Xbox 360 digital games are seeing huge discounts as the clock ticks down to the closure of the console’s online marketplace on July 29, 2024. Thankfully, even after the closure, users can still redownload previously purchased games for the foreseeable future. But, purchasing new games or DLC will not be possible after the closure.
However, not all games will survive the closure. According to analysts, around 220 games will no longer be playable or disappear forever after the closure. After the announcement of the Xbox 360 Marketplace closure, Microsoft’s head of gaming said he was searching for ways to ensure hundreds of titles are not lost forever.
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To make sure that players get all the Xbox 360 digital games they need before the closure, Microsoft planned three waves of discounts—of which the first has gone live. No fewer than 66 titles have seen their prices heavily slashed in the first wave. Around 18 of those are part of the 220 games that will be lost forever after the marketplace closure.
“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,” said Microsoft.
“We’ll be updating this list with more games on June 18, 2024, and on July 16, 2024, bringing you as many repriced games as possible before the end of July. These price reductions will remain in place for each game through the 360 Store closing on July 29, 2024.”
Last month, Xbox president Sarah Bond said she has established a new team whose primary role would be game preservation and ensuring backward compatibility in future hardware.
“We have formed a new team dedicated to game preservation, important to all of us at Xbox and the industry itself,” Bond said. We are building on our strong history of delivering backwards compatibility to our players, and we remain committed to bringing forward the amazing library of Xbox games for future generations of players to enjoy.”
There is a growing petition from gamers (particularly in the UK), asking the government to stop publishers from killing games. However, several hundreds of games continue to be lost each year.
