Even though it’s edging on 19 years old, the Xbox 360 doesn’t feel its age. You can still plug Microsoft’s longest-lasting console into a TV, be greeted with your derelict Gamerscore, and uncover all the titles you once downloaded like a lost hoard of buried treasure. But in just under three weeks, Microsoft plans to throw its old Xbox 360 store unceremoniously into a shallow grave. When that happens, there will be no legitimate way to access these games unless you download them right now.
Microsoft declared it’s planning to shut down the Xbox 360 Store on July 29, so all those titles that weren’t available on any other platform are completely dead. Oh, the old games and DLC you bought previously will still work. It just means that by the end of this month, you’ll never have another chance to buy any new games. It’s more bad news for game preservationists who last year showed that 90% of games from the past several decades are no longer commercially available.
There’s still time to download some of these games, but once the store closes, you won’t get another chance without any emulation. Last year, the Video Games Chronicle noted that 220 digital games don’t have any backward compatibility with Xbox One and don’t have physical copies. These are mostly Xbox Arcade titles from Microsoft’s days promoting indie developers on its mainline console. Some of them also received updated versions that were available on later consoles. There are just under 50 games available only through the 360 stores, which will fade away since no updated version was released, as gathered by the DelistedGames blog (via HowtoGeek).
Those downloadable-only titles are not the stuff most nostalgic gamers would immediately recognize. Two Xbox Arcade South Park games, including the co-op sidescroller Tenorman’s Revenge, will disappear from this mortal coil. Another small title with a big name, Burnout Crash, will go the way of the Dodo in 20 days.
When Xbox wanted to promote its motion controls with the Xbox Kinect, it promoted several digital-only titles in its store. In many ways, that peripheral was ahead of its time, but the games will still die. There’s Fruit Ninja Kinect and Haunt. Kinect Fun Labs and Kinect Sports Gems will kick it as well.
What Games are Hard to Get Anywhere but the Xbox 360?
Microsoft has ported a slew of Xbox 360 titles onto Xbox Game Pass for those who want a reminder of what the late 2000s felt like. And yet, so many more games haven’t made the jump anywhere else. Some hard-to-find games are still playable from the Xbox One, but the end of the 360 Store limits their reach. Capcom removed the 2010 title Dark Void from Steam, and now you can only get it on disc or through Xbox. The remastered version of Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker is available on the Xbox 360 store for now, and it’s probably one of the few ways outside of emulation to play the PSP classic.
Looking through the catalog reminds me just how manic the Xbox 360 era was. You can get Call of Juarez Bound in Blood on PC, but it was one of those games centered around two Confederate deserters during the Civil War who returned home to their family home as it was being looted by Union soldiers. You can play it on PC, but the multiplayer has been defunct since 2016.
The 2008 buddy soldier game Army of Two never got off the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. If you were looking for a reminder, the game’s story starts with 9/11, and then suddenly, you and a friend are murdering people in Afghanistan as private military contractors. It was indeed a different time. That game is indeed on Game Pass, but the two sequels, The 40th Day and The Devil’s Cartel, are only available in disc form on Xbox 360 or PS3. The 2009 title The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena suffers a similar fate of being rather hard to find due to licensing issues.
Additionally, starting July 29, Xbox 360 players will no longer have access to the Movies and TV app, meaning any content you purchased on your age-old console will no longer work. It’s another rousing gong that should remind people you don’t own anything you buy digitally. Nintendo closed its Wii U and 3DS eShop earlier this year. So too went the many games, demos, and more once central to the experience of those consoles.
