Goodbye To The 360 Store

Microsoft will close the Xbox 360 store at some undisclosed time today, and that really is the end of an era.

There’s a lot of positives to say about that store, and we’ll get to them in good time. Gamesreviews is well over ten years old now, and when we started out, the 360 store was the one to beat. It’s hard to get my head around the idea that we’ve outlasted a console store, especially one so popular.

For those that don’t remember, this was the store that defined what digital purchases were going to look like going forward. The PlayStation 3 launched with a browser-based store, and my recollection of it at the time is that I didn’t think the PS2 was missing much. When I finally got a 360 and got in on Trials HD, ‘Splosion Man and the like, I could feel the potential for digital going forward.

It was PlayStation Plus that finally sold me on the digital lifestyle, but it started many years before that with the 360 store.

And while it’s pretty difficult to get nostalgic about a digital shop, there can be no denying that it ended up being pretty revolutionary.

With the closure of the store goes with it access to a whole host of 360 games that aren’t available anywhere else. This is really disappointing.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, the backwards compatibility service is fantastic. It means that hundreds of games are available to play on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

Beyond 360 Compatibility

I suspect that most games viable for re-release have been re-released. Viable in this case means either financially viable or legally, with the latter causing way more problems that it fully deserves. But whatever the reason we’re losing all these games today, it is a crying shame.

There will be just under 50 games lost when the store goes down. That means they’re not available elsewhere, physically or digitally. Among them, Gotham City Imposters and a couple of South Park games.

Granted, there’s nothing on the list that is going to feel like the Mona Lisa getting stolen. That’s not the point. That these titles will disappear now is a blow to those who care about preservation.

Ultimately you can’t expect a store to stay up for the sake of 50 games. Besides, there are probably only about that many people actively buying. Frustrating but true.

Taking in the good and bad of this closure, it’s still the end of an era. It wouldn’t surprise me if the PS3 store went the same way. At the very least we can stop arguing about that generation should count as retro.

My final thought is simple. This closure was inevitable. There will be one day when the Series X/PS5 store shuts too. There is a cost/benefit analysis for every generation of stores. I hope Microsoft is building on the 360 closure to ensure everything is as future proofed as possible. With each closure, things should get easier to move things forward, and to ensure access for as long as possible. Only then can we have confidence in our digital purchases.