Xbox Live balloons to 10 Million subscribers
by Dustin Burg 
{ Jan 7th 2008 at 11:45AM }
Last night, Microsoft proudly gloated to the masses that they've reached another Xbox Live milestone a full six months prior to their forcast by telling everyone that Xbox Live now has 10 million subscribers. 10 million! The total amount of subscribers does take into account both Gold and Silver accounts and is a worldwide total.Now, if we were to do a little "how much money does Microsoft make off of Xbox Live subscriptions" calculation and say that if (theoretically) only 40% of all Live accounts are Gold and are subscribing at $50 a year, then Microsoft is making roughly ... $200 million. And that's if only 4 out of 10 million subscribers pay. With all that money one would think Xbox Live would be up and running normally 99% of the time, but as you can tell, it's still semi-borked. Oh well, at least we're 10 million strong and have the capability of starting the world's largest riot if necessary. And that's a comforting thought.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Louis @ Jan 7th 2008 11:52AM
They must be making a killing 10 millions subscribers and two servers from 1998 running the whole thing.
Boff @ Jan 7th 2008 11:59AM
Ha ha don't you mean running Windows98?
So there must be around 4-5 million of us wondering what exactly our annual Gold subscription pays for.
bob @ Jan 7th 2008 9:56PM
oh well doesn't really matter to me since i'm just using those 48 hour codes, so i lost nothing
TechVidiot @ Jan 7th 2008 11:55AM
I can't believe that they are releasing facts like this in the midst of such a horrible time for the LIVE service.
I have been a rememeber of the service since back on the original Xbox and I can't remember a time when it has been down for such a long period of time.
Compensation or not, this is unacceptable!
Stephen @ Jan 7th 2008 11:57AM
My Live is still broken. :(
Boff @ Jan 7th 2008 12:00PM
Does feel a bit like rubbing salt in the wounds.
Fix Live you cunts!
Intentless @ Jan 7th 2008 12:04PM
Yeah I'm upset that I can't play live on occasion but I have plenty of other things to attend to... And am actually glad for the time to do many other necessary things... Not to mention happy to know that the Xbox 360 is doing as well as it is...
Why can't people remember that to er is to be human... Make sure everything you do is to absolute par and beyond and then maybe be upset something isn't working... They predicted what they thought would be increase in activity and they were wrong... Which is actually good news... In my worthless opinion... It cost pennies a day to you... Its not like cable where it is 5 to 10 bux a day...
Play something single player... Bioshock Assassin's creed. Something on the Wii... Read a book watch some tv... A week isn't exactly a long time...
Chris @ Jan 7th 2008 12:23PM
Or they could just fix Live.
Chuckles @ Jan 7th 2008 12:30PM
See I know where you are coming from and have to agree with you at some level. The problem is that I wouldn't be to upset if this was something like a day or two of bad service and then they get it working again. This has now been a problem for about 3 weeks and is therefore very unacceptable.
I am also very glad that the service is doing good, but how do you think all those new members felt on Christmas and for the weeks after when they can't even play the games they've been craving for a long time. See this is not only a problem for us wanting to play, but it has now become a horrible marketing bomb. "Yeah man, I was all pumped to get my 360, but after getting it for Christmas I've had nothing but problems with online play. I would recommend you not get one."
Somehow I don't think this bodes well for us current customers wanting to play and the possible customers hearing about how bad the service is.
In conclusion service this bad for this long at this point in a year is just unacceptable and stupid.
Larry *not allowed to say cheevo* @ Jan 7th 2008 12:36PM
If it was your electricity, telephone, or internet service would that be ok? Would you just, "do something else"? I can manage, and so can everyone else, but come on... this is ridiculous.
They have people that do this for a living, it's there one purpose... to keep the service up and to fix problems. They should have the resources and knowledge to be able to resolve this issue in a timely fashion.
David W. @ Jan 7th 2008 12:23PM
I have Blue Dragon to keep me entertained :)
flameofdoom666 @ Jan 7th 2008 1:46PM
Blue Dragon's boring story can keep you entertained? You must be 5 or stupid. Sorry, but thats the truth; the game is awful.
David W. @ Jan 7th 2008 4:04PM
@ Flame
or just easily entertained :) but who's to say, I'll probably get sick of it before I get anywhere near beating it...but as of 7 hours in it's alright to me.
Corleone @ Jan 7th 2008 12:24PM
Not to mention HD-DVD is on it's way out, thanks to MS basically......
Clarkiey @ Jan 7th 2008 12:36PM
not forgetting that us in the UK pay the equivalent of $80 a year, or $120 if paying monthly...
Neeko @ Jan 7th 2008 2:43PM
OUCH that hurts...Atleast your getting IPTV....lmao.
Clarkiey @ Jan 8th 2008 1:10PM
you could say that, but i doubt it where i live....my internet jumps between 19mbps and 500kbps...but it is mostly down towards the 500kbps! ahh well ill stop complaining, i have my xbox and live is nearly working again! sort of...
Jon @ Jan 7th 2008 12:42PM
It has bugged out on me for the past couple weeks as well. I understand all these pleas for us gamers to go and do something more productive. But I do. And when I come back to play COD4 for an hour, or Gheylo 3 for an hour ... I CANT. And that pisses me off. When it has been an issue for so many days, I want more compensation than a stupid arcade game, and I want more of an explanation than there are a lot of people on the servers. Fess up Microsoft. This is crap. I told someone, jokingly, the other day that Id rather sell my xbox, get a PS3 and play games on their free network... now I'm not so sure if that was a joke.
