Microsoft will cease updating its Xbox Originals service, which allows users to download Xbox 1 titles like Ninja Gaiden Black over Xbox Live, in the near future.
Xbox Originals never really took off. Despite having a somewhat decent line-up of Xbox 1 games to download onto your 360 over Xbox Live, the service never really seemed like a high priority for Microsoft or Xbox users. Psychonauts, Ninja Gaiden Black, Jade Empire, Indigo Prophecy. All games I played for the first time via Xbox Originals. I guess I was the only one.
Now Microsoft is cutting off the service, saying that they’ve “finished its portfolio” of Xbox Originals titles, and will be releasing only one more Original and then that’ll be it for new Originals. That last game will probably be Halo 2, considering it’s a perennial favorite and will probably garner a few “oh man I LOVE that game” downloads from eager impulse Spacebuck spenders.
The move comes not as a result of the service’s lack of popularity or otherwise, but because Microsoft is moving toward it’s “on demand games” service that it revealed during Monday’s E3 press conference. The service will make select past and future 360 retail games downloadable over Live.
I have a feeling Originals would have been a bigger hit if the games offered had been spruced up in some way, with Achievements or maybe even just cost a little bit less. As it is they were just straight-up ports that didn’t always work perfectly, anyway.
[Via IGN]
