Believe it Not, Xbox 360 Main Use Today is Not for Gaming

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Microsoft has succeeded in evolving the Xbox 360 game console into something more than just a video gaming gateway.

According to the company, owners now spend more time watching TV and listening to music through the console than playing games with it. The average household now use the Xbox for 84 hours per month and the majority now goes to movies and videos, said Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi. One year ago, passive entertainment content accounted for only 30 percent of Xbox usage.

Of course, there is one potentially major flaw in the calculation as it is based on Xbox Live usage and cannot consider offline game play. However, the trend to a general entertainment box appears to be very real: "What we're seeing is that people are turning on the Xbox to play games and then keeping it on afterwards to get other types of entertainment," Mehdi told the LA Times.

About five years ago, Microsoft was heavily criticized for its generalizing strategy that suggested that Microsoft would turn the console also into a pizza oven, if it could. Following the launch of the Nintendo Wii and the PS3, it was widely believed that specialized gaming experiences focused on user interface control would succeed over Microsoft's everything-for-everyone model. According to Microsoft, there are currently more than 20 million paying Xbox Live subscribers - which is almost a third of all Xbox consoles sold so far (66 million).

Douglas Perry

Douglas Perry is an author and journalist from Portland, Oregon. His many articles have appeared in the likes of Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, The Oregonian, and several newspapers. He has covered topics including security, hardware, and cars, and has written five books. In his spare time, he enjoys watching The Sopranos.

59 Comments Comment from the forums
  • sliem
    It's because it's free to use xbox360 as media center and it's not free to use it as gold member.
    Reply
  • Fuyukazehime
    My Xbox 360 is being used as a paper weight :p
    Reply
  • mcd023
    actually, a pizza over would be convenient, too
    Reply
  • lp231
    When a console has other features besides just for playing games, it's no surprise users will use it for other things. Just like a gaming computer, you don't just only play games , you will use it to browse the web, listen to music, etc.

    Reply
  • irish_adam
    sliemIt's because it's free to use xbox360 as media center and it's not free to use it as gold member.
    >_> well 1/3 of all consoles have gold membership and lets face it a fair few of the other 2/3 are either broken or unused.

    so i would say most people with a 360 pay for membership
    Reply
  • zak_mckraken
    I believe it. I mainly use it to stream movies from my PC. If this thing could read mkv files, it would be on 24/7!
    Reply
  • nadavp3
    wish we had halo 4 right now
    Reply
  • cookoy
    It's like China buying the Kiev aircraft carrier from Russia, and instead of using it for why it was built, convert it to a floating hotel. Is that good?
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    cookoyIt's like China buying the Kiev aircraft carrier from Russia, and instead of using it for why it was built, convert it to a floating hotel. Is that good?
    THAT is good. Floating hotel > consumptive war device.
    Reply
  • "Believe it or not"? Heck yeah I believe it. The hardware is 5 years old. Just fine for media playback. Not so fine for modern games.
    Reply