Xbox Live More Popular than iTunes?

Microsoft announced this morning that they'd reached 10 Million downloads with the new Xbox Live service, a download rate even faster than the iTunes Music Store. From the Gamespot article: "The tech giant also revealed that more content for Xbox Live is on the way. The company confirmed that new achievements and automobiles will be available for Project Gotham Racing 3, new multiplayer maps are headed to Perfect Dark Zero, and an online cooperative mode for Kameo: Elements of Power will be ready soon. The company did not say whether said downloads would be free or, as is more likely, come at a price."

Misleading title

[iced_773]

One thing cannot be compared to an unrelated thing. XBox Live is for gaming, while iTunes is for music (and video) downloads. The title should read:

Gaming More Popular than Music Downloads

Now I'll go read the summary. ;)

Apples to Oranges

[fonos]

Uhm, you're comparing how many downloads a big company gets when they offer new maps and stuff for free, to songs that you purchase for 99 cents a piece. It seems like you're comparing apples to oranges.

Re:Apples to Oranges

[interiot]

Well, some of the XBL downloads are for $5-10 games, and for paid themes/icons/etc. But yes, it would be nice if the press release noted the number of paid downloads, rather than lumping free downloads (maps, preview games, movie trailers) into the number. (though large companies are notoriously unwilling to give out numbers that would give others a peek into the financials of a product)

misleading

[suspected]

This article is the definition of misleading

By all the gods of geeks...

[ChrisKnight]

...that was the most useless and nonsensical Slashdot headline I have ever seen.

-Chris

Re:Yay inflammatory titles

[Rapter09]

Hm. I don't think you get the point. I believe the whole thing is saying that XBL has reached 10m downloads faster than iTunes reached 10m. Does not necessarily mean that XBL is more popular iTunes, or vice-versa, but the growth rate is currently higher than iTunes was at it's particular stage of life.

Talk about desperation...

[Gothic_Walrus]

iTunes isn't mentioned in the article proper, and it doesn't even appear on the page until one of the comments that appears halfway down the page.

We're stealing headlines from random forum users now? For shame, guys. For shame. :)

Re:Misleading title

[BewireNomali]

The results are skewed. It's still way easy to get free current music. It's more difficult to get free current games/mods,etc for the XBox. XBox Live is in the situation where it is the only provider of the content people are downloading. It's an enviable position if you're XBox Live execs.

Music is infinitely more popular than gaming though - for the obvious reasons. It's a poor comparison.

However, XBox Live is positioning itself to be a content provider to the home. They can easily distribute music now - and core gaming and music demos by and large overlap. I didn't read the article, but this is probably where they're headed.

I can totally see this...

[Jace of Fuse!]

I can totally see this! I mean there are SO many Xbox owners compared to iPod own...er... uh. Oh.

Are they sure they're not fudging numbers somewhere?

Re:Yay inflammatory titles

[Ryan J. Evans]

Actually, I get what they're saying just fine. I just don't think their statement has any real value. Even if we ignore the fact that comparing total downloads between XBL and iTunes isn't relevant [slashdot.org], and we ignore the fact that XBL didn't [slashdot.org] hit 10m any faster, there's still the fact that these are two network services started approximately 4 years apart after a great deal of consumer training done on the part of apple and others. Hitting 10m at the 4 month mark simply doesn't have the same impact as it did 4 years ago.

How many of those were free downloads?

[smaffei]

Sure MS got that many downloads. A lot of them were free. Like movie trailers, game demos, and tutorials on how to use the XBox 360.

I just think it's sad that MS keeps speweing out this FUD because they have no chance of catching up to the iPod.

Richest kid wins?

[neumayr]

Alright, so you can buy yourself some kick-ass car and rock at Project Gotham?

Oh well, skills are overrated anyways..