RIP, Xbox 360 Store (2005-2024)

After nearly 20 years, the Xbox 360 has been fully retired. Its digital storefront, which opened alongside the console's launch in 2005, is now closed.

Microsoft previously announced the marketplace would shut down late last year. Players can no longer buy games, DLC, or movies for the console, but anything bought prior to the closure can be re-downloaded to Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S.

The end of the marketplace puts a final bow on the console. Throughout its lifetime, the Xbox 360 helped define the Xbox brand, thanks to Xbox Live, the dashboard (and its many evolutions), and key games like 1 vs. 100 and Gears of War.

The 360 gave Xbox more wins than it knew what to do with

How big was the Xbox 360? Call of Duty had a multi-year exclusivity deal for DLC maps stretched across multiple games, a practice that transitioned over to PlayStation and has now led to Microsoft owning the popular franchise.

Changes and add-ons like the Xbox Live Arcade, Kinect, Avatars, and New Xbox Experience helped turn the console into a more community and casual-oriented platform. Some continued on into the Xbox One, all have been remembered fondly.

With the Xbox 360 marketplace gone, that leaves the PlayStation 3 as the final storefront for seventh-generation consoles. Nintendo killed the Nintendo Wii Shop in early 2019, while Sony's kept the PS3 store going after initial plans to end it in 2021.

On social media, then-Xbox community manager Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb called it "my pleasure sharing all the thousands of marketplace sales and updates I’ve given over the years. Thanks for having fun, playing fair and filing feedback." In its own post, the Video Game History Foundation noted the loss of the 360 store "takes hundreds of games and DLC off the market, with no legal way to access them."

With a cake featuring Halo's Master Chief as a topper, the VGHF acknowledged it was "working to fix copyright law for game preservation. But for now, we figured a cake wouldn't hurt."