Nearly 1/3 of 360 owners unaware of XBLA

by Richard Mitchell { Aug 14th 2007 at 1:00PM }

In the first industry research column, part of a series coming to GameDaily.biz, Frank N. Magid Associates look at the current state of online gaming on the Xbox 360 as well as Xbox Live Arcade usage. In an online survey of 1800 U.S. homes, 149 were found to own an Xbox 360. Among these homes, 64% were found to play games online, which isn't terribly surprising given Microsoft's focus on Xbox Live as a differentiating factor between the Xbox 360 and other consoles. Much more interesting are Magid's statistics concerning Xbox Live Arcade. While the survey discovered that 70% of the surveyed homes have used Xbox Live Arcade, only 28% have actually made a purchase. What is really alarming, however, is that a full 30% of those surveyed were completely unaware of Xbox Live Arcade. In other words, nearly a third of those surveyed didn't know that XBLA even existed. If this percentage translates to all 360 owners, then Microsoft has some serious marketing to do.

Then again, we're not too surprised. After all, 60% of PS3 owners don't know that their console has a Blu-Ray drive.

[Via Joystiq]

Tags: business, xbla, xboxlivearcade

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Knuckles Dawson @ Aug 14th 2007 11:47AM

I guess this falls in line with Microsoft saying 60% of 360 owners are connected to Live. so 75% of the people not connected to Live not knowing XBLA exists definitely makes sense when you think about it.

DjDATZ @ Aug 14th 2007 1:07PM

I don't get why you would get this gen's hardward without fully checking everything out beforehand? Doesn't matter if its the PS3, Wii or the 360...

Milly @ Aug 14th 2007 1:10PM

I agree with #1 and #2, what's most interesting is 60% of PS3 owners didn't know it had Blu Ray....

Why did this 60% buy the system then? Can't be to play games.

Pacrand @ Aug 14th 2007 1:11PM

I'd wonder what questions they asked. I have friends who have several XBLA games, have auto-downloading turned on, obsess about their gamerscores, and have no idea what "Xbox Live Arcade" is. They just know that they're Xbox 360 games.

dunnypop @ Aug 14th 2007 1:12PM

I'm thinking these are casual gamers. Who would play like a few games and would let their system collect dust.

Timmy @ Aug 14th 2007 1:14PM

Yeah some 360-owning kids really need to be taught a lesson. My little brother had a 15 year old friend over at our house yesterday when I was sitting with Mario Bros on me NES, and he pointed at the console and asked "What is that?".

santini @ Aug 14th 2007 1:15PM

I rekon that the 30% of people who said that, were parents of the kids who owned the consoles, who have no idea of what the xbox is capable of. The percent that answered in the positive actually knew what XBLA actually is and could answer properly.

DjDATZ @ Aug 14th 2007 1:18PM

I wonder what questions they asked and WHO they asked. You can't just ask some random schmo on the street. You have to ask someone that has ACTUALLY played the 360 a couple times and has at least some remote interest in it.

My family (my mom, dad and brother) as well as my gf have NO clue about XBLA. So by that...only 20% of us 5 know about XBLA. Hardly seems fair right?

DeadPlasmaCell @ Aug 14th 2007 1:23PM

Like I said in another post about this story I'm not familiar with the science of surveys or anything, but 30% of 149 people doesn't seem like a big statistic to base such a claim, when there are about 10 million Xbox 360 owners. Wouldn't it have been more meaningful to survey 1800 actual Xbox 360 owners and then figure it out that way?

DjChad @ Aug 14th 2007 1:27PM

How come no one has noticed the fact that they only surveyed 149 people out of how many hundreds of thousands that own 360s? This survey is total bs.

GregA @ Aug 14th 2007 1:26PM

I think the blade which xbox live arcade lives on is confusing. Yeah, I figured it out. But I didn't realize what it was until I was bored one day and went through all the menu items.

Also, I don't think they are really promoting it yet, because it seems like they would promote the occasional freebie.

Also, I show up on xbox360fanboy to check out the new wednesday games becuase the informational offerings on the xbox are so minimal... short of downloading the game...

Also, what is going on with Puzzle Fighter HD? I go to its tab and they only offer content downloads, no game? I have to go to my computer to figure out that it is 'coming soon'.

Finally.. It seems like the xbox is a natural place to rent games. Really, Im willing to wait the hour or so to download a hd movie. Why can't I wait for the two hour download and rent full games? There are a bunch of games that I would rent instead of buy... at 2am... Instead of the sometimes very limited demos. Really charge me $10 and let me play bullet witch for a couple of days.

