We've heard Microsoft on many occasions banging on about how great the Xbox live arcade is and how successful it has become since launch, but without seeing the figures it's always wise to treat such bragging with a pinch of salt until we see the facts.

Well, the facts have finally arrived, with Microsoft reporting that it has taken $240 million from the Xbox live arcade since launch, with $180 million of that said to be from the last year!

Furthermore, Microsoft's IEB manager Kevin Salcedo claims that "games with paid downloadable content sell, on average, $21 million more at retail, provided the DLC hits within a so-called 30-day "sweet spot."

With these figures at their fingertips, developers can be in no doubt that the future of console videogames could well lie in the release of episodic content and tons of extra DLC.

Let's just hope we don't get to a point where all games are released incomplete and then we have to download new content just to find out what happens next.

Have you been buying stuff from the XBLA? Discuss in the HEXUS.community forums.

Source :: GamaSutra