Underperforming XBLA titles to be delisted

I think its ridiculous how much this industry is dependent upon reviews. The article on IGN's Haze review has gotten 356 comments at the time of me writing this. I remember a story that a publisher(I think it was Ubisoft) wouuld fire a developer if their game scored less than a 7 average.

Hey, I'm all for quality, but from a business standpoint shouldn't you always go for the things that sell the best? Sure Arrested Development was a good show, but if you were a FOX executive would you keep it on the air over something like American Idol?

Even the 6% conversion rate system isn't necessarily fair; after all wouldn't a $10 game with a 5% attach rate be better for Microsoft than a $5 game with a 7% attach rate? Shouldn't profits be the only thing that matters?

I'm not looking at this from a personal perspective. Of course I want the best titles to be available. I just find it crazy that this business is so dependent on review scores.

So I guess making a new blade that says SHIT GAMES is out of the question?

Good. There's alot of trash on XBLA.

If a game us at 6% after a half a year, it's safe to say no one bought it and no one will end up picking the game out later. Entertainment media typically loses sales volume as time goes by, so a poorly rated, poor selling game won't suddenly pick up steam. Microsoft is doing this to eliminate clutter from search menus. It would be a nightmare down the line to scroll through mountains of crap to find a worthwhile purchase. It's a good business move to keep titles that either sell well or are well rated around.

Besides, this is no different than a retail outlet refusing to sell a game. In the end, XBLA is a retail environment, not a vested right of the developer.

No more will anyone have to be subject to the terror that is Space Giraffe

This kinda irks me. I'd much rather see Microsoft lower the price of underperforming games than simply remove them from the service.

I know I for one haven't bought some games because I was hoping the price would come down.

But this means that games I've have bought that are removed are likely not going to have online support or a limited online base.

Shame on you Microsoft. DLC was supposed to allow games remain on the virtual shelves without having to worry about removal.

This along with the no spring update news, makes for a double whammy of bad news today.

I am not excited that someone has codified Metacritic as the arbiter as to what is worth having.

Hey cragbrahs,

I haven't paid for a single XBLA game, other than PuzzleQuest I bought for my roommate. Good God that was like the nastiest crack for him, dude played it 3 hours a day until he finally beat it, and he doesn't even game much.

Other than Super Puzzle Fighter II IV Awesome Turbo Extreme IX Limited Edition, I can't really say I've been intrigued by much else on XBLA. Suggestions, folks?

I dont understand what the problem is. Every XBLA game has a trial, that should be enough to know if the games are bad.

this really should not happen. M$ please remove you large head out of your A$$..thank you.
ok wtf R U thinking, I mean this is only gonna piss people off. Is this in retaliation FOR THAT GUY IN HUNGARY EGGING steve balder (I mean balmer). MS dont be stupid.

Ah crap, Marathon 2 has a metacritic of 63, cause it caused some little girls to puke. Dammit. Ah well, at least the open-source-but-less-graphically-nice-30-fps version is free on the internets...

I just don't think it's a good idea. Just toss another HDD into the server and keep em' all available!

I think they should add a community rating system for XBLA games. Then people will have a rating to base their purchase off of as well as a demo.

A lot of the Arcade games have review scores of under 60%, yet I still like to play them. So now if the game didn't perform well for the masses, I'll not be able to redownload games I paid for should something happens to my hard drive?

I guess from now on we should only consider downloading a title if the reviews are favorable. Screw you Microsoft, there are far better ways to handle this.

Disclaimer I already hate downloadable games.

But this is ridiculous. With retail games, you stand a chance of buying an older game used or just from a place that never sold theirs. And usually cheap.

But with digital distribution, now the ONLY STORE you can buy these games from didn't really drop the price like a retailer would and now is dropping them completely. They're gone. I know they suck, but maybe someone likes them.

Digital distribution, at least the single distributor model we have right now, sucks. It's terrible for the consumer.

Under 65 games includes:

Robotron: 2084
Bankshot Billiards 2
Feeding Frenzy
Dig Dug
Ms. Pac-Man
Gauntlet
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
Texas Hold 'em
Contra
Marathon: Durandal
Triggerheart Exelica
Missile Command
Time Pilot
Track & Field
Hardwood Backgammon
Pac-Man
Frogger
Mad Tracks
Root Beer Tapper
Super Contra
Geon: Emotions
Soltrio Solitaire
Arkadian Warriors
TiQal
Rush'n Attack
Aegis Wing
Defender
Rocketmen: Axis of Evil
Double Dragon
Xevious
Gyruss
Asteroids / Asteroids Deluxe
Battlestar Galactica
Centipede & Millipede
Boogie Bunnies
Spyglass Board Games
Brain Challenge
Tetris Splash
Ecco the Dolphin
Battlezone
Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Wing Commander Arena
Novadrome
Shrek-N-Roll
Mr. Driller Online
Scramble
Tempest
Sonic the Hedgehog
Discs of Tron
TotemBall
Word Puzzle
New Rally-X
Tron
Bliss Island
Cyberball 2072
Screwjumper!
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Yaris

This doesn't look good for the future of the Arcade Titles, and those were one of the main reasons I wanted a 360 in the first place. That'll be a LOT of games I no longer have access to should something happen to my 360. On the plus side, I'll no longer spend a damn dime on XBLA anymore.

Maybe that PS3 sales jump in 2012 isn't that absurd as it seemed. (X-Posted)

As the list shows a lot of these are "classic" games. I wonder if those should have the same criteria as new games because obviously they wont score as high in the graphics/sound department despite having solid gameplay.

But yeah I think a price-cut and seperate listing might be a better solution to this problem.