Xbox Live Traffic Up 80%

[spenser.d]

Sandvine, an Internet research company, has observed an approximate 80% increase in the number of hosts using Xbox Live and an approximate 30% increase in Xbox Live traffic after the release of Gears of War. Below is a press release with further details:

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Sandvine Identifies Surge In Xbox Live And iTunes Traffic

North American service providers observe 80% increase in Xbox Live users

London and Waterloo, Canada; December 5, 2006 -Sandvine Incorporated, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sandvine Corporation (TSX:SVC, AIM:SAND), identified a surge in Xbox Live and iTunes traffic on North American broadband networks following the release of new Xbox games and iTunes 7.

Through the use of its intelligent broadband network solution, Sandvine observed an 80% increase in the number of Xbox Live users across a sampling of North American-based broadband service providers' networks during the first week following the release of six new Xbox games. On November 7, 2006, Microsoft released six new games for Xbox, including the highly anticipated release of Gears of War, which sold 1-million copies in the first two weeks.

This spike in Xbox Live traffic following the launch of a highly anticipated game is reminiscent of Halo 2's release in 2004 (www.sandvine.com/news/pr_detail.asp?ID=65), marking the first boom in online gaming and resulting in the sustainable popularity of Xbox Live.

On September 12th, Apple released iTunes 7, enabling users to download full feature-length films onto their iPods. Based on data available to Sandvine at that time, North American broadband service providers saw an approximate 140% peak increase attributed to iTunes bandwidth usage in the wake of this release.

"The effect Gears of War and other games are having on networks indicates to service providers that online gaming is not just a craze. Their networks must be equipped to protect this increasingly valuable traffic from the effects of a best-effort network," says Dave Caputo, president and CEO of Sandvine. "Other multimedia applications like video downloads onto iPods are increasingly becoming popular, so service providers need to identify these trends early in order to proactively ensure there is adequate capacity to support the extra bandwidth usage."

Source - TeamXbox

I imagine MS would have more reliable numbers, but it really wouldn't surprise me at all if indeed these are accurate. Good news for XBL.

-Spenser

[Rodrigo]

Good to hear, I'm pretty sure they'll stick around after the GoW goes away. :p

[zeroday]

I would love to play this game on PC.

[thagame]

as long as its 360 only that helps game and console sales.

If i made a game that was majorly increasing sales on my console i wouldnt be stupid enough to let pcs users have it. I would wait till it died down and then give it to pc users.

[Shadrack]

according to something I read, GoW will most likely be released for PC sometime next year.

Right now, as thagame pointed out, GoW is pushing 360 sales up so it will probably be awhile until it is available for PC.

I hope that when it is released for PC that versus battles won't be mixed 360's and PC's. PC's would have an unfair advantage because they will have better graphics and keyboard+mouse gameplay.

[nid~vaeda]

according to something I read, GoW will most likely be released for PC sometime next year.

Right now, as thagame pointed out, GoW is pushing 360 sales up so it will probably be awhile until it is available for PC.

I hope that when it is released for PC that versus battles won't be mixed 360's and PC's. PC's would have an unfair advantage because they will have better graphics and keyboard+mouse gameplay.

how would graphics give PC an advantage? and can't you hook a usb keyboard/mouse into the Xbox360?

[Fugi]

how would graphics give PC an advantage? and can't you hook a usb keyboard/mouse into the Xbox360?

You can... but mouse is likely not to be detected and keyboard serves no purpouse other than typeing messages....

[Shadrack]

how would graphics give PC an advantage? and can't you hook a usb keyboard/mouse into the Xbox360?

In GoW, probably not that much of an advantage. But a (high end) PC should be capable of higher resolution which will help those head shots. But GoW is more of a close up and personal game, so probably not by much.

[DarkGashX]

I have yet to try GoW but i heard it is better then Halo 2, and I was addicted to that game for a good few months. Can't wait!

[REM2000]

I don't think it will be released for the PC, the pc version of this will be UT2007, this will stay on the XBox. I think they did it with another xbox game (can't remember the name) it was an unreal game, but was only on the xbox.

[Guest]

I don't think it will be released for the PC, the pc version of this will be UT2007, this will stay on the XBox. I think they did it with another xbox game (can't remember the name) it was an unreal game, but was only on the xbox.

Unreal Championship.