In just a couple of months, the Xbox 360 store will finally be retired. While disappointing, it was only a matter of time considering the console’s age. However, Microsoft is easing the sting a little bit by discounting a bunch of Xbox 360 games.
In a May 14 Xbox Wire blog post, Microsoft explains, “To celebrate the legacy of Xbox 360, we’re working with our amazing publishing partners to bring you as many price reductions from our online store or from the Xbox 360 Store on the console.” Currently, 61 games have been discounted, but Microsoft intends to update this list in two waves; one on June 18 and another on July 16. It hasn’t said how exactly how many more games will see reductions, though.
The store itself will shut down on July 29, so that’s enough time to scour Microsoft’s offers, especially since the selected games are so cheap. Some are going for as little as a dollar. The current list also thankfully includes some digital Xbox 360 exclusives, such as Alien Rage and Cloudberry Kingdom, which you can’t buy anywhere else and will be lost forever once the store closes. So, anyone who has a particular interest in video game preservation will want to snap those up.
The Xbox Wire post has a full list of discounted games along with links to each of their listings on the Xbox 360 store, so I strongly recommend looking through it and grabbing anything that catches your eye. Hopefully, more digital-only games will see discounts so more people can download them. According to VGC, over 220 games will become inaccessible after the store shutdown, though their list does include games that have seen updated re-releases or ports. For example, while the Xbox 360 version of the first Life is Strange will be de-listed, that game has a remaster that’s readily available on modern platforms.
It can frustrating from a preservationist’s perspective to see Microsoft close down one of its digital storefronts, but the sad reality is that most people will have long moved onto more modern Xbox consoles. I can’t imagine many Xbox fans regularly play on their Xbox 360, so it doesn’t make much sense from a business perspective to keep the store running.
Microsoft isn’t the only company guilty of this either. Earlier this year, Nintendo ended online support for both the 3DS and Wii U, shutting down their respective storefronts too. Sony, meanwhile, tried to do the same for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita stores back in 2021, but there was enough of a backlash that the company backtracked on it. Although that didn’t stop it from shutting down the PlayStation Portable’s digital storefront.
