The Xbox 360 digital store is the latest to go offline, following the Wii U and 3DS store shutdown in March. It shut down on Monday, taking about 220 games with it, according to analysis by Video Games Chronicle. Preservation activists at the Video Game History Foundation even made a funeral cake.
Microsoft is definitely the best of the major companies when it comes to backwards compatibility and game preservation – despite those 220 lost games, a huge percentage of the Xbox 360’s back catalogue can still legally be played on later consoles. And it is remarkable that the Xbox 360 Marketplace lasted almost 20 years (the console was released in late 2005). It wasn’t the first digital store on a console, but it was the first one I ever used, and I assume the same was true for a lot of British players – the Xbox 360 was the most popular console of its generation in this country. In retrospect, the Marketplace was astonishingly ahead of its time.
In the 2000s, brick and mortar video-game retail was still king, and the retailers held immense sway over the pricing and distribution of games. At the time, offering digital-only games at all risked retribution from the likes of Electronics Boutique and Game. I remember reporting on chatter at the time suggesting that some shops were threatening not to stock the Xbox 360 at all, because letting players download games digitally so undermined the retailers’ business model. (To be fair, they were right – video-game retail has been in an extended death spiral for years.)
The Xbox 360 Marketplace didn’t move the needle all by itself. The transition to digital storefronts was gradual, and all the major players from Steam to Sony to Nintendo played their part over the years. “To begin with, digital was somewhat additive to retail,” says Chris Dring, head of GamesIndustry.biz. “Over 90% of console games during that time were bought in boxes on shelves at places like Game and Tesco, and it wasn’t until 2019 that the majority (51%) of AAA console games were being downloaded over being bought in a box. The Xbox Live Marketplace was primarily the place where people bought DLC or the occasional indie gem that could only be accessed via the digital store. But it fundamentally began the shift towards the digital future we now live in. Everyone now mimics what Xbox has done with Xbox Live and the Marketplace.”
But what the Xbox 360 Marketplace really changed for console players was not how we bought games, but which games we could buy. On PC it has always been possible to download and play smaller, experimental games, but before the Xbox 360 you couldn’t do the same on consoles. I think the Marketplace directly enabled the indie renaissance of 2010 onwards, by giving smaller game developers and publishers a way to sell their games to millions of console players without the expense and logistical issues of releasing a boxed copy.
Xbox Live Arcade, which began on the original Xbox but hit its stride during the 360 era, was revolutionary: every week there would be a new, small, downloadable game for £10 or less, from developers big and small. I played hundreds of games this way, and they were among the first games not in a box that I owned. Among them were Limbo, and Fez, and Geometry Wars, and Super Meat Boy, and the best-ever version of Uno (don’t @ me). There’s a strong case to be made that the Xbox 360 Marketplace introduced millions of console players to indie games.
There are downsides to the digital transition, as Dring points out. “In 2005, Xbox (and PlayStation and Nintendo) was a platform. Now they are the platform, the distributor and the retailer. They control the whole chain. And increasingly, through their websites, YouTube channels and announcement videos, they’re becoming their own media, too.”
We’ve become so used to digitally downloading games that it’s easy to forget how novel it once was. In saying goodbye to the Xbox 360 Marketplace, we’re also saying a final goodbye to an era of gaming where even DLC felt new and exciting. I do rather miss those times. And all those extended late-night rounds of Xbox 360 Uno.
What to play
The extremely British slapstick comedy game Thank Goodness You’re Here! is out today, and the reviews (including our own) are glowing. It’s made by two Barnsley locals and set in the fictional northern town of Barnsworth, which has seemingly been constructed entirely around visual gags. It is short and sweet, but stuffed with excellent jokes and bizarre situational comedy that continues the tradition of Monty Python and The Mighty Boosh.
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, PC
Estimated playtime: 3 hours
What to read
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Guardian games correspondent Keith Stuart went to LA a few weeks ago to spend a couple of days with Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft’s crack at an open-world Star Wars game starring a Han Solo-esque renegade. It looks good enough to puncture the Star Wars fatigue.
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Speaking of games retail: UK store Game is ending its rewards scheme today, 31 July. If you’ve got any points hanging around on your account, you have to spend them by the end of the day.
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How cute is this custom PS5 Astro Bot controller? Unlike most ultra-niche novelty game controllers, this isn’t just a marketing exercise, you can actually buy it. Pre-orders open 9 August.
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Wondering why there’s no official Olympics video game tie-in, such as the long-running Mario vs Sonic at the Olympic Games series? Eurogamer reports that it’s because the Olympics decided to pursue NFTs and esports instead. Ew.
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What to click
Question Block
Reader Akshay asks this week’s question:
“I recently finished Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon and found myself utterly listless in the days afterwards. Playing that game for nearly 180 hours had kept me in such a good routine and it hit me hard when I had to say goodbye. What is your best way to mitigate those feelings of post-game slump?”
Oh, I know this feeling! I remember blasting through XCOM (above) in one weekend, saving the world, and having no idea what to do with myself afterwards, sitting there on my couch in my pyjamas with no sense of purpose. I played The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for so long that I remember leaving my flat after the end credits rolled and just wandering listlessly around town. I feel the same way about TV shows and books sometimes, when it’s time to say goodbye to characters and worlds I’ve lived with for a while. But we spend so much more time with games, and they’re so much more involving. Sometimes it feels like a breakup when they end.
And just like after a breakup: jumping straight into a new game right away is not the way to go. It only invites negative comparison. So between big games I like to spend time on other things – being outside, picking up a novel, perhaps going for a drink with the friends I’ve temporarily been neglecting in favour of Breath of the Wild – until I really feel that I’m ready for something new.
If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – email us on [email protected].
