So, after almost two decades, Microsoft has announced the closure of the Xbox 360 digital store. Yep, from July 29th 2024, the old Xbox 360 store will shut down on Xbox 360 consoles and the web, bringing its 19-year run to an end. However, this is by no means the end for buying digital Xbox & Xbox 360 games, as Microsoft has clarified.
Basically, all of the original Xbox and Xbox 360 content that has been brought over to the 'modern' Xbox store will still be available to purchase following the closure of the old storefront. This shutdown is specific to the old style Xbox 360 store - and most backwards compatible content has been brought over to the new version of the Xbox store at this stage.
"There is no impact to purchasing or playing backward-compatible Xbox 360 titles. After July 29, 2024, you will still be able to purchase hundreds of great backward-compatible Xbox 360 and Original Xbox games and DLC on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox.com. We believe in celebrating gaming’s rich history and have worked hard to preserve as many games as possible through our backward-compatibility program."
However, there may be certain backwards compatible titles that are not purchasable via the new-style storefront. Microsoft has made an effort to bring as many over as possible in recent years, but, some content may have got lost in the shuffle during that process. If there is anything backwards compatible and stranded on the old storefront, we'd expect it to disappear for good next July.
Of course, any content you've already purchased that's tied to your account will still be accessible to re-download - regardless of whether it came from the old marketplace or not. This closure is only related to purchasing content you don't already own.
We hope that clears things up a little bit! In the meantime, we're going to scour that old Xbox 360 storefront to see what might be worth picking up prior to the July 2024 shutdown.
Is there anything you're thinking of buying from the old store? Let us know what we should grab down below!
[source news.xbox.com]
Comments 23
Guess it is time to stock up on 360 games before they skyrocket. You already have outliers like the Spider-Man games commanding hefty premiums.
For SEGA fans, this means Space Channel 5 pt 2, Sega Superstars Tennis, and Phantasy Star Universe will be gone unless something changes between now and then. FYI, Space Channel 5 pt 2 is on Steam, but the other two are not and will truly be inaccessible digitally on console and PC.
Glad to see the backwards compatible games will still be there as not all were released physically. Though it's a shame to see games disappear. How many XBLA games that aren't compatible will be gone for purchase now?
We're in a sad time where games are disappearing, and it's up to, effectively, pirates to preserve them all and make them available for future generations.
Didn’t you guys have an article about the BC titles you can find on the old store? Might be helpful to include here - I’d love to see what else I need to grab before the store shuts down.
Is there a list of games that will become inaccessible for purchase?
@PhileasFragg "it's a sad time" not really. This is how stuff have always worked. Things disappeared a lot quicker in the past. It would be way too expensive and use too many resources to keep everything available all of the time, including the 360 store.
Games have always disappeared, we are probably keeping more games than ever available for longer. That is hardly a sad time.
Sad news to wake up to this morning. After almost 20 years, we knew it would go away someday. I have most of the 360 games I like on disc already, but a list of games you can only purchase on the 360 store would be appreciated.
At first, I thought BC OG Xbox & 360 games would no longer be available for purchase on the store for Series X/S, but I'm glad to see that's not the case. I'll have to buy a 2TB external HDD and hook up the old 360 slim to buy all the games that will be gone by this time next year.
@EvenStephen7 100% this. Might be back luck, but I've been stung by this a few times lately, had to fish out the 360 to buy a back-compat title for Series X.
@Lightning720 I think it's sad there'll be digital only games that you can't get any more when it shuts down. In the past if you wanted to buy an old PS2 game you'd get one second hand, or from new old stock, but you can't do that legally with digital games.
@EvenStephen7 We did, but it's actually outdated now as Microsoft seems to have brought the vast majority (if not all of them) over to the new store over the past year.
I've had a quick check this afternoon and haven't been able to find any BC titles exclusive to the Xbox 360 store just yet.
@Lightning720 you couldn't be more wrong sadly.
@FraserG There's a decent handful of DLCs only available though the 360 Marketplace for BC games, an example off the top of my head being Skullgirls. Shows only 2 of the DLCs as available and the rest are not, and have to be bought through the 360 Marketplace.
Still missing some great games like Afterburner Climax, OutRun 2006: Coast2Coast, and Daisenryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics. I would immediately snatch those up if somehow they ever get added to the BC list.
@MaxC Think SEGA Superstars Tennis has already been delisted.
@shoeses Cool, thank you! I'll look into it
And yes, SEGA Superstars Tennis doesn't appear to be on the store anymore. PSU and Space Channel are, however.
@Lightning720 it’s sad!
@Lightning720 also old games are better than the new ones
@Kaloudz That doesn't really add up considering the vast majority of these games aren't and won't be getting remakes, let alone in a few years to justify it. Even then, the re-releases end up being cheaper than most of the original versions, especially if they had DLC. So removing those other versions just remove more potential revenue.
I really, really hope that going forward, the big players in video games stick to the same store archive in subsequent consoles. Tying your digital storefront to hardware is so archaic, not to mention greedy. I know it's not feasible to have every game backwards compatible, but at least give the option to buy those games on the old consoles. Why do they have their own servers!? Use the same servers as the new stuff and do some load balancing! I know this because I WORK WITH CLOUD SERVERS.
I still have disc editions of about ten xbox 360 games.
Dragon Age, Red Dead Redemption, Mirrors Edge, and a few others.
The only one I have as a download is Fable. So I am hoping there will be an updated disc edition of that, at some point. There was talk of a Fable remaster, wasn’t there?
I also have about a dozen PS4 games, all of which seem to run on the PS5 (at least for now). Only two of those are downloads. So yes, if there are older games that you still want to play, then try and buy physical copies of them now. The good thing is you should be able to find most of them quite cheaply.
I can’t even redownload my digital games on Xbox 360 because I moved to a new country than where I purchased and it just cancels the download on 79%. I’m glad they removed that on Series X.
Some great 360 games not BC: Quantum of Solace, Blood Stone, Singularity, LOTR War in the North, LOTR Conquest, Alpha Protocol, Riddick Dark Athena/Butcher Bay, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Space Marine, Brink, Jericho.
@CaptainCluck
You can somewhat easily bypass this with a VPN. I was in the same situation as I moved to another country.
Is there a list of games somewhere available that shows BC titles only available on the 360 store?
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