If you want to purchase some bargains through the Xbox 360’s digital store, you only have this weekend left to do it.
As announced last year, Microsoft is shutting down the Xbox 360 online store from July 29, making it impossible to buy certain Xbox 360 games digitally after that.
While you will still be able to play games you’ve already purchased, you’ll no longer be able to buy new games, DLC, or any other content from the Xbox 360 store or the web equivalent Xbox 360 Marketplace.
Since May this year, Microsoft has cut prices on a heap of Xbox 360 games, ahead of the store’s demise, ranging from the likes of Batman: Arkham Asylum to Bulletstorm.
The actual closure though comes with some caveats, so you can check out a guide to everything below.
What time does the Xbox 360 store close?
Microsoft has not confirmed an exact time for the store’s closure, only that it will stop support on Monday, July 29. That means your best bet is to make any purchases prior to 23.59pm on Sunday, July 28.
After Monday, you will no longer be able to buy Xbox 360 games, DLC, or any other content through the Xbox 360 store or Xbox 360 Marketplace.
Will I still be able buy Xbox 360 games through Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One?
Yes, any Xbox 360 game available through the online stores on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One will still be available. This list of games, however, is not the entire Xbox 360 library, only those supported through backwards compatibility. You can check out a list of Xbox 360 games available on those consoles here.
While this means the majority of Xbox 360 games will still be available, some are set to disappear entirely. Twitter user Kalyoshika has compiled a list of games which will be erased for good below, including Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition and Fusion: Genesis.
There are also a bunch of games being made available for free ahead of the store’s closure, including Double Fine’s Kinect Party.
Will I still be able to play Xbox 360 games online?
Yes, Microsoft is only shutting down the Xbox 360 store and not online multiplayer services as a whole. So any online game you have downloaded already, or have a physical version of, will still be operational after this date.
That is, unless the publisher has shut down the online services separately. EA, for example, recently made several Battlefield: Bad Company games and Battlefield 1943 unplayable last year by switching off online support, so some online games might not work for much longer.
This is just the latest online store to be shut down in recent years, as the issue of game preservation becomes more prevalent.
Last year, Nintendo cut off access to many games when it closed the Wii U and 3DS eShops – which is the fate of very console once it becomes more than a generation or two old.
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