Yes, any excuse to use a Portal reference.
Last week Microsoft dropped a bit of a bombshell when Mark Witten announced their plans to remove some Live Arcade titles from the Marketplace if they were under-performing. The uproar across gaming forums near and far forced them to clarify the finer details, stating that players would still be able to download any titles they’ve paid for from their download history and that all online functions such as leaderboards or multiplayer will still be available for these titles.
Further clarification has now come in the form of Microsoft’s Aaron Greenburg via Major Nelson’s podcast, explaining that people will still be able to download delisted titles if they are sent a message via the Live Dashboard using the `Tell a Friend` option. We guess it’s now more important than ever to have nice friends, particularly if they have a title that you want to play and didn’t get the chance before it disappeared.
There’s no denying that it’s an odd decision when clearly the infrastructure and server space will still be allocated for these titles. The more cynical might believe this is all but a total back-peddle by Microsoft on the issue and befuddled as to why they just don’t set up a bargain bin to put delisted titles in at a reduced price.
Regardless it’s clear that delisted titles won’t really be gone for good and so the situation is certainly shaping up to be a little bit than first announced.
