Xbox fans might find themselves dealing with a loss of over 200 games from the digital storefront. That’s due to the upcoming removal of the Xbox 360 storefront. Microsoft is making a move to shut things down for the Xbox 360 side of things, and that has sparked quite a bit of attention to the games that might get left behind. However, the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has already been made aware of 220 games that are unavailable through backward compatibility. So, solutions are being considered to avoid potentially losing these games forever.
If you don’t recall, earlier this month, Microsoft revealed that the Xbox 360 storefront was being removed. Fortunately, you have until July of 2024, so you’ll have about a year to go through the digital storefront and decide if you want to purchase any of the games or DLC. While Microsoft has made some excellent moves to bring backward compatibility into the forefront on their Xbox console platforms, there are some games that will be killed off for good. Phil Spencer is aware of this, as he recently spoke to Eurogamer about the upcoming shutdown date.
For starters, Phil essentially made this move to shut down the Xbox 360 storefront to better provide resources for the platforms players are actively gaming on. Their stats right now show that the Xbox 360 platform is niche, and the storefront is not driving as much sales when compared to the latest console platforms from Xbox. As a result, it was decided to shut the storefront down. However, a year was given to players if they wish to purchase any games or DLC before that date arrives in July of 2024.
There’s a list of, what 220 games that are not back compat, and I have that list and I’ve got it stapled on my forehead, and like, how can we make sure [you can play them still?] How many of those are on PC? That’s one thing, because it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be able to play it on the existing hardware that you bought 15 years ago, but preservation is front and centre when all these decisions are made. I will say for us that preservation that’s linked to only one piece of hardware is a challenge. Because there can be hardware love as well – people who love and want this device to do this forever – but mechanical things will break over time. But that’s why we gave people with this decision a year. Let’s say ‘hey, if you want to go buy things in the 360 store, we’re going to give you a year headstart, and you can go get those things’. And just know that the list of the 220 games is something that we see, and we would love to find solutions for those games to continue to play.
Phil Spencer – Eurogamer
Phil Spencer went on to say that they are aware of the 220 games that are currently not backward compatible and might be in danger of being lost forever. That list is on Phil’s mind, and they are working through things now to see if any of these games are available on the PC platform to at least preserve the video game titles. If not, they would love to find solutions that would allow these games to continue being accessible for players to enjoy. So we’ll have to continue in our wait to see if there is some plan in place that would ensure the Xbox 360 storefront doesn’t see the demise of any games during its closure.
