Microsoft Clarifies Xbox 360 Marketplace Is Not Closing

Microsoft has intervened to stop a rumor from spreading about the Xbox 360 marketplace shutting down.

In a statement to Gematsu, Microsoft shared this statement:
“This message was posted in error and we can confirm the Xbox 360 marketplace will not close in May 2023. As a reminder, beginning on February 7, 2023, a limited set of games, add-ons, and in-game content will no longer be purchasable in select markets via the Xbox 360 Store.”

The rumor started spreading following legitimate news that Xbox 360 games would be getting delisted from the marketplace. There seemed to have been some concern about this delisting as there were as many as 46 titles getting pulled.

A fan saw a message on the Xbox 360 Marketplace itself hinting that the store would soon be closing down, but as we now know, that message was sent in error.

You can read the full list of games below, but it should be fairly obvious that many of these games have since been upgraded with remasters and remakes, and are readily available in other platforms, including PC. As to why they are getting removed, it’s simply a reality that the license and commercial agreements that led to the games being produced and published on a platform like the Xbox 360 will eventually end.

Consumer sentiment has shifted about older digital marketplaces. Even if they are no longer realistically profitable, or realistically being used by most gamers, there is a new sentiment that these stores should stay up for the sake of video game preservation. While the stores may stay up as a whole, individual games will eventually see removal in time.

Thankfully, in the case of the Xbox 360, Microsoft started a program to relicense many of these games. The relicensing allows consumers who purchased these games to tie them to their Xbox accounts and keep playing them on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles. These may not be permanent solutions for the issues surrounding video game preservation, but it has been the most preservation friendly commercial solution that any of the console platform holders have offered.

Here is the list of games being delisted from the Xbox 360 marketplace, courtesy of Game Rant: