Microsoft on Friday said its 25 million Xbox Live members are averaging over 40 hours per month on the online service, spending the equivalent of over 1 billion hours per month on Live altogether, as the platform continues to expand beyond multiplayer gaming. The company said there has been a 157 percent increase in time spent watching movies and television programs on the increasingly multimedia-focused Xbox 360 over the last year, which has a worldwide install base of 42 million consoles.
Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment -- and to a lesser extent, Nintendo -- have been constantly updating their video game consoles with features like streaming Netflix, Hulu, movie rentals, television show downloads, Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm.
The move into areas beyond gaming exhibits the companies' attempts at taking increasing advantage of their device's growing install bases and TV and internet connections. Other upcoming non-gaming offerings coming to Xbox Live include ESPN 360, Zune Music and video chat application Video Kinect.
An October study from Knowledge Networks said that 21 percent of American consumers use video game consoles to view movie and TV content. Microsoft said that 42 percent of paying Xbox Live Gold subscribers in the U.S. use the system to watch TV and movies, and that those users watch an average of one hour video content on their Xbox 360s daily.
Microsoft recently said that it would expand Xbox Live support to nine more countries, bringing the number of supported countries to 35 this November, the same month that Xbox 360's body-scanning Kinect camera peripheral hits shelves.
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