According to data from market research firm FADE (Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment), Xbox Live Arcade sales in March 2010 were the best ever, with a full 41 percent year-on-year growth from last year.
Revenue topped $10 million USD for the first month ever, and growth was strong from the preceding months, where revenue were under $7 million each month.
Overall, for 2010, revenue has grown by 5 percent year-on-year but if March’s trend continues, expect that number to be much higher.
Analysts have attributed the boost to Microsoft’s “Block Party” promotion, which highlighted a group of games, including the popular Toy Soldiers which brought in $3 million in revenue by itself.
Result for: xbox live arcade
According to Major Nelson, sales on Xbox Live Arcade have nearly tripled in the weeks following the introduction of the New Xbox Experience dashboard revamp.
Being updated to include in-game Avatars spurred UNO sales 650 percent in its first day after the NXE update.
For the first week following the launch, movie downloads were up 49 percent and TV episode downloads were up 30 percent.
The current Live service now has over 30,000 movies, TV episodes, and music videos available from 45 content partners.
Result for: xbox live arcade
Microsoft may be planning to upgrade the Xbox 360 Pro to a 60GB HDD model, if new rumors are to be believed. The mid-tier model of the popular game console currently offers 20 GB of storage and the new rumor touts that Microsoft will be replacing the stock 20GB drive with the much higher capacity 60GB drive.
The upgraded console will come at the end of May or early June and although no exact reasons for given for the upgrade, we can imagine it is due to the growing power of the Xbox Video Marketplace and the larger size of game demos from the Xbox Live arcade.
On top of the upgrade, it is believed the company is considering a completely new model, although what will be inside this new model is uncertain as of yet. Could it possibly have an internal Blu-ray drive? We will keep you updated on any new developments.
