Less Than 25% of Xbox Live Users Are European, Microsoft Blames Europe's Multiple Languages

7
European gamers make up "less than a quarter" of all Xbox Live memberships due to the various languages used in Europe, European Xbox VP Chris Lewis has stated.

"Up until fairly recently we just haven't had enough on the service for non-English speaking folks," he told gaming magazine Edge, as relayed by CVG. "On a community service like Live, [you need] enough people of a similar language orientation to get a community so that it starts to really blow out."

According to Lewis, the "lion's share" of Xbox Live members are located within North America, with the majority of European Xbox Live users being UK residents.

He explained that in France, Microsoft "only recently started to get figures where you've got enough French-speaking folks getting a rich enough experience to talk about it meaningfully to their friends."

Two levels of Xbox Live service are available for Xbox 360 owners: the free Silver membership, which allows users to buy downloadable content such as movies and games, and the subscription-based Gold level, required for online multiplayer.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

Filed Under
From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 31, 2008 9:15 AM

    and dont forget all the people that dont have live in their country so they sign up for a UK / Danish/ French accounts.

    • reply
      July 31, 2008 10:10 AM

      And people who fake themselves as being american so they can actually get some content.

Hello, Meet Lola