JwEagle @ Jan 7th 2008 1:09PM
Xbox Live is offering a free Arcade game
[url="http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/live/serviceissue.htm"]here[/url]
Kyle @ Jan 7th 2008 1:14PM
is it just me or has xboxlive had zero problems? i live in the UK is it just america that is having these issues? wb
Simon @ Jan 8th 2008 4:38AM
I live in southern England and it has been very bad the last two nights on CoD4. Totally unplayable, me and my friend gave up after an hour of trying to join a game together. Strangley, when joining seperate games, it worked fine! Typical.
Tony @ Jan 7th 2008 1:27PM
It's been running fine for me for about a week now, at least when I go on it. I guess it's an improvement if nothing else, before I couldn't get on it at all.
jake @ Jan 7th 2008 1:37PM
no offence but i dont realy care for the free arcade game we pay quite a lot of money to play online which dosnt realy cost as much MS says it does and i dunno bout you but i feel kind of ripped off. luckly i had my ps3 to play online and i think that the psn is much better than xb live i havnt had 1 single problem with the psn and not to mention that its free MS better get it sorted pretty quick or i might just cancel my gold membership.
TORO @ Jan 7th 2008 1:50PM
"psn is much better than xb live"
LOL that was a funny joke thanks
Sam @ Jan 7th 2008 1:51PM
Thank goodness the majority of my online competetive play happens via my computer and the internet. A unified service is nice and all but when that unified service breaks, you're wishing you had an individual dedicated server system to work with.
Anyway i hope xbox live gets up and running for you guys soon.
CalculatedKaos @ Jan 7th 2008 1:53PM
Lets not forget the every day is worth a whopping .14 cents. OK, so its been down and it sux, but stop whining about "I pay good money" blah blah blah... at most we are talking about 2$ thus far. So in reality the Arcade game is worth MORE than your downtime. I have LIVE myself and yeah its annoying and yeah it sux but come on if LIVE is your life you better be the one getting paid to play. I have been a subscriber for probably 4 years and I cant remember one time I had any major issues. Yeah they have the occasional blip but so doesnt any network. I spend all day maintaining networks and sometimes there are things you just cant for see and take time to fix.
eugene @ Jan 7th 2008 2:21PM
Don't you DARE sully this hate fest with your pesky sound reasoning and logic!
Larry *not allowed to say cheevo* @ Jan 7th 2008 2:39PM
Well, you are assuming that people play everyday. What if I can't get game time in until the weekend. I have a full time job and other responsibilities that don't include gaming. So, you wait all week to play online and then you can't. Time is money, and customer satisfaction is also worth something. So I don't think .14 cents a day covers all of that.
Neeko @ Jan 7th 2008 2:46PM
Hey this is a BLOG.... if your not hear to BITCH and MOAN.....Move along and let me get back on my soapbox so i can continue to rant.lol
Digitalspirit @ Jan 7th 2008 1:54PM
I don't want video marketplace, I don't want a free fucking arcade game. I just want Live to work properly FFS! :(
Benjamin09 @ Jan 7th 2008 2:39PM
HAHAHA, you most of you are crying like they do when a MMO goes down for a while...ah guys, your lucky they are giving us a free arcade game.
Holy crap people! My taxes pay for the roads and some times roads are closed down! OMG I paid for my car but it can break down! I DEMAND the makers give me compensation! WAAA WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
They are working on it, settle down and let them fix the issues.
http://cad-comic.com/index.php
And if you don't see the link for the comic.
http://cad-comic.com/comic.php
Grant @ Jan 7th 2008 5:26PM
wait,
so live was closed for maintenance?
oh, no, they do that at other times, off peak hours.
This was the most peak time of the year, and this was the single road to access everything.
If the road you live on is closed on both ends, and you're not allowed through, you too would be super pissed and demand legal action or reparation.
Plus, you have to pay for road work, it's part of your taxes. You don't pay, you go to jail. XBL is a service you choose to pay for, with a legally binding contract.
Aren't analogies so much more fun when used correctly?!?!
Benjamin09 @ Jan 7th 2008 8:31PM
Grant, wait accidents can happen, I happen to live in the twin cities. We had a bridge collapse this summer...none of us twin cities goers that use the bridge DEMANDED legal action, we adapted to it.
My xbox is down, so I adapted. I sill pay for XBL but I picked up a book, I did something to pass the time away.
Reaper0fAnguish @ Jan 7th 2008 3:54PM
Seriously, they could be making so much more money if their service was working. All they have to do is buy some more servers n crap and get that up and running with a little chunk out of that $200 million.
That would make tons more people tell all their friends to get on Live and increase the user base much higher than 10 million..
Junoflux @ Jan 7th 2008 11:34PM
yeah, it's been really bad on COD4... REALLY BAD. but then, i played Halo3 last night and everything was fine. I wonder if it's over? btw, i live in the Central part of america.
Boff @ Jan 8th 2008 4:42AM
Last night wasn't too bad at all in the UK. Normally gets flakey towards the end of the night but only had a few dropped games, other than that it was ok.
Fingers crossed that's the worst of it over.
I knew the moaning and ranting would pay off in the end!