Since the launch of the New Xbox Experience, the avatar-friendly, Xbox Live redesign, sales on the Xbox 360's Live marketplace have as much as tripled, Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox 360 said today.
Xbox LIVE Marketplace sales have been up week over week since the New Xbox Experience hit three weeks ago, with movie downloads increasing 49 percent and TV episode downloads up 30 percent the week after launch. And, Greenberg said, Xbox LIVE Arcade sales almost tripled in the first week after the New Xbox Experience launch.
"We are seeing it as a sustained increase," Greenberg said.
Some games saw a bigger impact to sales than others did. In particular, Arcade titles Uno and A Kingdom for Keflings, both of which support in-game avatar use, saw tremendous jumps in sales.
"I think we are bringing a much broader audience into the experience," Greenberg said. "We've made the Xbox easier to navigate and that's resulted in people buying new content."
"We'll see over time how that plays out."
The new Xbox interface, which was rolled out on Nov. 19, comes as Xbox Live membership hits an all time high, currently more than 14 million active members online.
Those members, Greenberg said, are also much more active than they used to be. The number of new friends added per Xbox LIVE member has risen by 33 percent, since Nov. 19, and over the past year the average number of unique visitors to Live every day has risen 66 percent.