Why did the Xbox 360 store shut down?

July 30th, 2024 marks the end of an era for many gamers. After nearly two decades, Microsoft has finally completed retiring the Xbox 360. As the console heads into its finale stage of life (or rather, death), the many commodities and resources Xbox plyers have utilized are coming to a close.

Why is the Xbox 360 store down?

The Xbox 360 has finally reached the end of its digital life cycle. The seventh-generation console may have been discontinued in 2016, but the age of digital purchases, combined with a laundry list of multiplayer favorites, kept the console as a popular alternative to pricier new additions.

As of July 29th, the Xbox Marketplace officially shuttered its metaphorical doors – though at what point in the day the change took place is anyone’s guess.

It is not all doom and gloom, however. Gamers can still play their favorite games online with friends and access any digital downloads they may have purchased. The only thing players will not be able to do, moving forward, is access the marketplace and purchase new digital content.

The marketplace may have ceased to exist, but many of the games it housed have been adapted for use on other consoles or through the PC gaming service Steam. There are however nearly 60 Xbox exclusive titles –mostly Kinect games – that are officially lost to time as the marketplace disappears for good.

For more than a year, Microsoft has been preparing gamers to let go of the 360 Marketplace. Microsoft and the many publishers it’s housed over the years offered steep discounts, letting gamers indulge in those titles and DLCs they’ve been waiting on for years. In the wake of the news, physical 360 games have seen a spike in pricing as original copies become more commodified.