It's certainly surreal to think that we've lived through an era of digital game storefronts taking over for video game distribution, and now, we're entering a period in time where they can disappear with the flick of a switch. After 18 years, the Xbox 360 has reached its retirement age, as starting tomorrow, July 29, you will no longer be able to purchase any games, trials, add-ons, avatar items, apps, gamer pics, game trailers, and videos on the Xbox 360 Marketplace. This is far from new information, as it was announced back in August 2023, which will mark the end of the video game industry's largest digital storefronts.
What's Staying?
Microsoft is not quite ready to nuke all the Xbox 360 servers, as you will continue to have access to past purchases for downloading and playing online multiplayer games, but I wouldn't count on that lasting forever. Surprisingly, you will still be able to purchase DLC, but with a huge caveat, it will only be possible on an Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S and the game will have to be backward compatible on those consoles. A few more highly used features will continue to be supported, including unlocking achievements and downloading updates.
Physical Media MVP?
I have always been a physical media-only type of player, if a game was available for purchase at my local GameStop, that's where I would likely pick up a copy. Despite this, as consoles have become nothing more than a closed-source, PC in a box with most games no longer tied down by console exclusivity, my playtime has moved over to PC, which results in physical media no longer being an option. While I wish the ability to access physical media on PCs was still available, I understand consoles will eventually become an all-digital ecosystem as well. Unfortunately for consoles, the proprietary nature of the platform, which can be its greatest strength for exclusives, results in its most significant flaw once its only digital store closes. A PC store closure would not be well received by anyone, however, a PC now has more digital stores than I can count on one hand, unlike consoles.
Digital Planned Obsolescence?
When the PlayStation 3 Store was closing down last year before being retconned, I thought to myself, why would Sony do such a thing when a large portion of the PlayStation 3 library is not available on the PlayStation 4 or 5, unlike the Xbox Series X|S which continues to support a good amount of Xbox 360 games? The only possible reason is profit, and that reasoning is why digital storefronts are so prevalent in gaming to begin with. Before digital stores were available, game developers were stuck disbursing a good percentage of revenue towards retailers and manufacturing costs. The all-digital era has led to more profit than ever before going towards developers, and that's with the continued sky-high inflation we continue to see affecting various markets. By removing the cheaper games available on older platforms, console manufacturers can push newer platforms with more expensive and prevalent digital games.
Final Thoughts
The all-digital future we will eventually be forced into is going to be awful for many who are still holding on to the fond memories of the video game industry we grew up in, and this Xbox 360 situation is a perfect example, but it's not the apocalyptic scenario we have all imagined. On PC, we have platforms such as GOG that offer digital games without any DRM attached, meaning that if the platform or developer dies, our game collections stay right where we left them. Ultimately, I hope consoles will eventually reach this point, but there is something even worse for the industry than the all-digital future, it's the online-only future that Microsoft has forced on Xbox players and could eventually result in a large portion of games no longer being playable in the decades to come. If you're interested in continuing to bask in the glory that is the Xbox 360 blades interface before the end of times, Microsoft has released a dynamic background of it for Xbox Series X|S.
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