The digital storefront for buying video games and different media on the Xbox 360 recreation console will probably be shut down subsequent summer time, only a bit shy of 20 years after the console’s debut.

A weblog put up announcement credited to Dave McCarthy, CVP of Xbox Participant Companies at Microsoft, said that purchases will not be attainable beginning on July 29, 2024. The change impacts each the on-console retailer and the Xbox 360 Market web site. Customers will lose the flexibility to buy video games, motion pictures and TV content material, and avatars and different profile customizations.

Customers will nonetheless be capable to obtain and play video games they’ve already bought for the foreseeable future after that date, and plenty of different community options will proceed to work, like communication with mates, cloud saves, and on-line play in multiplayer video games whose builders nonetheless help it. Builders will nonetheless be capable to problem patches and updates to Xbox 360 video games, too. Backward-compatible Xbox 360 video games will nonetheless be out there for buy on the Xbox One and Xbox Sequence X|S shops, Microsoft says.

That stated, the identical will not be true for video content material customers have acquired. TV episodes and movies bought through Xbox’s on-line market will stay in customers’ libraries, however playback will not be attainable on Xbox 360 consoles. Customers must flip to different machines like Home windows PCs or newer Xbox consoles just like the Xbox One or Xbox Sequence X to view the content material.

Though the Xbox 360’s on-line market was one of many first digital distribution platforms for recreation consoles, this is not the primary time a shutdown like this has been introduced. Nintendo infamously shut down the Wii U and 3DS eShops, which ended entry to quite a few indie titles. Sony introduced comparable plans for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, however canceled them after a buyer, media, and influencer backlash. It moved forward with closing the older PSP retailer, although.