News

The Xbox 360 Store will close in July 2024

Players will still be able to play purchased games after the Xbox 360 Store closes.

August 17, 2023 8:05 AM

Microsoft

Microsoft has announced that it will close the Xbox 360 Store in July 2024, 19 years after the console’s release. Players that previously purchased games from the store in the past can continue to play those games for the foreseeable future.

The announcement was made via a post to Xbox Wire this morning. The Xbox 360 Store will officially close on July 29, 2024. After this date, you’ll no longer be able to purchase new games, DLC, or other media from the store on consoles or desktop. The Movies and TV app will also cease to work after this date, meaning you’ll no longer be able to watch movies and TV shows on your Xbox 360. That said, the movies and shows will carry over to other Xbox consoles and Microsoft platforms.

Three models of the Xbox 360 consoles. — Source: Microsoft

Microsoft didn’t provide an exact reason for the Xbox 360 Store shutdown, but provided some additional insight through FAQ responses. If you previously purchased a game on the Xbox Store but deleted it, you’ll still be able to re-download it after the Xbox 360 Store closes. Players can also continue to play games that they own on disc. Online games will continue to be playable via the Xbox Network (formerly Xbox Live) as long as publishers are still supporting servers for them.

Before the modern era, in which digital releases are the norm, the Xbox 360 was part of the first generation of home consoles to allow users to buy and download games digitally through an in-console store.

Older consoles having their digital stores closed is becoming common as console makers allocate more resources to their current platforms. Earlier this year, Nintendo officially pulled the plug on the eShop for the 3DS and WiiU.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_

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Shacknews

 reply
August 17, 2023 8:05 AM

Donovan Erskine posted a new article, The Xbox 360 Store will close in July 2024
- roushimsx
  
   reply
  August 17, 2023 8:07 AM
  
  Holy shit
  - RikiTiki2
    
     reply
    August 17, 2023 8:22 AM
    
    Sony got a lot of backlash and backtracked when they tried that with PS3, PSP, and Vita stores
    - Schnapple
      
       reply
      August 17, 2023 8:30 AM
      
      Microsoft has also had a track record on delaying closures. Like they supported Windows 98 way longer than initially planned. I bet this gets pushed back a time or two.
    - roushimsx
      
       reply
      August 17, 2023 8:31 AM
      
      They still broke most ways of accessing them :(
    - dajir
      
       reply
      August 17, 2023 9:29 AM
      
      MS has a little more goodwill here just because they keep their stores up longer and make huge efforts in backwards compatibility. I'm curious to see what kind of backlash they get, if any.
      - Frank_Mackey
        
         reply
        August 17, 2023 9:44 AM
        
        Sucks that they killed off the back compat program. Morans.
- lacker
  
   reply
  August 17, 2023 8:26 AM
  
  Not good. Some of the physical copies are very expensive now. BRB buying Sillent Hill 2/3 collection.
- shirif
  
   reply
  August 17, 2023 8:36 AM
  
  Get your Ninja Gaiden 2!!
- ThomW
  
   reply
  August 17, 2023 8:44 AM
  
  End of an era. The Xbox 360 was a bangin' console. I still play a bunch of 360 stuff via backwards compatibility.
  - shirif
    
     reply
    August 17, 2023 9:34 AM
    
    Can you download them straight on the newest xbox?
    Separate app or same app or you need to go to your "owned games"?
    - ThomW
      
       reply
      August 17, 2023 10:11 AM
      
      The games that are backwards compatible are purchase-able in the Xbox Store, and you can view all your backwards-compatible games in your library and install them on the Xbox One / Xbox Series console.
  - dajir
    
     reply
    August 17, 2023 9:40 AM
    
    I agree.
    The other day I saw someone enthusiastically say a game felt like it was made for the ps3-360 era. I knew exactly what they meant and it got me excited too.
  - nwillard
    
     reply
    August 17, 2023 8:57 PM
    
    I guess the architecture was fairly easy to develop for but man, the 360 was such a kerfuffle. I think it was a generation where experienced studios really came into their own and were making great content, but the production of games wasn't so sky-high that they couldn't experiment. It was perhaps the greatest generation of games so far? Like if you could only have one generation of games, it would have to be that one.
  - Downforce
    
     reply
    August 17, 2023 9:25 PM
    
    Donated mine and all accessories to my nephews
- EnhancedInterrogator
  
   reply
  August 17, 2023 1:13 PM
  
  So yeah, people won't mind too much because the Xbox 360 is easily hackable.
  
  But what about the xbox one? It hasn't been hacked in 10 years. We're going to start losing games to time because there will be no way to play them (or patch the disc versions) once the servers shut down.
  - Frank_Mackey
    
     reply
    August 17, 2023 1:34 PM
    
    The xbox one should be safe for a long time to come. It shares a unified storefront with the series s/x and all xbo games are backward compatible on series s/x.
- EnhancedInterrogator
  
   reply
  August 17, 2023 2:17 PM
  
  List of games not backwards compatible on Xbox One: https://www.trueachievements.com/not-backwards-compatible/games