After an initial false alarm, Microsoft announced last year that it’s officially planning to shut down the Xbox 360 digital store in July this year, meaning that 360 console owners will no longer be able to buy games, or any DLC or other media content on their consoles or through the web store – not including backwards compatible content on Xbox One and Series X|S. They will, however, still continue to be able to access any already-purchased content from before the shutoff date on their 360 console.
Here’s exactly what’s happening as per the Xbox Wire blog:
VGC did the math at the time, and estimated that – after taking out the games that will remain available via Backwards Compatibility and those that were pressed to physical disc at one point or another – around 220 Xbox 360 games will be forever “lost” to this shutdown.
Microsoft says multiplayer games will still continue to function as normal, provided the game’s publisher continues to support the online servers, and cloud saves will still work as per normal. There’s more information on the changes in the form of a Q&A below:
Yes, you will still be able to play the games you purchased on Xbox 360. If you purchased the game digitally or have a physical disc, you can still jump in and play. If you’ve deleted a game that you have purchased, but you want to play again, you’ll still be able to re-download it.
Yes. Even after July 2024, you will still be able to play games and connect with friends through multiplayer on the games you purchased, as long as the publisher still supports the online servers. You can still save your games and progress to the cloud, and if you choose to continue any of those available games on Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S, those cloud saves will transfer over.
There is no impact to purchasing or playing backward-compatible Xbox 360 titles. After July 29, 2024, you will still be able to purchase hundreds of great backward-compatible Xbox 360 and Original Xbox games and DLC on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox.com. We believe in celebrating gaming’s rich history and have worked hard to preserve as many games as possible through our backward-compatibility program. You can find the full list of backward-compatible titles here.
For those who wish to continue playing Xbox 360 games on Xbox Series X|S, we’ve taken the time to enhance those titles so they look and play better than ever before, while staying true to the original version. You can play those Xbox 360 titles with FPS Boost, Auto HDR, and faster loading times.
The Microsoft Movies & TV app is available on Windows devices running Windows 10 or later, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Any content that you’ve purchased from the Xbox 360 Store will remain in your library and be available to view on such devices. In addition, all purchased Movies & TV content eligible for Movies Anywhere can always be streamed and downloaded on the Movies Anywhere app or site.