List of potentially de-listed Arcade titles
by Terrence Stasse 
{ May 26th 2008 at 3:30AM }
The third criteria isn't accessible outside of Microsoft, and is the conversion rate, i.e. the percentage of demo downloaders who end up buying the full game. As we don't know what games have good conversion rates, the games on the list are therefore not absolutely guaranteed to be in danger. But if there are any on the list that tickle your fancy, now is the time to try them, as they're the most likely ones to leave the Marketplace.
Full list after the break.
Crystal Quest
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
Hardwood Hearts
Texas Hold 'em
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
Arkadian Warriors
TiQal
Rush'n Attack
Defender
Double Dragon
Xevious
Gyruss
Asteroids / Asteroids Deluxe
Battlestar Galactica
Centipede & Millipede
Spyglass Board Games
Tetris Splash
Ecco the Dolphin
Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Wing Commander Arena
Novadrome
Shrek-N-Roll
Scramble
Tempest
Street Trace: NYC
Word Puzzle
New Rally-X
Cyberball 2072
Screwjumper!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
V Mehta @ May 26th 2008 4:10AM
I agree with many, many of these listings (*please* remove Battlestar Galactica!). But I really hope they don't actually remove all of the wonderful classic arcade games. They provide a lot of richness to the XBLA library.
ZEBRA NINER @ May 26th 2008 8:49AM
Pac-Man, Contra, and Tetris? Those should HAVE to be on there! I had no idea that those were considered "bad games".
ZeroCorpse @ May 26th 2008 1:19PM
They're not "bad" games-- It's just that most people get the trial version, play it, say "well, that was a fun trip down memory lane!" and then never buy the full version (which is, in my opinion, overpriced).
Honestly, I think they should give us a major discount on these games instead of just trashing them completely. I might pay a buck for Pac-Man, but not $5 under any circumstances. I lived through the 80s, and I already bought Pac-Man new a few times, and shoveled enough quarters into it to feel I shouldn't be ganked for a 25-year-old game, now.
People won't buy those oldies for $5 a pop as long as MAME exists. I don't use it anymore, but I know that it's out there and these ancient arcade ROMs aren't exactly hard to find, nor do they take up much space on a hard drive.
rTwelve @ May 26th 2008 4:16AM
That's weird, I don't see Yaris....
Terrence Stasse @ May 26th 2008 4:21AM
It's free, it has no conversion rate. Right now it falls outside the purview of MS's criteria.
Besides, it's an advertisement. It'll likely stay put.
salmonmoose @ May 26th 2008 4:23AM
Yaris has 100% conversion rate - it's immune to these rules.
rTwelve @ May 26th 2008 4:24AM
Depressing......
Master Devwi @ May 26th 2008 4:45AM
That is because Yaris has a 100% conversion rate. Since you can't buy it, anyone who downloaded the game "purchased" it.
Also, in an interview with Aaron Greenburg on Major Nelson's latest podcast, they said that delisted titles can still be redownloaded. If you recommend them to another person, they can still download/buy them too. The only difference is that now they don't show up in the Marketplace. They're actually still on the service, though.
xenocidic @ May 26th 2008 8:10AM
@ master dewvi
That's very good news. Frankly I didn't think this whole idea was a really good one. If they're crapping up the main lists, just give them their own list. One day I will probably buy "Novadrome" because I played the trial before Dec 2007 and have a 0/200 on my card.
They really ought slash the prices for these pieces of crap too.
DjDATZ @ May 26th 2008 10:12AM
@xenocidic yea...they REALLY need to cut the prices. drop the price of some of the shitty ones to 100 or 200 msp and i'd be more persuaded to buy the ones i "slightly" liked...
LFotF @ May 26th 2008 4:20AM
No that it wouldn't be a good thing if Bomberman: Act Zero was eliminated from the face of the earth, but, for the record, it isn't an arcade game.
Terrence Stasse @ May 26th 2008 4:22AM
Oopsie ... fixed
Sky Shark X2 @ May 26th 2008 4:20AM
Wow how did marathon end up on that list, that's suprising. I hope it stays up there it would be a shame to a classic get delisted
Terrence Stasse @ May 26th 2008 4:24AM
Metacritic of 63%
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/marathondurandal
pakkman781 @ May 26th 2008 5:25AM
I know :( Surely it will get special consideration being an old Bungie game and all...
sli7ha @ May 26th 2008 3:26PM
plus there is new dlc in the works for marathon.
