Last week, Grim told you about Microsoft's plan to delist underperforming titles from XBLA. Since then, there's been some confusion over what exactly delisting really means here. Aaron Greenberg, Director of Product Management for Xbox 360 and Live, went on Major Nelson's Podcast yesterday and clarified what exactly Microsoft is doing.
First up, whatever games that are going to be delisted based on all three of Microsoft's requirements (older than six months, less than 65% on Metacritic and less than a 6% conversion rate), will still be available on XBLA. So, if you already own a title and it gets deleted from your hard drive for whatever reason, you'll still be able to re-download the game. Furthermore, you can purchase a delisted game through the Tell A Friend option.
Basically, they're moving the underperforming titles away from the main store to the "back room", as Aaron put it in the interview. Full Live support, such as multiplayer and leaderboards, will still work just as normal for the delisted titles.
Now then, I bet you're curious as to what games fall under Microsoft's requirements. Hit the jump to see the list of XBLA titles that might be getting pushed to the side.
First off, thanks to driph for coming up with this list of possible delisted XBLA titles. Now before reading this list, remember, this is mostly based on two of the three requirements by Microsoft for delisting. Most of these games came out more than six months ago and all these games have less than 65% on Metacritic. Some of these games did come out this year, but they all got less than 65% on Metacritic.
The 6% conversaion rate, which is the percentage of people that download the trial version of a game and then convert to purchasing the game, is only known by Microsoft. This list just gives us a basic idea of what might be leaving the front of the XBLA store:
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 any titles that surprise you here? Honestly, I'm more surprised that there are so many reviews of re-released classics such as Contra on Metacritic. Easy money, I suppose.
[Awesomeshop by Fronz]
Contest:
12:09 AM on 05.27.2008
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The only one that's even mildly sad is Marathon, but it's not all that bad since it was a shitty port that made everyone literally vomit, and you can play it free on PC or Mac with Aleph One so it's not that much of a loss.
Also, RUSH N ATTACK, NOOOOO!!!!!
what if said friend doesn't have a game I want so they can "tell me"? what about then?
can we just shut up and keep it how it is now?
It's a mindless time-waster.
I thought the whole point of download games was to have unlmited copies for purcahse for the entire console lifespan?
I can walk in when ever I want and buy a game I was thinkabout in time I thought that was the future of game purcahseing?
Why don't they just list thing better and not have that sucky xbox live store menu.
now i have to go through more hoops get somebody to send me a a special "tell a friend ticket" just to buy a game?>
I been think about getting Contra wekk take it off and a bunch of other games so i can buy them later! nice job microsoft!
and just think about all those new xbox 360 owners who might want some contra or trigger heart action they wont wven see it and can't buy it.
That's a lot of suck games.
This is only going to be taking out the genuine trash, and reducing the clutter a little bit. Given the 27% crazification factor, a game has to be really bad to not even get 6%.
And for some reason, I sadly see Yaris staying up. It's a free game, and I doubt many people downloaded only the demo when they could have tried the full game for the same non-cost. I mainly just want it to stay up there so other people can feel the same pain I felt.
Good eye, will fix my original post.
I think we all agree, Microsoft is taking the wrong path here... they really need to look at their info architecture plans and maybe come up with something thats more easier browsed by the consumer, or hell, go all sorts of nuts and do that as well as bring the full XNA community concepts over with a ranking system, etc.
Although, choosing solid titles in the first place would go a long way, too.
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/05/microsoft-dont.html
The solution isn't to get rid of these games, but to create a more intuitive interface that lets you browse the full catalog.
Of course they could just remove a bunch of stuff to make it easier to navigate, because that's easier and less hassle.
Gracial fortress is not from Triggerheart Excelica. It's from Omega Five.
This to me seems like a complete marketing ploy. Already people are downloading their XBLA titles like crazy because they are scared they will never see them again... If you are going to get rid of the PLENTIFUL amounts of shit on XBLA then do it properly, don't split the XBLA list into "Listed" vs "Delisted" games. It makes no difference, they will all still be playable, and downloadable. Fucking stupid, why do that?
05/27/2008 08:04
I honestly think too many people are making a big deal out of this.
i agree with you ... shitty games should be remove
I think Microsoft is doing it to clear some space and clean up XBOX Live Arcade. They've got so many titles right now it's mind boggling. Clearing out some of the lower rated titles makes sense, just like EB would eventually throw games into the $10 pile.
You can still download them, so really it's not a big deal.
I hope they de-list it, erase the hard drives it's stored on, burn said hard drives, and hire hookers with UTI's to piss on the ashes.
Thank you for putting this on the front page.
QFT
That's surprising. I wonder if this news will cause people to buy some of these titles, thus removing them from this list?
Lame.