Regarding the big XBLA news that I'd link to if I could figure out why the url bbcode is being
screwy, found myself with a bit of free time last week and made up a list of Xbox Live
Arcade delist potentials.
Yeah, it includes 2008 titles and those with a score of 65, as that's pretty damn close to the
line, and who knows when exactly the new policy will go into effect.
Aegis Wing 58
Arkadian Warriors 59
Asteroids / Asteroids Deluxe 55
Bankshot Billiards 2 65
Battlestar Galactica 55
Battlezone 52
Bliss Island 42
Boogie Bunnies 54
Brain Challenge 54
Centipede & Millipede 55
Contra 63
Crystal Quest 64
Cyberball 2072 41
Defender 58
Dig Dug 65
Discs of Tron 44
Double Dragon 57
Ecco the Dolphin 53
Fatal Fury Special 63
Feeding Frenzy 65
Frogger 62
Gauntlet 65
Geon: Emotions 59
Gyruss 56
Hardwood Backgammon 62
Hardwood Hearts 64
Hardwood Spades 62
Mad Tracks 62
Marathon: Durandal 63
Missile Command 63
Mr. Driller Online 48
Ms. Pac-Man 65
New Rally-X 43
Novadrome 50
Pac-Man 62
Robotron: 2084 65
Rocketmen: Axis of Evil 57
Rocky and Bullwinkle 37
Root Beer Tapper 61
Rush’n Attack 58
Scramble 47
Screwjumper! 40
Shrek-N-Roll 49
Soltrio Solitaire 59
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe 64
SpongeBob … Slam! 55
Spyglass Board Games 54
Street Trace: NYC 45
Super Contra 61
Tempest 47
Tetris Splash 53
Texas Hold ‘em 63
Time Pilot 63
TiQal 58
TotemBall 44
Track & Field 63
Triggerheart Exelica 63
Tron 43
Wing Commander Arena 51
Word Puzzle 44
Xevious 56
Yaris 17
Yie Ar Kung-Fu 51
See the the nicely formatted tabley version here:
http://driph.com/words/2008/05/xbox-live-arcade-potential-delist-
list
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Also, the dtoid blog bbcode setup is on crack.
Anyway. The way this delist is gonna work is just hiding the games from everybody who doesn't have it, meaning that you could re download your game from your download history. So whats the point? Will they have another category? "Delisted games"? I dont see the point in delisting them if they're still gonna be able to be downloaded from your history. Why do that?
One, in order for a game to get delisted, it has to meet ALL 3 criteria. Metacritic score, conversion rate of lower then 6% and has been out for more then 6 months.
So, since conversion rate is based off trial downloads vs full game downloads. That alone could save most of these games. Just because it has a terrible metacritic score doesn't mean it didn't convert at over 6%.
I don't work for MS, but I would assume the reason they are doing this is because there are so many titles on XBLA right now (130!) and games are getting lost. So in order to make games easier to find, they are ...cleaning the shelves so to speak.
Also, whomever release a title that is going to be delisted is getting 3 months notice. So, don't expect to see all of them vanish at once.
I kid, I never played any of them. Sad to see so many games (potentially) getting delisted. I guess it's necessary as new games get released, though.
I wonder what will happen if someone wants to buy one of these after they take it off XBLA? Like, will you be able to contact MS and request it be made available for your account? How can they outright deny sales?
also, Triggerheart being on there is such a shame. I wish hard games like that wouldn't even get reviews because of everyone that'll give it a 5 because it was too hard for them.
My suggestion would be to build better or more organized shelves. :]
Also, an interesting aside... 130 total XBLA titles? The above list contains 65 of em. Not a good ratio.
Well, this weeks Major Nelson podcast answered some of the questions. If you downloaded a game before, you will still be able to redownload it via your download history. If you've never downloaded it, the "refer to a friend" link in the game menu will still work. So you can refer it that way. Although honestly, I doubt there is much demand for older titles. Sales usually drastically drop after the first week.
@driph
Like I said, I don't work for MS so I have 0 power over how marketplace is set up, but I know alot of people agree with you.