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NEWS

Xbox Live Arcade Revenue Hit $100 Million in 2009

Gavin Ogden's picture

By Gavin Ogden

February 6, 2010

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Market research firm Forecasting and Analysing Digital Entertainment (FADE) has reported that Xbox Live Arcade sales were up 34 per cent year-on-year.

FADE says that Battlefield 1943 was the most successful Arcade release, reaching 800,000 sales and generating $12.5 million in revenue. It was also reported that the average price of XBLA games "increased rapidly" during the 2009 from an average of $8.33 in 2008 to $9.12 (via CVG).

Here are the report’s estimated top titles by revenue:

Battlefield 1943 (EA Dice) - $12.5 million ($15.00)
Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) - $7.3 million ($15.00)
Trials HD (RedLynx, LTD) - $7.1 million ($15.00)
Shadow Complex (Chair Entertainment / Epic Games) - $6.1 million ($14.38)
Family Game Night (Hasbro) - $4.2 million ($9.53)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom) - $4.2 million ($15.00)
Magic: The Gathering (Stainless Games) - $2.8 million ($10.00)
Worms 2 (Team 17) - $1.8 million ($10.00)
Peggle (PopCap Games) - $1.8 million ($8.86)
Turtles in Time: Reshelled (Ubisoft Singapore) - $1.7 million ($10.00)

ArronC07's picture
On February 8th ArronC07 said:

XBOX Live is different from XBOX Live Arcade.

KarmaDoctor's picture
On February 8th KarmaDoctor said:

You can figure this out yourself. For example, Gamercard lists XBL gold members that play a particular game, so all you need to factor in the others who downloaded/purchased that game to come up with a similar estimate. FADE is a vgchartz company, which pretty much deflates any news value here. FADE works the same way as vgchartz by taking existing information, manipulating that information, then claiming it's their proprietary research. All you need to do is ask them for their methodology and a couple references from their data providers. You'll hear nothing but crickets.

jarvisx's picture
On February 8th jarvisx said:

"I guess you don't know that he's given several hundred million to charity - primarily through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation."

Gates has given already away over 19.3 billion(!) euro's to charity, or 26-27 billion dollars. Man, he is like Robin Hood!

DubsTF's picture
On February 8th DubsTF said:

More robber baron than Robin Hood: Gates is best compared to Rockefeller or Carnegie and will undoubtedly rate a similarly equivocal legacy.

xstavrosx83's picture
On February 6th xstavrosx83 said:

Now let's hope sony won't follow with a subscribed model for psn...

scorpion_mai's picture
On February 7th scorpion_mai said:

Actually, the mooted benefits of PSN subscription sound good:

Cloud Storage
Free Access to PS One games
Cross game chat (to silence the minority of grumblers)
1 hour demo games trial
Extended 3 year warranty of your console
Token wagering (which has the potential to give online play a flavour of Poker pressure)
Plus pretty much everything else that 360 currently has, but for the excellent 1 vs 100

If Sony keeps providing it's current free online play, and offers a chance for people to upgrade the service if they choose, then the customer really will be getting a decent alternative to Live.

Duncan_Stewart's picture
On February 8th Duncan_Stewart said:

You can play Buzz in PSN home if you like, thats kind of like 1 in 100. In your face microsoft!
Seriously though I do quite like the idea of paying a subscription and getting unrestricted access to PS1 games for example, depends on the cost though.

scorpion_mai's picture
On February 10th scorpion_mai said:

Tried it, nowhere near as good. When youre on a hot streak on 1 vs 100, that's the real buzz, can't imagine what it would be like to be 'the one' - I'd crack like a nut in a parrots cage.

xstavrosx83's picture
On February 8th xstavrosx83 said:

I agree, but for everything else except online gaming you already pay...I mean i have spent over 200euros in PSN for psone classics,add-ons and full games so i don't get it for this 'forced' subscribed model.I like things 'optional'...

