Microsoft Shuts Down Xbox Fitness

Microsoft has officially announced that the Xbox division has discontinued its Xbox Fitness service, which provided players with and without Kinect sensors with workout sessions and programs for home use.

The announcement was made this Monday as Microsoft Studios officially announced it was abandoning the program that initially launched with the Xbox One in 2013, stating that “Given the service relies on providing you with new and exciting content regularly, Microsoft has given much consideration to the reality updating the service regularly in order to sustain it. Therefore, the decision has been made to scale back our support for Xbox Fitness over the next year.”

The announcement included several details concerning the discontinuation, including the fact that all purchased content will become unavailable as the service shuts down on July 1st, 2017. Until then players will have access to all of their purchased content, though it’s no longer possible to purchase any of these programs.

Here is a specific timetable for the service for the next year, as provided by Microsoft Studios:

  • Beginning today, June 27, 2016, Xbox Fitness content will no longer be available for purchase. For existing users of Xbox Fitness, the content you’ve purchased will be available to play for a year, through June 30, 2017.
  • On December 15, 2016, we will be removing our “Free with Gold” offer.  Until then, Gold members will still be able to access and play the over 30+ workouts available for streaming as a part of this offer for free.
  • On July 1, 2017, Xbox Fitness (and all associated content) will no longer be available for download/play. This includes content you’ve purchased. At that time, Xbox Fitness will no longer be available for download from Xbox Marketplace and content will not be available for play from the Xbox Marketplace nor within the game. Xbox Fitness users will no longer be able access Xbox Fitness and the associated workouts/programs.

It’s sad to see Xbox Live lose yet another service that is held to heart by an active userbase, though given the company’s seemingly more straightforward focus on gaming and TV it may have been inevitable.