Saturday, December 23rd 2006
The real challenge to Xbox Live: reaching the masses
One of the major features of Xbox(360) is internet gameplay. Xbox Live is one of the most important things separating the Xbox(360) from competition coming from Sony and Nintendo. However, most Xbox(360) owners do not use this feature. Only 10% of people owning an Xbox had an Xbox Live account, and 50% of Xbox360 owners have an Xbox Live Gold account.
While there are over 4 million owners of the $50-a-year Xbox Live Gold accounts, there are several reasons that this number is not much higher. The first and most important reason is an intimidation factor. Immature players who are pitted against very experienced players may be scared away from Xbox Live. There is also no shortage of "aggressive and sometime verbally abusive players" who can make even the best players stay off of Xbox Live. "A lot of casual gamers are intimidated by online in general, both in terms of the technology and the human competition," said Cole. "That's changing, but it still has a ways to go." In an attempt to make Xbox Live a friendlier service, Microsoft recently started an Xbox Live Video service, as we reported here.
While there are over 4 million owners of the $50-a-year Xbox Live Gold accounts, there are several reasons that this number is not much higher. The first and most important reason is an intimidation factor. Immature players who are pitted against very experienced players may be scared away from Xbox Live. There is also no shortage of "aggressive and sometime verbally abusive players" who can make even the best players stay off of Xbox Live. "A lot of casual gamers are intimidated by online in general, both in terms of the technology and the human competition," said Cole. "That's changing, but it still has a ways to go." In an attempt to make Xbox Live a friendlier service, Microsoft recently started an Xbox Live Video service, as we reported here.