Xbox Live Arcade to get spring cleaning

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 23rd May 2008
Comments (13) Stumble
Xbox is looking to clear out the chaff from XBLA, but hopefully that won't include Rez.

Xbox is looking to clear out the chaff from XBLA, but hopefully that won't include Rez.

Xbox Live Arcade may be in for some rather sweeping changes in the coming month it seems. According to Xbox Live's General Manager Marc Whitten, Microsoft will be cleaning out a lot of the chaff and trying to sow seeds of greatness in the future.

Speaking to Next-Gen, Whitten confirms that Microsoft will be launching a new first party studio to focus on developing new games designed just for XBLA and that a lot of the weaker games will be purged according to strict criteria.

According to Whitten, those criteria mean that any XBLA game with a Metacritic average score below 65 percent and with a demo-to-full conversion rate of beneath 6 percent will be wiped from the service. Players will be given a three month warning that a game is going to be pulled.

As Kotaku points out, that includes several games you probably never heard nor cared about, including Cyberball 2072 and Arkadian Warriors.

"Overall I think you will find this will focus the catalogue more on larger, more immersive games and make it much easier to find the games you are looking for," said Whitten.

The XBLA exec also revealed that there'll be no Spring dashboard update for the Xbox this year, but that a new DRM system is planned that Whitten describes as allowing "you to better consolidate your licenses for downloaded content to a single Xbox and allow you the freedom to be able to play your content both online and offline."

Great, just what we need. Are you a big fan of an XBLA game which you think might face the chop? Let us know in the forums.
Quote cjoyce1980 23rd May 2008, 11:17
are there still going to let you play the game if you paid for it and removed it from xbox live, or are they going to remove it totally and give the buyer a rebate?
Quote Woodstock 23rd May 2008, 11:48
its ms they will delete and not give a refund
Quote Veles 23rd May 2008, 12:48
Awww I liked Arkadian Warriors

So what are they doing? Deleteing support of the game entirely so you can no longer play it, get achievements, etc. Or are they just not allowing you to buy it any more?

IMO what they should do is just make a bargain bin section, get all those low selling titles and put them at like 200 points each in a section, and they only show up in the bargain bin list.
Quote Blademrk 23rd May 2008, 13:10
I've still got the demo for Arkadian warriors. I was going to pick it up at some point.

I usually download the demo and if I like it, I'll keep it until I feel like getting some MS points for a new game. So far I've bought 46 XBLA games with several more demos that I want to get (Puzzle Fighter II, Puzzle Quest, Ikaruga, Yie Ar Kung Fu (I've fond memories of the original)).

I'd like to know what happens to games that you've bought that have been purged from XBLA too.

I'm guessing the leaked "spring" update is fake then?

Shame, as there were some interesting features in it - like the video/mic integration with MSN.
Quote wolff000 23rd May 2008, 14:44
I am ashamed to admit it but my favorite game from XBLA is Feeding Frenzy. I agree that a bargain bin of the games they want to clear would be great.
Quote Mentai 23rd May 2008, 15:35
Hahaha, I love that instead of giving out new features they're upgrading their DRM and pretending it's good for us. M$ <3
Quote Veles 23rd May 2008, 16:29
No, they're changing the DRM to make it more user friendly, they already had DRM.
Quote Tulatin 23rd May 2008, 16:53
the DRM thing is in place due to a not so common swapping practice - in effect, if you and a friend swap XBL accounts, you can download each other's purchased arcade games, then play them. While the DRM seems good in practice, isn't MS forgetting about the RROD? I would be PISSED to drop hundreds on arcade games, only to lose them to "whoops, different console, no more games for you old chap"
Quote Veles 23rd May 2008, 17:36
You can still get them again, if it's a repair it's the same console, if you get a replacement, currently you can download them again but you have to be logged in to play the full game. You can bet if they didn't have this in place then a huge number of people would copy their friends games.
Quote Tulatin 23rd May 2008, 17:38
Quote:
Originally Posted by Veles
You can still get them again, if it's a repair it's the same console, if you get a replacement, currently you can download them again but you have to be logged in to play the full game. You can bet if they didn't have this in place then a huge number of people would copy their friends games.

I know that much. And I've already detailed the bypass for this method. What I'm asking, is if your box bricks, and your titles are locked to your old hardware via DRM, how difficult is it to liberate them? Do they timeout after a certain period and become re-downloadable, or does this mean we'll have to call somewhere in India to reset the status, and get them activated, A-la Windows XP.
Quote Blademrk 23rd May 2008, 20:26
Quote:
The XBLA exec also revealed that there'll be no Spring dashboard update for the Xbox this year

It looks like there was a bit of a misquote on the first page of the article. On the 3rd page of the interview it says:
Quote:
Last year Xbox 360 owners got a spring dashboard update in early May. It's now late May and you still haven't announced anything regarding this year's update. Should 360 owners be holding their breath for it?

We have taken a different approach this spring and spent a lot of our time and resources of building the proper infrastructure and scale for the service not just today but also into the future. So while most users will not notice any significant changes to the dashboard this spring, I can tell you that the team will be releasing a new digital rights management (DRM) tool next month that will allow you to better consolidate your licenses for downloaded content to a single Xbox and allow you the freedom to be able to play your content both online and offline.

Reading between the lines, there will be an update, but it'll consist of mostly background stuff with very few (if any) new features:(.
Quote <A88> 24th May 2008, 01:43
From the looks of the 'leaked' feature list a few weeks ago, I'm guessing Microsoft are gonna hold out for a massive update next time round to push them further ahead of the PS3, whilst getting the systems all cleaned up and running smoothly again after all the annoying downtime they've been suffering since Christmas. So overall I'm not as bothered as most people.
Quote mikeuk2004 25th May 2008, 11:57
So if you bought a game and it gets removed because people rate it low, what happens if say my hard drive currupts and i got to reformat. Does that mean i will no longer beable to re-download my paid for games to my formated hard drive because they got pulled???

If this is true, they cant be serious? I cant believe MS are running low on disc space to host every xbox live game forever. Thats sad if its the case because there is no reason to pull anything off the download service, its not like a shop where you run out of shelf space for new stock.
Log in

You are not logged in, please login with your forum account below. If you don't already have an account please register to start contributing.





Stats: 0.134 seconds