Brian @ May 26th 2008 4:26AM
Is there any arcade titles there which you recommend downloading before it gets deleted?
Terrence Stasse @ May 26th 2008 4:33AM
Just download the demo if you want to give a game a shot, as you'll still be able to purchase the full game through that.
And watch the blog for more news regarding this whole thing later today ...
To actually answer the question though, Marathon and Ecco are worth a try, and Spyglass Board games was worth $5 for me, just to play virtual and online chess.
Broward @ May 26th 2008 11:52AM
You will still be able to download delisted games, you will just have to find someone who has purchased it and have them recommend it to you, and then you will be able to download the title as well.
schwal @ May 26th 2008 8:11PM
I liked mad tracks, and the poker game is decent if you like hold 'em.
Feedback @ May 26th 2008 4:31AM
Uh...what happens if I accidently/not accidently delete a game to make space....how am I supposed to get it back....will I get my money back?
I
Terrence Stasse @ May 26th 2008 4:34AM
Don't worry, you're cool.
Note the middle paragraph of my above response to Brian ...
paulypies @ May 26th 2008 6:48AM
I reckon going to the Marketplace Blade>Account Settings>Download Log would do it, you can redownload anything you have in the past from there
Feedback @ May 26th 2008 6:54AM
My issue comes from the fact that /what if/ they decide to remove the files themselves? Or is it just an interface cleanup?
Pedro Monscooch @ May 26th 2008 4:48AM
CVG are reporting that there's no spring update other than the ability to play transfered XBLA games offline:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=189552
It's a bit of a mess that they decided to announce it at this stage. I always love the update.
Big John @ May 26th 2008 3:21PM
Yeah... this was reported a few days ago everywhere else.
Grimm @ May 26th 2008 5:01AM
Wow this is a bit surprising there's actually some good titles on this list. For instance Marathon, Battlestar Galactica, Tetris Splash, Texas Hold'em, Contra, Super Contra, and Arkadian Warriors and all good or decent games. By the way apparently I'm not the only one who can't fucking sleep lol.
Stephen @ May 26th 2008 5:23AM
Some of these are actually good games. I highly doubt Marathon will be removed and as far as I know a lot of people still play Texas Hold Em'.
Grimm @ May 26th 2008 5:26PM
Texas Hold'em shouldn't count anyways since it was free when it first came out. Anyone who really wanted it got it for free. Although it is hard to find games online now. It's impossible to find player matches...people only play ranked now.
kfresh97 @ May 26th 2008 5:30AM
What on earth is wrong with filing them all in a giant, massive, "Archives" section on XBLA? It's fair enough that they want to tidy up the existing sections, but what happens when I get wasted one Friday night and have a craving for some Ecco action?
What then Microsoft? What then?
Big John @ May 26th 2008 3:23PM
Well you and the other three guys that potentially burn for said software can find it elsewhere. Microsoft can't please everyone all the time and people have been complaining about how cluttered XBLA is way more than demanding Ecoo.
callum henderson @ May 26th 2008 5:34AM
They wont be removing Marathon as has been DLC and achievements announced.
On another note, instead of Microsoft REMOVING the titles - why not make them free?! Crazy I know - Microsoft are too tight to do that...
Anthony Cenni @ May 26th 2008 8:21AM
callum henderson said: "why not make them free?"
dude, i just thought that! yea microsoft isnt making money with the old games any way? they should become freeware for a few days, THEN get removed.
JayMart @ May 26th 2008 5:40AM
You forgot: Graffiti
The worse game in history I played. The developer wrote that winney letter how Frogger wasn't better then his game.
Also Tetris isn't on the arcade.
lazygamer @ May 26th 2008 5:52AM
If you mean Space Giraffe (because developer Jeff Minter did get a *bit* whiny), well that got a Metacritic score of 68%, so it doesn't meet the criteria, even if its conversion rate is probably well below on the conversion rate.
Also, Tetris Splash was an XBLA game, Tetris Evolution was the retail game (Splash having a 1% better score on Metacritic than Evolution)
jose_edwaldo @ May 26th 2008 6:09AM
I'm pretty sure TiQal is just a few weeks old, so that wouldn't be delisted just yet........
