Xbox Live Majority of subs bought at ret

Two thirds of Xbox Live Gold members pay for their subscriptions via traditional retailers, Microsoft has said. The platform holder shared the surprising statistic with trade mag MCV, adding that it's working on a number of new initiatives to help stores get a slice of its digital revenue.However, perhaps disappointingly for gamers, the firm said that unlike Sony, it has no plans to release full game downloads at the same time as their boxed counterparts, "out of respect" for retail."There are no plans in terms of that kind of day and date parity," said Xbox Live marketing manager for EMEA Robin Burrowes."We are very respectful of the retail environment, in that we have a window between the release of a retail game and the digital one. There's no immediate plans to change that."We are continuing to talk to retail in different ways," he added. "We are looking to introduce new digital innovations to drive more business. We've been testing electronic software distribution in a couple of places. We will be testing point-of-sale activation, which is similar to buying cards in store and being able to redeem that code at the point of purchase. "We are introducing new digital tokens and are working very closely with retailers. 68 percent of Europe's Xbox Live subscription acquisitions come from retail."Microsoft is also keen to continue bundling DLC and Xbox Live Arcade games with retail releases, such as Fruit Ninja Kinect with upcoming Kinect game The Gunstringer."For certain Kinect games out this Christmas there will be codes included. Sometimes we will be doing: buy a subscription card and get some points which can redeemed against movies or games. We are continuing to innovate that," Burrowes added. Andy Robinson