Sounds like there's still a very reasonable amount of support even after this. I expected the FAQ to tell me that I wouldn't be able to play games online or get updates or achievements after July, but it's really just buying new games that's stopping. I have zero idea how many people are still playing Xbox 360, but I bet it's more than I'm thinking.
Nintendo shut down their eShop a few years ago on the Wii; however, any purchases you made can still be re-downloaded. Same for the 3DS and Wii U with their recent shutdowns.
For real. Enabling soft-modding should be mandated by law, my Wii is still fun today thanks to the Homebrew channel and I expect my Switch will be too in 10 years too thanks to custom firmware. My softmodded 3DS is still going strong too (not that there's much content on it in the first place).
Without dedicated third-party support, these devices would pretty much be junk.
I was going to set mine back up for some good ol' Rock Band. Losing access to all the DLC songs would have sucked so much, so glad that's not happening
> While you’ll no longer be able to make purchases in the Xbox 360 Store or the Xbox 360 Marketplace (marketplace.xbox.com) after July 29, 2024, you’ll still be able to make purchases for Xbox 360 and Original Xbox backward compatible content on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and xbox.com
So from the sound of it you can still buy content. Just not directly on the 360 system
A subset of original Xbox and 360 games are backwards compatible and remain available (including Perfect Dark), but the ones that are 360 only will no longer be available to download
That doesn't seem to be the case. From the text of the site, the only thing that's seemingly going away is the ability to purchase things on the Xbox 360. The site even states that you can still download things on the 360 that are purchased on the Xbox One.
They've done a pretty good job, although in effect it redownloads the whole game and just uses a disc as a license (if you have one rather than buying digital)
As a Rare / Microsoft game, I'm sure Perfect Dark is on the BC list. Phil Spencer has suggested that licensing is the biggest issue for heavily-desired games that are missing, like Jet Set Radio Future.
If there's anyone out there with the magnet or torrent to the 2011 XBL / partner net dump that may or may not have been leaked (not src, just bin), there are an entire new generation of talent out there that wouldn't mind picking up where the now fallen - giants had left off.
"Clean room" implementation folks were able to replace the pinned certs and connect to our own "sex box lies" before the momentum was focused elsewhere (also MS has goons)
I suspect that the marketplace still has a little bit of an inherent cost. That said it is in a weird sort of zombie state nowadays. Demos for games you cannot buy, loads of apps that have had their API's move on many years ago. Internet Explorer! No with out of date SSL certs. A lot of title no longer available due to licensing issues.
For both Xbox 360 and Ps3 I suspect a decent business move would be to have a one time deal. A $100 (or whatever) one time payment that ensures that the core system will remain online for a decade. Doesn't mean any additional purchases but means that match making and friends lists will stay running until 2034. That would have given these systems a 26-27 year life time. Sony is still releasing system updates once a year to keep the Blu-ray keys up to date.
I'd go the other way here. A complete refund of everything you've spent on their store after it shuts down, or some other way to continue playing those games.
You should try to read the words on the back of the video game box.
The online portion of the games, explicitly, were segmented.
In fact: the "unspoken" reason why online services cost money (the money is actually a red herring) is so that the online services are materially separate.
