixed that)

In other words, if you won't by a 360 at this point, you never will so enjoy Metal Gear.

It may happen soon, it may happen later, but your older 360s will all RROD eventually.

I seem to recall them fixing the hardware failure at this point by releasing new versions of the hardware. I also recall them spending their money on extending warranties. Acting like they have ignored the problem the initial units had is pretty silly at this point.

Old console? Launch model? Yup, it will happen eventually. Like mine.

:(

OMG, Fenix is turning anti-360 now. Don't tell me you are hanging out with Krazy Ken on the weekends!!!

Well my friend is on his 3rd one that he got for his birthday in April. The first one he took back in may and then he sent the last one back to MS and now he is waiting to get it back. So it's not fixed.

Mine's still holdin' up... but I do believe it's louder than it used to be.

I LIVE IN FEAR.

Mine is a non-HDMI box, right at the time HDMI boxes were hitting the shelves and somewhat hard to find (it was a gift). It's just about a year old now. I hope it lasts.

I bought a second hand launch console (the guy I bought it off bought waited in line to buy it) and I haven't once seen red lights on my console, it any form or another.

@SeanScythe

did you ever stop to think that maybe...just maybe MS refubs the RROD consoles that are sent in rather than shipping out new ones?

I only ask because this is, in fact, what they do the majority of the time.

So in reality (that's the place we live in) MS could very well have fixed the problem, but your narrow scope of said reality has failed to pick up on it.

just maybe...

@arrrgh

Well I'm not sure what reality you live in but spending X ammount of money on something that is known to fail within the first 6-12 months is not a good product. Again my good friend Patrick got one this year, brought it back and got a brand new one in May then sent that one off to get repaired by MS. Now I love a lot of the games MS has and I buy them for my PC. But I refuse to buy a product that it seems I have a better chance to win the lottery then get a working console.

"spending X ammount of money on something that is known to fail within the first 6-12 months"

You've got marbles in your mouth.

Purchased 03/17/06 and hasn't failed to this day. In inchworm math, that's over 12 months.

Duke

Yes! Down with all you Xbots and M$! Its all about the Powar of TEH CELLLL!!!! I play games in 4D in native 1080p dont you know?

jk

NEVARRRRRRR!!!! :O

I am bummed though as you know. PS3 has been keeping me occupied for now but its not the same since all my buddies are on 360. I dont even want to log in to my gamertag here at work. For what? Just to see everyone playing, having fun and unlocking achievements without me? NO SIR!!!

:P

Sucks to be you and your good friend patrick I guess?

I've had the HDMI version since last fall, bought it along with 3 of my friends who got them at the same time...1 was an elite. No problems with any of them so far. Don't assume that your experiences somehow make up for the entirety of a product. I know the RROD problem was widespread, and not pretending that it never existed...

but there are, in fact millions of xbox 360 owners who have never had to deal with RROD, and if it wasn't for the bad press hitting the internet, might not even know the problem existed.

Fenix, sorry bro. I know you have got to be bummed out.

Sean, there are millions of the 360's out there in people's homes being played every day. Don't sit here and act like they all are breaking still. The rrod problem has been diminished substantially, and for you to act like its a piece of crap product when so many people enjoy it is just a sign of you being stubborn. Dont get a 360 - thats fine. Yet, don't give us this bs reasoning when you seem to be the only one around here pissed off about the problems with the current model.

Also, my friend's dog groomer's sister once saw a guy whose toyota broke down, so I would never buy a toyota now. They are all crap!

Go away troll! I'm on my 3rd PS3 since March (one replaced by the store after failing within 3 hours of purchase, one replaced by Sony). My 360 is still going strong after 2+ years, and see some use almost every day (unlike my Dustcollector 3).

Don't misunderstand me, I know that the RROD is a REAL issue and problem, but anyone with a shred of honesty would admit the problem is obviously way better then it was, and yes my launch console may one day die, but I sold it and have two others so I don't really care.

However, if that thing is still running at the end of the year I will buy it back just to have a launch 360 that has never Red ringed, perhaps they will put it in a museum since apparently it has defeated reality or was sent from the future and I happened to buy it.

My launch unit never RROD'd, and only recently started showing a problem with scratching discs in the horizontal position. Surprisingly, I've been using the system vertically and it's been working better, still I picked up an elite 360 with HDMI for my entertainment center. :)

Yea... the console I bought when Halo 3 came out RROD'd last month. We'll see how this one handles the same kind of zero abuse I gave my first one.

Is this still a concern? I thought there's been a hardware revision since then and a warranty extention.

