Microsoft's own datacenter services for consumers such as an advertising, payment, storage platforms and Xbox Live.
Nearly 80, 000 Americans are deployed in Afghanistan, Exum said, while 2.2 million played Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live during a single day last fall.
Meanwhile, Sony's online service for the PS3, which will link gamers and allow them to download extra content, bears a close resemblance to Microsoft's successful Xbox Live service.
It wants to ensure that only those paying for Xbox Live Gold accounts can access its additional content services and even then there is usually a charge on top to get access to those.
