The Xbox 360 Store is closing next year
Players will still be able to play their purchased games and buy backwards compatible titles
Microsoft has announced that it will be closing down the Xbox 360 Store next year.
In a new post on the official Xbox Wire blog, it was announced that the ability to buy new games, DLC and other entertainment content from the Xbox 360 store will end on July 29, 2024.
This specifically refers to the ability to buy content directly through the Xbox 360 console, and the ability to buy content from the Xbox 360 Marketplace site.
It does not affect the ability to buy backwards compatible Xbox 360 games and DLC on the Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S stores, which will continue to be available.
Microsoft stresses that while the Xbox 360 Store will close down on July 29, 2024, players using their Xbox 360 consoles after this date will still be able to use all their previously purchased Xbox 360 games and DLC.
It also notes that if players have deleted a game that they purchased, they will still be able to re-download it.
Players will still be able to play these games online (as long as their online servers are still supported by the publisher), and can still save their game progress to the cloud.
Further reading
Microsoft points out that the Microsoft Movies & TV app will no longer work on the Xbox 360 on the same date, meaning movies and TV shows purchased through the service will no longer be viewable on Xbox 360 consoles after July 29, 2024.
These movies and TV shows will still be part of the user’s library, however, and can still be viewed on the Movies & TV app on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
While many hundreds of Xbox 360 games are backwards compatible and will still be available on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S stores, the closure will still mean that some digital-only Xbox 360 games that were never made backwards compatible will essentially disappear.
