Ever wondered what all your little purchases of track packs for Rock Band and new maps for CoD4 have added up to when you bundle them in with everyone else's? The answer is a lot. Microsoft has dished up some figures on how much cash downloadable content (DLC) has generated.

Discussing Xbox Live marketplace, Kevin Salcedo, manager of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, recently said - "Right now we have over 12 million users in over 26 countries, with $240 million (£122.8 million) in transactions revenue so far, with $180 million in the last 12 months alone."

That great big pot of cash to be dipped into isn't the only benefit to publishers, either. Salcedo went on to say, "On average, titles that have downloadable content on XBL marketplace have seen a 16 percent [longer] period of people holding onto that title, which keeps them from selling to second hand stores."

Fewer second hand copies of games floating around, of course, means more sales of brand new copies in which publishers can share in the profits.

Figures like that have to make Nintendo wonder what it's missing out on by not offering post-launch DLC for its titles.

^{Source: Gamasutra}