Microsoft clarifies XBLA games delistment
When we covered some news regarding Microsoft‘s move to delist certain underperforming games from the Xbox Live Arcade, quite a number of our readers voiced some concern about it. Well, Microsoft has just explained the entire process of delisting as well as answered a few question regarding the issue. To find out more, head on over to the full article.
There has been a lot of controversy regarding the move to delist certain underperforming games from the Xbox Live Arcade. Well, Microsoft has just given out the criteria that it will be using to decide which games will be removed as well as answered a few questions that consumers might have regarding it.
According to the post on Gamerscoreblog, a game can only be delisted if it has been downloadable for at least six months, has a metacritic rating below 65 percent, and a conversion rate of less than six percent.
Conversion rate? What’s that? According to Microsoft, a conversion happens when someone downloads a trial XBLA game and then purchases it afterwards. This means that if less than 6 percent of the people who downloaded a demo of a game bought it, then it means that it already has one strike against it.
Some people may also be asking why Microsoft is even considering delisting the games in the first place. Microsoft pointed out that the Xbox Live Arcade already has a lot of games on it and that filtering out the games will make it easier for players to find the ones they want to play.
Next up is the part quite a number of gamers are worried about. Will they be able to play a game once it’s delisted? What happens to its online features and the leader boards? Can they still play the game? Here’s what Microsoft had to say:
The game will function normally even after being delisted. You can continue to play the game single and multiplayer, as well as use the leaderboards as you normally.
Finally, what happens to those who bought a game before it gets delisted and accidentally deleted it? Well, you’ll be happy to know that players will still be able to download it through the download history tab (leftmost blade according to Microsoft’s response).
Hopefully, this new information clears up a few of the issues some of our readers have voiced out. Still, this blogger can’t help but feel that it might been better to give gamers the ability to select which games will be shown on their XBLA instead of removing some of them from everyone’s list.
That said, we’re sure to hear more about this issue in the future so keep checking back here for more updates.