Me, I'm still on my original 360, which I purchase a few months after launch. Haven't had a problem with it, and I use it practically everyday. It stands vertical, and has room for ventilation.

But if you're seriously considering one, I'd wait for the price decrease coming up later in the year.

"But if you're seriously considering one, I'd wait for the price decrease coming up later in the year."

I think by the posts here that he isnt seriously thinking of buying one.

Man you guys still rambling on with this? First of all yeah I would love to get one I love FPS, and Fable 2 looks really cool and most of my friends have 360's. I may wait til next year to get one or this holiday.

Also I know things break my sisters PS3 over heated on her and I know another person's PS3 that locked up and had to be sent in. The thing is I hear and see more reports on the 360 failing then any other.

BTW how do I stop receiving email on my first post for when you reply.

*HEAD ASPLODES*

Clearly Joystiq are not too bright..

This is REVENUE.. Not the same as PROFIT.

"Xbox 360 DLC has brought in $240 million" is totally untrue. Most of that money will have gone back to the content providors (i.e. developers), I would be suprised if Microsoft got more than $20m in PROFIT from that lot. They wasted much more than this on shoddy hardware repairs and buying their way into exclusives.

Queen Victoria says:

We are not confused!

[-]

yea?

/hops on board the Post Count +1 bandwagon

Prostitutes, aids, and killing orphans?????

I know you were trying to joke but are you kidding me? I saw someone got banned once for saying a chick had "whore glasses". You definitely should be banned for a remark like that, joking or not.

@ChuckJ

You have whore glasses.

Thank Harmonix for at least 30 million of that.

Damn, that is a lot of horse armor.

Although DLC has it's positive aspects, I do miss the good ole' days when complete games were sold to customers on day 1.

Yeah, how dare they create new content for games after they are released. Also, whats with patching to fix complaints consumers have? Thats so lame!

How many games are coming out incomplete? And I'm not talking about EA selling cheat codes for The Godfather.

Well... I regret to inform you, but for *most* games that receive DLC, that's still the case. I suppose it's more fun to have a victim mentality about it though, isn't it?

"I suppose it's more fun to have a victim mentality about it though, isn't it?"

Yeah, that was kinda the point. Congratulations...

Um... thanks? I don't think I've ever been congratulated after pointing out that someone's got a victim complex going on before.

You're welcome! I truly didn't mean to offend your Neo-Con sensibilities.

Hmmm I wonder how PSN and Nintendo's VC has done so far... any sources on those?

I'm sure they both announced something like it during their E3 conferences, but we were either blacked out (for nintendo's) or too busy drooling over Little Big Planet to pay attention to their charts.

I wonder how much of that money came from themes and pics.

I ain't buyin' any. :-/

What is with all the douchebags today asking a question then answering it in the same comment? It's a very very dickish thing to do.

Again, I wonder how long we have to keep paying $50 a year when they're generating so much money. And spare me the 'you get what you pay for' rhetoric, I'm just sayin', there's enough money being generated that the yearly fee is really just becoming gratuitous for Microsoft.

With ad and sales revenue from the Marketplace, I'm guessing they can run the same quality online service they always have; the infrastructure and software is there. They might only give away 25 360s in the next Mountain Dew promotion rather than 100, but I'm sure they could stop charging $50 at this point.

"I'm just sayin', there's enough money being generated that the yearly fee is really just becoming gratuitous for Microsoft."

Rumor is that MS is a company and they have this crazy mission statment involving making money.

Look at the product life cycle.

The product is at its peak and nearing the maturity phase. $50 wasn't enough to support the service as it exists today, and once all the development costs had been recouped, it became more than enough. They aren't losing market share or money by charging what they do. They might lose one or the other by charging even slightly more or less (and believe me, they crunch the numbers constantly to make sure the price point is just right).

Basically, why would they charge less or nothing at all? If you paid me monthly for something I've already paid for and made money on, why would I not accept it?

You'll see the price come down when (if?) another service provider figures out how to offer the same or better quality product at less or free, which would mean XBL would begin losing market share and have to start using its monthly price as a bargaining chip.

Sorry if this is more than you wanted to know. I'm a Marketing major- I can't help it.

Rumor has it that gamers no longer have to simply pay for and play the games, but can and should promote Corporate profits whenever possible.

I hear ya. While I doubt they would ever get rid of the $50/yr fee, what they could do is offer some kind of incentive that goes towards "paying" for your XBL account based on the Marketplace purchases you make. For every spend $100 er.. 8000 points you spend, you get a $15 credit towards your membership, or something like that.

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Xbox 360 DLC has brought in $240 million

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