Less than two weeks ago DFC Intelligence examined March 2010 usage of Xbox 360 games through monitoring plays registered by the GamerDNA audience on Xbox Live. We found that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 had an impact on play of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In the crossplay analysis of usage of both titles, we found that through March 17, 21% of users who had ever played Modern Warfare 2 had played Bad Company 2; conversely, 81% of Bad Company 2 users had played Modern Warfare 2. At that time Modern Warfare 2 was still the most played game on Xbox Live despite its slightly accelerated decline due to Bad Company 2.
Now that March 2010 is complete and we have data through the Easter weekend, a new picture of how these two online shooters has emerged. The chart below shows daily audience reach through April 4, and in particular the highly anticipated rebound in Modern Warfare 2 play on March 30, the day the Infinity Ward “Stimulus Package” downloadable content released. The DLC pack contained five new maps (two Call of Duty 4 map updates and three all new maps) for $15 that players clearly flocked to. Given the size of the Modern Warfare 2 audience, it is safe to say that between the March 30 release on Xbox Live and upcoming April 30 release on PSN, “Stimulus Package” sales will be measured in multi-millions.
Other successful titles have also seen upticks in play through the release of downloadable content. The March 23 released “Firewalker” missions and related content pack for Electronic Art’s Mass Effect 2 gave the game a significant jump in play relative to the size of the active audience at the time, though this was more of a short lived blip as the game is purely a single player experience. A better recent example of a longer lasting effect of downloadable content on usage is that of “Secret Armory of General Knoxx” for the Gearbox FPS-RPG hybrid Bordlands. That DLC pack released February 23 and Borderlands play actually kept rising until peaking five days later, taking a full month to return to its previous daily play rates.
Forecasted U.S. Xbox 360 unit sales of selected titles released in March:
Forecasts based on tracking Xbox 360 Usage
For more information on Xbox Live analysis of the GamerDNA audience, please contact DFC Intelligence.
