I sure do love an all digital future where we own absolutely nothing and can have our allegedly owned licensed products taken away at the drop of a hat.
I’ve always had a strong resentment towards digital distribution platforms and storefronts that limits ownership of a specific product down to a “license” held by the individual’s account, along with video games that follow the mantra of always being connected to the internet because in this modern world just about everything to do with video games these days is all digital.
And don’t even get me started on the costs of physical media because that’s hardly any better considering if you don’t already have your own collection you can look forward to paying obscene amounts of money for physical copies of games from the sixth generation of consoles and newer.
Microsoft have announced that it intends to shut down the XBOX 360’s store platform on July 29th 2024, which means people will no longer be able to purchase games, DLC or other various forms of content from with the XBOX 360’s Marketplace.
Along with the closure of the XBOX Live Marketplace on the XBOX 360, Microsoft also intend on abolishing the “Movies & TV” app for the 17 year old console which marks the end of being able to use your ancient XBOX 360 as a DVD player.
Digital Content that has previously been purchased from the XBOX Live Marketplace can continue to be used and or redownloaded following the shutdown next year, but quite frankly it’s only a matter of time before Microsoft intends on pulling the plug on the whole concept of XBOX Live for the system entirely.
It truly is sad to see 7th generation consoles put out to pasture, with Nintendo having recently closed off eShop functionality for the ever popular Nintendo DS systems and the Wii U which was the exact opposite of popular.
But of course, regardless of age of the platform, modern day consumers are in fact celebrating the life long lived of the system and praising Microsoft’s announcement for being open and honest, because it’s only natural to have your digital purchases hindered / limited or outright taken away.
Never mind the actual fact that you, the consumer are not entitled to compensation of any kind if for whatever reason your fake digital license is otherwise revoked or removed, according to the Microsoft Services Agreement, they do not have to offer you the ability to redownload any digital asset that has otherwise been purged from their services.
But I remember Phil, I remember when you said that you weren’t going to shut down the XBOX 360’s storefront.
While majority of the games that will be removed are now ancient history, XBOX LIVE Indie games, this loss really only marks the beginning of the end for digital ownership on the XBOX 360, and in many ways serves as a great reminder to outright modify your XBOX 360 console and pirate the entire system’s library for preservation purposes, even if you don’t want to use an actual console to browse through the hundreds of games released across the consoles lifespan, with countless titles being exclusive only to the XBOX 360, another alternative would be to pirate its library and play them on your PC with the Xenia emulator.