This whole thing is pretty stupid really......just reduce the price........I'm sure a lot of people would download the likes of Frogger and Pac-Man if they only cost 200 points. I mean, they're still going to be available to download, so there's no real benefit in removing them from the marketplace.
EdgeOne @ May 26th 2008 8:35AM
I think newcomers, especially those that buy for their kids or haven't played games in awhile, would be inclined to pick old arcade titles they recognize (many of which appear on this list).
I too would like to see a price slash as apposed to deletion and think the cost to collecting all these titles separately is too steep compared to compilation discs so why not release a XBLA collection? (but I also understand getting something you don't want argument).
But when you lower the price the first adopters feel cheated for paying full price, but hey, thats life. More importantly MS probably doesn't want to set a time-based discount pricing precident leading the masses to hold off on purchasing XBLA games to see if it would eventually get discounted.
There is a lot of junk on XBLA and it does need a spring cleaning (instead of a spring update) har har.
petersjov @ May 26th 2008 6:22AM
Hi,
Microsoft need to come up with something new then !!
If i delete some old game on my 360, My profile is saying that if bought it once, i can keep on downloading it for free again ???
But if its gone, i have to keep, my xbox LIVE arcade games on my harddrive all the time ??? - no more arcade games for me!!
lazygamer @ May 26th 2008 6:44AM
on the Major Nelson podcast yesterday they cleared this up - if a game is delisted it will disappear from the Marketplace, but by going to Account Management you will be able to redownload any purchased games, even if they have been delisted.
Bryan Bortz @ May 26th 2008 5:49PM
Notice some of these are the games MS loves to give away for free in contests and xbox live packs?
Frogger, Contra, Texas Holdem.
And then some are ones they chose to sell in the first Arcade pack you could buy on disc.
Including Hardwood Backgammon, Texas Holdem.
-Owl
The Threatdown @ Jun 1st 2008 3:32PM
Alot of good points...archive them and people may still buy some of them, or maybe bargain bin. I might spend 200 points on super contra, etc. If I'm on the fence about a 800-1200 point game I will usually put it off and then buy it when its 400-800. My only thought is that maybe the game companies might not accept $2.50 a game, although I'm sure MS could lean on them a little if that was the case.
xenocidic @ May 26th 2008 8:13AM
In a decision between $2.50 and $0.00 I'm sure they'd go for the former
monkeywithnoeyes @ May 26th 2008 8:40AM
give them free to gold members ffs...one a month as incentive to get more people to invest in live, and a reason thats lacking for an additional charge
Treima @ May 26th 2008 10:10AM
That makes no sense from Microsoft's business perspective. They still would have to pay the third parties like Namco for their licenses, and making no money off of one game per month per Live account would cut into Microsoft's pockets. On top of that, there'd be tons of Live accounts that wouldn't use the credit.
I prefer just making a price cut on some of these games. With today's economy it's difficult to justify an 800 point investment in a silly 2D game, so slap a discount on the underperforming titles and continue to make money off of them. Pac-Man and the like are arcade staples, it seems kind of silly to even have an arcade listing without them.
horngreen @ May 26th 2008 9:28AM
So if they are deleted but can still be downloaded and still show up on the marketplace...I think you see where I'm going. Where do you "see" them on the marketplace and if you can still see them then they have not been deleted...Oh hell now I have a headache.
ArmiMaan @ May 26th 2008 10:19AM
It's sad to see Arkadian Warriors on the list. That game was such an underrated gem.
Matthew Moore @ May 26th 2008 10:31AM
I wish they would still allow us to download these games. If I want to buy a crappy game that isn't selling well then let me. And some of the games there aren't even crap, Wing Commander is an awesome game I would tell any person who just got an Xbox to try out.
WarlordofMars @ May 26th 2008 10:28AM
This is a big old marketing ploy. Microsoft says they will delist some games and people rush out to buy the games they put off buying. Get it before it is gone!
Big John @ May 26th 2008 3:20PM
Sure, this is going to drive some sales and judging from the more militant comments here those sales will center around library arcade titles like Pac-Man. It's a nice side effect and I don't believe it's the primary reason for this move.
Triforceowner @ May 26th 2008 10:54AM
This doesn't make sense. It costs them literally nothing to distribute these titles and they won't sell them for $1 or $.99? If they did that, then by the time next generation rolls around the 720 might launch with a library of $.99 titles, and maybe they would even be playable on the Zune, thus creating the first iTunes for videogames.