Xbox Live Tops $1 Billion in Sales

This news is not surprising, however, what’s different about this year is that movie and TV show downloads ruled the market for this fiscal year ending on June 30th. I figured it would be online gaming that would rule the subscription service, due to the release of MW2 and Halo Reach coming soon, but apparently that is not the case. Icon, theme, and avatar downloads also contributed to the insane sales number.

Even though Xbox Live rules the console multi-player experience it’s evident that Sony will soon join Microsoft in offering a subscription based option for their Playstation Network. At least with Live the precedent has already been set, but if I were a PS3 owner, though, the thought of paying for something that I was receiving for free would not be a good thing. Nintendo’s Wii will probably not even bother competing with the other two, which if any of you have experienced Wii online gaming that’s probably a good thing. I recall trying to connect with a buddy for some Mario Kart and pretty much just gave up and ended up just playing Call of Duty 4.

It’s good that Microsoft’s online service is successful because that means they are producing an excellent product, which of course I’m sure can use some tweaking, but what worries me is with this very lucrative year, I hope they don’t try to justify a price increase. Especially with other pay services like Netflix already in place and Hulu coming this fall, I can only afford so much.

Sources: Bloomberg.com | Teamxbox.com