Delisted Xbox Live Arcade games to remain downloadable
The decision by Microsoft to delist some of the less popular or successful games from the Xbox Live Arcade has been criticised by many who feel there is no need for this, that the Xbox marketplace is working fine without the need for this interference.
The changes to the service were announced last week by Marc Whitten in an interview with Next Gen, where it was revealed that under performing games on Xbox Live would be removed if they failed to qualify to stay under a 3-part criteria.
The original article received a boatload of comments, most of which were negative, so Xbox Live employees have now set the record straight on the Gamerscore Blog. It was previously thought that once a game had been delisted that it would then be unavailable for download but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Instead, even after a game has been delisted, it will still be available for download by people who have already purchased the game, meaning that if your Xbox 360 or HDD fails (which given Microsoft’s track record is entirely possible, you can still get all of your old downloaded games back again.
So what is the criteria, and what games does this potentially endanger? For a game to be delisted it will have to meet all three of the following criteria:
- Been on the service for at least 6 months
- Have less than a 65 Metacritic rating
- Have a conversion rate of less than 6%
The reason for these new measures? According to Microsoft “We have a LOT of XBLA titles on the service. By filtering out the lower performing games, it will actually make it easier to find the games you really want.” Fair enough, but has anyone actually complained about not being able to find games in the past? And even if they have, surely that’s more a problem with the menu than anything else.
Gaming Bits has taken the time and trouble to work out which games could be threatened, and provides a full list here. Although no games have been confirmed yet, the recommendation seems to be that if you don’t want to see one of your favourites be delisted, then get your friends to up it’s conversion rate, or up the score on Metacritic. Otherwise, they’ll be out of here.
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6 Responses to “Delisted Xbox Live Arcade games to remain downloadable”
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May 25th, 2008
Well time they so diligently try to reduce number of loadings then what for they should create it in general?!!!
May 25th, 2008
What a bunch of whining babies. Let crappy titles that nobody plays die off the service.
May 25th, 2008
At least the 360 still has twice as many RPG’s through next year.
May 25th, 2008
I agree with Microsoft here. I don’t enjoy having to sift through the crap on XBLA to find the gems. Hell I downloaded the Ninja Turtles arcade game 6 months ago and still play it online.
May 26th, 2008
It seems hard to believe there couldn’t be a better nav system and the ability to still keep the classics.
July 2nd, 2008
I for one think it will be harder for me to find the games I want to play if they are de-listing titles.