In an exclusive interview with Next Generation, Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten announced the rather disappointing news that they will not be releasing a Spring update this year. This of course means that the rumored Spring update feature set that was leaked last week was complete bologna. Whitten says that instead of putting their resources into a Spring update, they decided to focus their energy into "building the proper infrastructure and scale for the service" (ahem, more reliability). But all is not lost in the land of updates, as Whitten confirmed Microsoft will be rolling out a change to their DRM policy in June that'll allow content owners to re-license XBLA and XBLM content to a single console. This move will make said content available when disconnected from Xbox Live.Finally, we learn that the Xbox Live Arcade will get a metaphorical Spring cleaning as Microsoft plans to remove under-performing Arcade titles. Games that have been on the market for over six months, have a Metacritic average lower than 65% and a conversion rate below 6% will be targeted for de-listing. A move that Microsoft hopes will streamline the service and open it up to bigger and better things.
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
5-22-2008 @ 10:55PM
stinger503 said...
Seriously make any games they want to delete a dollar for a month so we can get them cheap and then delete them.
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5-22-2008 @ 11:00PM
stinger503 said...
Also isn't this sort of better? I mean on one hand I can have four way voice chat (pretty useless because there's rarely times when I want to talk to four people at once) or have Xbox Live to play on at all?
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5-22-2008 @ 11:28PM
Shogan said...
Under 65 games includes:
Robotron: 2084
Bankshot Billiards 2
Feeding Frenzy
Dig Dug
Ms. Pac-Man
Gauntlet
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
Texas Hold 'em
Contra
Marathon: Durandal
Triggerheart Exelica
Missile Command
Time Pilot
Track & Field
Hardwood Backgammon
Pac-Man
Frogger
Mad Tracks
Root Beer Tapper
Super Contra
Geon: Emotions
Soltrio Solitaire
Arkadian Warriors
TiQal
Rush'n Attack
Aegis Wing
Defender
Rocketmen: Axis of Evil
Double Dragon
Xevious
Gyruss
Asteroids / Asteroids Deluxe
Battlestar Galactica
Centipede & Millipede
Boogie Bunnies
Spyglass Board Games
Brain Challenge
Tetris Splash
Ecco the Dolphin
Battlezone
Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Wing Commander Arena
Novadrome
Shrek-N-Roll
Mr. Driller Online
Scramble
Tempest
Sonic the Hedgehog
Discs of Tron
TotemBall
Word Puzzle
New Rally-X
Tron
Bliss Island
Cyberball 2072
Screwjumper!
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Yaris
This doesn't look good for the future of the Arcade Titles, and those were one of the main reasons I wanted a 360 in the first place. That'll be a LOT of games I no longer have access to should something happen to my 360. On the plus side, I'll no longer spend a damn dime on XBLA anymore.
Maybe that PS3 sales jump in 2012 isn't that absurd as it seemed.
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5-23-2008 @ 8:25AM
DjDATZ said...
Most of those aren't 6 months old though...
5-22-2008 @ 11:56PM
OrionnoirO said...
Sensationalists unite!
Seriously, this is being blown up and into a bad thing, when its not really bad at all. Yes, if you are yearning to get games that scored horribly and dont have nearly anyone buying, it will hurt you. However, if you already purchased it, I am sure you would still be able to redownload it - you simply couldnt purchase it if you hadnt already. Not to mention they are now addressing moving the content licences to another 360, which removes that fear associated with it as well. All in all, I am more excited than every for the potential of XBLA, now that they are focusing on higher quality, and fixing some of the downfalls of the DRM on XBLA titles.
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5-23-2008 @ 12:03AM
LFotF said...
This sucks so much. Why "delist" games? They don't take generally disliked games off of store shelves because some people still buy them.
This is a severely bad decision, Microsoft!
If they insist on doing this, they should post a list of the soon to be released games online like a week beforehand. That way, people would have a chance to buy them before they disappear.
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5-23-2008 @ 12:04AM
LFotF said...
*removed not released
5-23-2008 @ 12:11AM
OrionnoirO said...
As I was saying,...
LFotF - They say later in the article about it something about like a 3 months notice or something in regards to when games would be removed, so there IS ample notice as well before it happens.
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5-23-2008 @ 12:15AM
LFotF said...
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I saw that when I kept reading. Maybe next time I'll actually read the entire article before I reply. I might make more sense that way. :-)
5-23-2008 @ 12:12AM
OrionnoirO said...
I would have listed that as a reply had I seen a button to do so, but I didnt.. Just now did ;p
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5-23-2008 @ 12:56AM
Halwende said...
Sounds like a "quality over quantity" initiative to me, I mean from a business point of view it would be better to have your users (esp new ones) browse your marketplace and only see relatively decent games; save disappointing them with stuff like, ahem, Yaris
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5-23-2008 @ 6:45AM
R said...
Yaris was free so why would it be a disappointment? As far as I am concerned, It's just another free 200Gs
5-23-2008 @ 8:29AM
DjDATZ said...
@R Cuz it was UTTER GARBAGE AND COMPLETELY HORRENDOUS. Listen to the Fancasts and they use the Yaris game as a measure of how SHITTY a game is. If it comes down to Yaris' level, it essentially should NOT have even been made.
5-23-2008 @ 8:44AM
DjDATZ said...
Take a look at Metacritic. I hope you know what it is. If you don't then here's a basic explanation: Metacritic takes reviews of games from all over the net from respectable sites, and basically compiles them all into a neat page. For each review a score out of 100 is given, and then all those reviews are averaged out for a "Metacritic" score. Yaris is at 17/100 based on 7 reviews. This translates to "Extreme dislike or disgust." Basically, what that means is that the game is FUCKING SHIT. REGARDLESS OF IT BEING FREE.
Oh, and notice the 12 point gap to the next title. Yes, Yaris is at the bottom of the list and by a very large margin. Coincidentally, this means it IS THE worst game on Xbox 360 even if it is free. Now that's a really amazing level to stoop to.
http://www.metacritic.com/games/xbox360/scores/
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/yaris
Enjoy!
5-23-2008 @ 6:45AM
R said...
I promise never to get excited about alleged new features in a dashboard update again. This is a load of crap.
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5-23-2008 @ 9:14AM
DjDATZ said...
To add to my previous 2 responses...Apparently, you are an idiot.
If you DID believe those rumoured features from last week were true...then you really and truly are retarded. Microsoft to date has NEVER had SUCH a HUUUGE list of things to change for a Dashboard update, and don't expect them to be going that radical anytime soon... And most of the rumoured "changes" were completely irrelevant and essentially useless.
5-23-2008 @ 10:07AM
R said...
If you have to resort to personal insults in order to get your opinion across, your opinion is not worth much.
5-23-2008 @ 8:32AM
LiveResistance said...
I am glad to read that MS is addressing the DRM problem, but the rest of the is total crap. Setting the new price point just means that now we can expect to pay $20 for most popular XBLA games. (Castle Crashers anyone?) And then telling us that old games, even if they are poorly rated, will be unavailable. What a bunch of crap MS!
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5-23-2008 @ 9:41AM
Gemini Ace said...
How about just discounting those underperforming XBLA titles instead of delisting?
Also, I blame Peter Moore leaving the last shitty update and the lack of one this time. Get that EA guy out of there!
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5-23-2008 @ 11:08AM
diamondxp said...
It seems to me that lately they are dropping the ball. I still love you XBOX360 but damn no update that is a bad move. Deleting games old arcade titles another bad move. Netflix not coming onboard another bad move. you could own this market and your letting it slip away.
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