ArronC07's picture
On February 10th ArronC07 said:

and errr that optional model will run along side the subscription model and gaming online remains free.

scorpion_mai's picture
On February 10th scorpion_mai said:

This one's on me, fella:

xstavrosx83's picture
On February 10th xstavrosx83 said:

I hope so,but how do you know..I mean they make money out of psone classics,movies,add ons so it makes sense they will target something else..like online gaming and this makes more sense since million players/like me are very addicted to their games..Anyway i hope i'll prove wrong..

Ben_Lathwell's picture
On February 6th Ben_Lathwell said:

Yeah but you ask Gates to borrow a quid and suddenly he is skint, tight ass

grognard66's picture
On February 6th grognard66 said:

Come on, Ben_Lathwell. I thought you were better than that.

First of all, Bill Gates isn't even running MS anymore. Secondly, I guess you don't know that he's given several hundred million to charity - primarily through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In fact, only Warren Buffett has given more to charity recently. Frankly, I don't even know what your comment has to do with this article.

Live marketplace continues to lead the way in the online console space for a reason. It has the best and most diverse library (of games, movies/tv shows, add-on content) in the industry and is benefitting as a result. This is good news for the industry as a whole, as it shows smaller developers that success can be realized in this space without having to worry about the convoluted retail chain and its publishers. Both WiiWare and PSN Store followed XBLA's lead and all console gamers are better off as a result.

Ivor_Biguns's picture
On February 11th Ivor_Biguns said:

Ha ha!! That's the US/UK cultural divide right there. You Americans really do just take the things people say at face value. Classic.

Ben_Lathwell's picture
On February 6th Ben_Lathwell said:

dont worry grog, i meant it as a joke.

And yeah totally agree, without live arcade PSN store and Wiiware either wouldn't have happened or certainly wouldn't be as developed or popular.

grognard66's picture
On February 6th grognard66 said:

Sorry, Ben. Sometimes it's hard to tell when people are joking or being serious! :)

scorpion_mai's picture
On February 6th scorpion_mai said:

I actually disagree - someone else would have done the same in time anyway, it's just that Live has been the best for quite some time.

Kudos to MS for learning a way to get gamers to pay for older content, but others would have thought this up, probably when an alternative like Onlive did it from afresh.

Now check the news on the Live Games Room and ask if MS cares more about consumer annoyance or cold hard cash.

grognard66's picture
On February 6th grognard66 said:

Of course someone would have eventually done this - but they didn't. MS deserves credit for being the first. Is really that hard for some of you to acknowledge that MS' entry into the console space has been a positive development for the industry and that they've actually done some things right?

scorpion_mai's picture
On February 6th scorpion_mai said:

Maybe if two of my 360's (second and third generation models) didn't die on me within 14 months, out of warranty, and if they offered more than a third rate repairs service.

I acknowledged that they were first in my post above, maybe you should read again. My point was that this service would have been introduced anyway, but probably not as well - this is more a credit to MS's desire for cash than its wanting to stay ahead of the game.

The fact that MS points are a blatantly prolific way to take cash for points that will remain partially unusable is a prime example of their business ethic. They actually made the decision to do this, in a boardroom, drinking coffee and pondering how to ensure people can be shafted into stumping up more cash - much like the way their consoles design fault was managed into a way that the consumer is inconvenienced in time or out of pocket while the corporation carries on releasing damaged goods.

I've owned many consoles, Nintendos, Segas, Playstations, and I can honestly say that while 360 offers the most for gamers, it certainly offers the least in terms of basic value for money. I wouldn't have a third 360 if it was left fully packaged on my doorstep, not when I acquire another collection of 20+ games and have to shell out another hundred and fifty quid if I ever want to use them again.

scorpion_mai's picture
On February 6th scorpion_mai said:

The Federal Reserve should say: '

Well done Microsoft, that's $100 million's worth of US points - why not browse our catalogues of products worth between $101m and $75m to see what you like? What do you mean you would like to utilise the full value of your deposit? Buy a few million shirts for your avatars or something, jeez, that's not our problem!'

DubsTF's picture
On February 8th DubsTF said:

This comment is awesome.