Xbox Live Turns Five

Just as the service hits another subscriber milestone.

Microsoft has taken some criticism for its pay-to-play approach to online play over Xbox Live but the service is still regarded by many as the best out there. This is a big week for Xbox Live. Not only is it celebrating its fifth birthday on Thursday, 15 November, but Microsoft has hit another member milestone too.

The Xbox 360 Dashboard as it appeared in 2005

The company said this week that there are now more than 8 million members to Xbox Live in 26 countries.

How many of those people are paying for the service is something only Microsoft knows, as the company has consistently avoided mentioning in public how that breaks down between the free Silver and the subscription-based Gold membership levels.

To reward its most loyal customers, Microsoft said it will be giving 500 Microsoft Points to all active Gold members who have been signed up since November 2002.

There's a present for everyone else too. From 8.01am on Thursday, 15 November, until 7.59am on Saturday, 17 November, everyone signed up to Xbox Live will be able to download an Xbox Live Arcade game for free.

Live has been an evolving platform for Microsoft. Over the years the service has been updated several times. The biggest was with the jump from Xbox to Xbox 360, when Microsoft introduced the free Silver membership and standardized how games would work on Live.

While multiplayer has always been the core of Live, in recent years Microsoft has started to emphasis its communication and entertainment features. In the US, Live members can download movies and TV shows - something that is coming soon to the UK.

A new feature coming to Live is Xbox Originals. When the next Xbox 360 system update goes out, on 4 December, console owners will be able to download full games from the first Xbox.

Some of the games that will be available include Halo, Psychonauts, Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge and Fable. Each game will cost 1,200 Microsoft Points, or just over £10.

For the most part, games in the Xbox Originals program should work as expected, though Microsoft has already put out word that there are minor problems with some of the games, mostly related to bonus content such as demos and trailers on the original discs.

You can find out more about what to expect from the performance of the first batch of Xbox Originals games at Xbox.com.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo