The Potential Live Arcade User Base

So according to Mark Kroese, General Manager of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Advertising Business Group, Doritos Dash of Destruction has amassed almost 1 million downloads since its launch on Dec. 17. That sounds like a huge number, right? But, when you take into account that MS just announced that the Xbox LIVE community has grown to 17 million members, that 1 million suddenly doesn't seem as big.

(I bet that Doritos Truck felt big, until those huge dinosaurs flanked him...)



So herein lies the question that Brent and I were discussing this morning: if there are 17 million LIVE users and only 1 million downloaded Dash of Destruction, a FREE Live Arcade game, are there only 1 million people who actually connect to the internet on their Xbox? Or are there 16 million people who don't notice and/or don't care about LIVE Arcade games?

We all know it's silly to think only 1 million people connect to the internet on their Xbox given how many people play big retail games like Halo 3 and Gears of War 2 over LIVE. So, even if we say there are 15 million people who don't notice and/or don't care about LIVE Arcade games (because there are probably around one million people who don't connect their Xbox to the internet at all), that's still 15 million people who aren't playing Xbox Live Arcade games!!! There's obviously a huge market out there that is completely untapped. And seeing as how Live Arcade is our livelihood, we, as well as the other 100 or so Live Arcade developers, need to figure out how to tap that market...Any thoughts?