Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360 online store will close in July but backwards compatibility on Xbox Series X/S will be unaffected.
When people worry about video game preservation, and older titles being lost forever, they’re generally not talking about games from the very earliest days of the industry, but much more recent titles, especially anything that relies on an online connection.
Publishers regularly switch off servers for less popular games after only a few years, while even the most popular retro consoles have their online shops shut down eventually.
That happened to the Wii U and 3DS just recently, and now Microsoft has announced that the venerable Xbox 360 online store will close on July 29, 2023.
The store first opened in 2005, at a time when digital downloads were largely unknown for console games and still not entirely dominant on PC.
Together with the Xbox Live Arcade label, Microsoft pioneered the whole concept of not only buying console games digitally but selling smaller indie titles and DLC, that would otherwise never be sold in retail shops.
All good things come to an end though and many will probably be surprised that the web-based version of the store is still active.
Once it’s shut down though the Microsoft Movies and TV app will no longer work on the Xbox 360, and you won’t be able to watch any related video content on your Xbox 360. They will still work on newer consoles though.
Games and DLC will still work on everything though, including via backwards compatibility on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Plus, you’ll still be able to redownload the games if you don’t currently have them installed.
In most cases the online multiplayer modes will still work as well, although only if the servers are still live.
The majority of games use Microsoft’s own servers, so they should be fine, but some publishers – most notably EA – insist on using their own servers, precisely so they can turn them off whenever they want (and thus push you towards buying their newer games).
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