On July 29, 2024, Microsoft will turn off the ability to purchase games on the Xbox 360 Marketplace, effectively killing access to hundreds of digital games. Many of those games will remain available on other platforms, but there are outliers - and one resource has put together a list of the 47 games that will die with the 360 store.
The folks at Delisted Games have gone through the list of digital Xbox 360 titles to find those that are not available for purchase either physically or on other digital platforms. You won't find many landmark hits in the list, but you will see a lot of nifty indie titles and interesting historical curiosities - alongside a heck of a lot of Kinect experiments.
- Aegis Wing
- Arkadian Warriors
- Battlezone
- Blazing Birds
- Boogie Bunnies
- Bubble Bobble Neo!
- CrazyMouse
- Crimson Alliance
- Defenders of Ardania
- Diabolical Pitch
- The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai
- Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons
- Fire Pro Wrestling
- Freefall Racers
- Fruit Ninja Kinect
- Full House Poker
- Fusion: Genesis
- Gel: Set & Match
- Gotham City Impostors
- Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm
- Haunt
- Home Run Stars
- Hybrid
- Kinect Fun Labs
- Kinect Sports Gems
- Leedmees
- Meteos Wars
- Minesweeper Flags
- Mini Ninjas Adventures
- Panzer General: Allied Assault
- The Path of Go
- Puzzle Arcade
- PUZZLE BOBBLE Live!
- Rainbow Islands: Towering Adventure!
- Rekoil: Liberator
- Schizoid
- Spyglass Board Games
- South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play!
- South Park: Tenorman’s Revenge
- Things on Wheels
- Totemball
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Special Editions
- Wing Commander Arena
- Wits & Wagers
- Wreckateer
- Yo-Ho Kablammo
- Zombie Wranglers
Aegis Wing is probably the title most worth calling out here, because it's a weird outlier in multiple ways. It's technically a first-party Xbox game, developed as part of a unique Microsoft internship program by three developers and released on Xbox Live Arcade with the assistance of Carbonated Games. This game is free on the Xbox 360 Marketplace and backwards compatible on modern Xbox consoles, but you can't actually acquire it on the current store. You can only get it by digging into the old Marketplace and adding it to your account there.
None of the other games on the list are backwards compatible, and that's a shame. Some of the standouts to my eyes include Meteos Wars, an XBLA sequel to a DS puzzle game originally designed by Smash Bros. lead Masahiro Sakurai. There are also well regarded indies like brawler The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai and action-RPG Crimson Alliance.
As a sicko for gaming's weird curiosities, I'm particularly interested in some of the highly-maligned stuff in the list. There's Wing Commander Arena, an ill-considered arcade-style revival for a beloved space combat sim. There's also Fire Pro Wrestling, an utterly abysmal reimagining of a cult classic Japanese wrestling series. Look, bad games need preservation too.
All of these games will likely remain available in darker corners of the internet thanks to pirates, but it's a shame that piracy will be the only option to revisit any of these titles. If you want to make a few last-minute purchases to ensure you've got legal access to these games past the store shutdown, you'll want to hit the Marketplace by July 29. You'll continue to be able to access them after the shutdown as long as you've got a 360 connected online. For the time being, at least.
None of these titles factor into our list of the best Xbox 360 games, but it's always a great time to revisit one of the best libraries in gaming history.
