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These are the Xbox Live Arcade games (possibly) eligible for delisting

By Spencer . May 26, 2008 . 9:28pm

Most of you read or at least heard the Next-Gen interview with Marc Whitten where he revealed some Xbox Live Arcade games will be delisted. The article sparked quite a bit of discussion like Game|Life’s intelligent piece on long tail economics and GameSetWatch’s excellent devil advocate’s opinion regarding artificial scarcity.

Gamerscoreblog, written by actual Microsoft employees, confirms the criteria for delisting. Games that have a Metacritic score of 65% or less, been on Xbox Live Arcade for over six months and have a demo to purchase ratio of less than 6% might be pulled from the Xbox Live Arcade catalog.

The conversion ratio is the “wildcard” factor. Microsoft has never revealed this data, but just to get some idea of what games could be delisted I went through Metacritic to make two lists. The first is for games over six months old. The second reveals what games might be delisted in the future.

The potential delist list:

Crystal Quest

Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe

Hardwood Hearts

Fatal Fury Special

Contra

Marathon: Durandal

Missile Command

Time Pilot

Track & Field

Hardwood Backgammon

Hardwood Spades

Pac-Man

Frogger

Mad Tracks

Root Beer Tapper

Super Contra

Geon: Emotions

Soltrio Solitaire

Rush'n Attack

Aegis Wing

Defender

Rocketmen: Axis of Evil

Double Dragon

Xevious

Gyruss

Asteroids / Asteroids Deluxe

Centipede & Millipede

Spyglass Board Games

Tetris Splash

Ecco the Dolphin

Yie Ar Kung-Fu

Wing Commander Arena

Novadrome

Shrek-N-Roll

Scramble

Sonic the Hedgehog

Street Trace: NYC

TotemBall

Word Puzzle

New Rally-X

Cyberball 2072

Screwjumper!

Yaris

The potential delist list of the future:

Arkadian Warriors

Tempest

Tron

Boogie Bunnies

Discs of Tron

Triggerheart Exelica

Bliss Island

Brain Challenge

TiQal

Mr. Driller Online

Battlezone

Rocky and Bullwinkle

Is there anything here that you would miss?

Images courtesy of Warashi and Namco Bandai.

TAGS: Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade

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EdgeKun

What exactly defines delisting? Does it mean it's no longer available for purchase, and just download by those who purchased it before delisting?

I for one have greatly wanted to get Exelica, but don't have the funds yet to pick up a 360. Needless to say, I'll be extremely pissed if I get a 360 only to discover Triggerheart no longer available for purchase. (I'd rather not pay 90+ $ for a copy on my Dreamcast)

Spencer

@EdgeKun - Delisting means you won't be able to browse around the Xbox Live Arcade interface and find the games. As of this point, it sounds like it means you won't be able to purchase them either. Perhaps, Microsoft will include a "search" feature as a compromise to let users who really want to purchase say Triggerheart Exelica find it on their own.

James A. Calwell III

I haven't had a chance to play Exelica yet.

fallen

Retarded. Make a clearance/bargain/archive section, move the titles there, and lower their prices permanently. Do they just not care about sales, or what?

jeffx

This is disgusting. I will buy a 360 at some point, specifically for games like Exelica. This is a lack of respect for the companies who worked on making the 360 what it is, as well as to the future 360 owners. They're essentially creating rarity on downloadable titles.

Archer

From what I understand, these games will still be available for purchase through recommendations from people on your friendslist as well. Honestly though, this is another nail in the XBLA coffin. First they kill the indie stuff, and now the cool commercial stuff, what next?

I can't believe Marathon is on the list...

thaKingRocka

i like exelica. i bought it the day it released. too bad not so many others liked it. i would have thought xbla to be the perfect place for games like this. if lesser-known shooters can't have a quiet place like xbla to await purchase at a reasonable price, they may actually be pushed out of the american market again since no one wants to pay between 30 and 60 for them as retail disc-based games.