Xbox 360 Store is finally closing. Microsoft I told you this day would comeBut the news is stuck in our throats, keeping the sobs from escaping our mouths. Mourners are already lining up, Nostalgic Flowers It stands at the foot of the graveyard of Xbox’s landmark digital marketplace, which wasn’t just a store for big-budget titles but also a place that highlighted indie developers more than any console before it.
Around noon ET on July 29, Xbox users began seeing an error message when trying to access games through the Xbox Live Store. The message read, “This item is no longer available for purchase from this store. You may be able to purchase the content on your new console, on PC, or online at the Microsoft Store at Xbox.com.”
It looks like the Xbox 360 Store has officially shut down https://t.co/Hb3sd16Yi4 pic.twitter.com/AA1tByO4N4
— Wario64 (@Wario64) July 29, 2024
Before the store disappeared, there were some good games still available to purchase, and while some popular Xbox 360 games survive on Game Pass, many others, including multiple games, have disappeared entirely. Small arcade Kinect titlesThis movement Another blow to wildlife conservation effortsThe researchers note that roughly 90 percent of classic games are not commercially available.
Xbox 360 players will still have access to the games they downloaded before the store entered digital elysium, so if you’ve got a 360 lying around, take a trip down memory lane, fire it up, and see if your Gamerscore is as high as you remember it.
The Xbox 360 Shop shouldn’t be remembered as just another digital storefront. Xbox Live Arcade and Steam on PC played a key role in creating a boom in indie developers looking to reach the masses. The early 2010s saw the emergence of a ton of indie games that are now classics. Limbo, Super Meat Boy, Fez, Bastion, Mark of the Ninja, Rock of Agesand many more. Of course, dozens of Mine Craft Clones. Games that can be easily baked in the oven, etc. Castle Minor Zbecame big hit In their time.
The rise of Xbox Live Arcade had a dark side. The Xbox 360 era, the seventh generation of consoles, introduced a restrictive marketplace. To be ubiquitous, games had to be on the few available marketplaces. Xbox Game Pass is the dominant name in game streaming. Microsoft I boasted. It had 34 million subscribers earlier this year. The next big player in the streaming industry, Nvidia’s GeForce Now, last reported having 20 million registered users as of August 2022. Stream still dominates PC game streaming, not just in terms of number of users but also in the number of titles available.
But at the very least, the Xbox 360 storefront paved the way for a world where publishers didn’t necessarily have to have complete control over distribution.
