MS doing something I kinda agree with

[Dark Jaguar]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/22/underp...-delisted/

So they intend on culling the herd. I agree with that. The list is getting long enough now that it's easy to miss out on gems for all the trash.

That said, they shouldn't necessarily cut them off the grid completely. There's still money to be made off of those games for practically no investment from MS (relative to store shelf space and those costs, server space might as well be an infinite free resource, and it's only server space until it's actually downloaded). Further, this can punish people for liking unpopular games, and developers for making games for a small niche (as though poor sales don't already punish them enough).

My suggestion is rather simple. Underperforming games should be moved into their own download section, like a "bargain bin" only labelled something more... marketable I suppose. That way, they stay out of the way until someone decides to browse the list. MS could even sweeten the deal by providing deals on those, like say halving the price of unpopular games to move them a bit more. That way, not only do they stay out of the way, they can still attract buyers who might want to browse a list of cheap games to see what just got their leg up on the pile.

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, it's great that they're taking games away from us that we might like to play or redownload.

[A Black Falcon]

Indeed. DJ's idea of moving them to a separate category isn't a bad one, though... not everything has to be kept in the main list. But removing games permanently, that cannot be purchased any other way? That's wrong. That's very wrong. Who are they (or Gamerankings and sales data) to decide what games any specific person is going to like?

[Dark Jaguar]

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/26/downlo...listed-xb/

Seeing the games that are potentially up for the chopping block worries me...

[Dark Jaguar]

It would appear that those who already bought a game will be able to redownload it in the future.

http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2008/05/26/...-delisted/

That basically means they aren't even saving server space. So, what gives?

Yeah, a seperate section should really be considered here. I mean, Tempest? They're going to get rid of TEMPEST?

[A Black Falcon]

I think that pretty much shows how strange a move this is...

[Dark Jaguar]

Okay apparently developers are starting to get worried for the reasons I thought they might: this is going to restrict creativity and force stuff that the developers think will sell. Generally, when they do this, it leads to more generic garbage, which will be panned, and then be removed, and we get a series of "totally logical" moves that don't end up profitable.

Yeah, MS is doing something pretty bad here. While I like their store interface, the fact is Nintendo's going to catch up pretty soon (if only they can massively speed up their store access speeds) and surpass them. Their best bet is a better sorting system so people can find the games they want. They should really just not stick everything into an overarcing "arcade" category.