Xbox Live Sets Online Gaming Benchmark

Coming off one of the hottest holiday seasons for video game software sales in history, Microsoft Corp. today announced that its Xbox Live (TM) online gaming service has set a new standard with more than 1.4 million members, exceeding expectations and cementing its leadership position in the digital entertainment landscape.

This additional news comes on the heels of 14 consecutive months of increased market share for Xbox®, the only console to see an increase of market share in 2004.

"Our consumers are passionate about online gameplay and seek larger-than-life digital entertainment experiences," said Robbie Bach, senior vice president of the Home and Entertainment Division and chief Xbox officer at Microsoft.
The success of Xbox Live reinforces a stellar holiday season for the Xbox platform, which saw Xbox lead competitors in consoles sales, according to recently released data from NPD Funworld.* Other highlights from NPD Funworld include these:

There are now more than 200 Xbox Live -enabled titles, making it the richest library of online console games available today. "Halo 2," which has sold more than 6.4 million copies worldwide since November, helped propel the service to new heights.

"The Xbox Live community has an insatiable appetite for riveting, connected and social game experiences," said Cameron Ferroni, general manager of Xbox Live . "Our ongoing vision is to create online experiences that top anything else our community has seen to date. 'Halo 2' is another great example of how Xbox Live continues to set the standard for online gameplay."

Blockbuster Xbox Live -enabled titles in 2005 promise to boost additional Xbox Live membership growth. Games such as Microsoft Game Studios' "Forza Motorsport (TM) ," LucasArts' "Star Wars Republic Commando," Vicarious Visions' "Doom 3" and Rare's "Conker (TM) : Live and Reloaded" promise to drive additional online gaming growth in the coming months.

A new frontier in imagination and extraordinary interaction, Xbox Live offers rich online gameplay. The world's only unified global online console games service, Xbox Live is continuously innovating to provide members with unparalleled experiences.

Xbox (www.xbox.com) is the video game system from Microsoft that brings people together for the most exhilarating game and entertainment experiences. Xbox delivers an expansive collection of breakthrough games, powerful hardware and the unified Xbox Live online service.