Xbox Live's challenge: attract casual players

Posted Dec 23, 2006 at 5:23PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Xbox 360 Tags: David Cole, DFC Intelligence, Halo 2, Microsoft, Reuters

According to Kemp Powers in Reuters, Xbox Live's daunting challenge is to attract the casual gamers to go online.

Xbox Live is what has set the 360 apart from its next-gen counterparts, as it was among the first to let players compete with each other online. However, the challenge remains as not only are their competitors now offering similar services, but Microsoft's online service is yet to attract the masses of casual players.

There has always been the impression that Xbox Live is for the hardcore gamers who thrive on competition, thus scaring the casual gamers away. As proof, even in games that were advertised with online play as a main feature, like Halo 2, only a fraction of users actually played online. David Cole, video game analyst and President of DFC Intelligence says, "A lot of casual gamers are intimidated by online in general, both in terms of the technology and the human competition. That's changing, but it still has a ways to go."

In the meantime, Microsoft is offering other features online, such as their download service for movies and TV shows to attract the "living room" audience.

All in all, Cole sums it up, "The key to the 360's overall success is what they'll offer consumers who don't go online."

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the problem of why ppl dont go on live is clearly having to pay for it! Sony and Nintendo both allowing there service for free and Sony's online service is comparable with Live already but when games like singstar come out its gonna be 10X better nobodys gonna pay for 2nd best when they get the best for free!

# Silver Membership Is Good — Guest 2006-12-24 02:03

You can download all the 360 demos and trailers and that's all available for free. Most premium bundles come with a free month of gold membership to give users a taste so they can decide if it's worth the money. You get what you pay for and I think it's worth the money. Sony's online is free, but that's because it's crap and is not even close to the quality of xbox live. I thinks it's good they offered it for free, it will give them a chance of catching up. But your going to have a community that will probably abuse it because it's free.

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Xbox Live's challenge: attract casual players

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