DeadPlasmaCell @ Aug 14th 2007 1:36PM

@ 10

That just means that Puzzle Fighter has content available to download. It's been like that for everything.

MDJ2010 @ Aug 14th 2007 1:43PM

Seriously this means nothing, I mean I personally believe that MS are crazy not to put a greater deal of marketing behind xbla because it should be a bigger focus in winning the console war against PS3 but as other people have stated 1.who are they asking the questions to and 2. what questions are being asked

Knuckles Dawson @ Aug 14th 2007 1:44PM

"How come no one has noticed the fact that they only surveyed 149 people out of how many hundreds of thousands that own 360s?"

Priceless

Synapse49 @ Aug 14th 2007 1:59PM

Magid is a market research firm out of Cedar Rapids, IA that specializes in media strategy and awareness. Although the report is a very topline look at attitude and awareness of Xbox360 users, the survey methodology seems fairly solid.

It is important to note that market research firms of Magid’s caliber often field industry surveys where small sections root out behavior of segments of the population. Notice that the two graphics displayed on GameDaily biz are labeled Q94 and Q96. I’m sure that the “Xbox 360″ section of this larger media attitude and usage survey was only a few questions long. The questions were likely added to that larger survey a result from buzz throughout the community, hype at events like E3, and/or someone noticing the Halo3 mass market campaign (how could they not)

Companies can then take data they collect independently and sales people can use it as a carrot to tease a company into doing a larger study. I’m sure someone from Magid dangled this data in front of someone at Microsoft hoping to land a much larger survey of 360 owners that could be used to drive market strategy in ‘08.

So, (assuming sample bias was avoided by Magid) the long and the short of it is that the base of 1800 respondents is large enough to model national behavior and trends. Unfortunately due to the small number of Xbox360 owners (149) the data should be interperated directionally and not taken as gospel as far as questions specific to 360 owners are concerned. To confidently model 360 owners behavior it would require a larger sample size.

baby sea tuna @ Aug 14th 2007 2:02PM

Wait...what does the "A" stand for again?

Emily @ Aug 14th 2007 2:13PM

When I got my first X-Box I never went online, but with the 360 I cant imagine not checking out everyhing, but then again, if the boy hadn't of got X-Box Live, I wouldnt have have gotten it for myself personally, so......not surprizing.

Edog @ Aug 14th 2007 2:37PM

"How come no one has noticed the fact that they only surveyed 149 people out of..."
Get learned.
Statistically 149 out of 10 mil. is an accurate survey as long as it is random. Not peps on your friends list, not a certain geo area, not by how much we make. But having said this, there is a trend by people who think they are smarter than they are, who shoot number at you like it is the end all be all...complete with a pat on their own backs. The more important questions are, Who is responding and why?. Is it a Dad with 2 much time on his hands, who's kid is playing POP arcade on his 32 in HD in his room, when Dad doesn't know the tech and answers "what's HD?...what's arcade?" And maybe some people just don't give a F about live to even get involved, but they know what it is.

Magic Whiskey @ Aug 14th 2007 2:55PM

"Durrrr, light switch?" (Anyone getting that reference gets a cookie.)

Anyway...I can see people now knowing anything about XBLA; after all, there ARE southern states in the Union, after all. (I'm kidding, i'm kidding!!)

All joking aside, I do sincerely wonder why those 60% of PS3 purchasers bought the console if it wasn't to view Blu-ray movies. I'm not bieng a smart-ass about it, i'm really wondering what ELSE they expected to do with it anytime soon? It'd be like someone buying a toaster and not knowing why.

Magic Whiskey @ Aug 14th 2007 2:56PM

(NOT knowing, that is.)

Borlog @ Aug 14th 2007 3:24PM

wow this is surprising, i love the arcade i buy every game the day its out, and own all 78 (soon to be 80 cant wait for hexic 2) so for some people to not know of it is amazing and kinda sad for them cause so many of the games are great.

Synapse49 @ Aug 14th 2007 4:17PM

""18. "How come no one has noticed the fact that they only surveyed 149 people out of..."
Get learned.
Statistically 149 out of 10 mil. is an accurate survey as long as it is random.""

Wrong.

For a base population of 10 million you're going to want to shoot for somewhere around 400 completed surveys. That is before you want to do any segmentation on the sample at all... If you want to model various types of 360 owners you'll want a much larger sample than that.

A sample size of 149 is only a DIRECTIONAL LOOK at the 360 owning population. Do NOT quote specific percentages of the "population", merely describe potential trends with "the data suggest the awareness of XBLA is low."