Just moments after receiving the press release that 2008 was the Australian games industry’s biggest year ever, Microsoft followed up with word that they too had an awesome 2008. Not only did they crack the half million console mark in Australia, but they absolutely blitzed it on Xbox Live, with membership increasing 88% on 2007.Other Xbox-related stats worth noting are that Aussies spent over 27 million hours on Xbox Live, made 4.2 million downloads and that more than half of the 500,000 Xbox 360’s in the country are connected to Live. On top of that, each 360 console has an average of 8 games sitting next to it on the shelf, and 63% of the 500 games for Xbox 360 are rated G or PG.
So, overall, 2008 was a good year for gaming in Australia, so long as you take out the tales of RRoD, the lack of an R18+ rating for games and the subsequent classification issues that arise from that, Sony’s PS3-killing firmware (and wallet killing price) and probably lots of other issues that arose in 2008. 2009 though – that’s where the real gaming heroes will be made…