Last week, Grim told you about Microsoft’s plan todelist underperforming titlesfrom XBLA. Since then, there’s been some confusion over what exactly delisting really means here. Aaron Greenberg,Director of Product Managementfor Xbox 360 and Live,went on Major Nelson’sPodcast yesterdayand 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 than65% 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, thanksto driphfor coming up with thislist of possible delistedXBLA 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 Wing58Arkadian Warriors59Asteroids / Asteroids Deluxe55Bankshot Billiards 265Battlestar Galactica55Battlezone52Bliss Island42Boogie Bunnies54Brain Challenge54Centipede & Millipede55Contra63Crystal Quest64Cyberball 207241Defender58Dig Dug65Discs of Tron44Double Dragon57Ecco the Dolphin53Fatal Fury Special63Feeding Frenzy65Frogger62Gauntlet65Geon: Emotions59Gyruss56Hardwood Backgammon62Hardwood Hearts64Hardwood Spades62Mad Tracks62Marathon: Durandal63Missile Command63Mr. Driller Online48Ms. Pac-Man65New Rally-X43Novadrome50Pac-Man62Robotron: 208465Rocketmen: Axis of Evil57Rocky and Bullwinkle37Root Beer Tapper61Rush’n Attack58Scramble47Screwjumper!40Shrek-N-Roll49Soltrio Solitaire59Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe64SpongeBob … Slam!55Spyglass Board Games54Street Trace: NYC45Super Contra61Tempest47Tetris Splash53Texas Hold ‘em63Time Pilot63TiQal58TotemBall44Track & Field63Triggerheart Exelica63Tron43Wing Commander Arena51Word Puzzle44Xevious56Yaris17Yie Ar Kung-Fu51
See any titles that surprise you here? Honestly, I’m more surprised that there are so many reviews of re-released classics such asContraon Metacritic. Easy money, I suppose.
[Awesomeshop by Fronz]
