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Xbox 360 Online services, apps, and servers closing shutdown


Blazing Lazers

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Earlier in the year, I noticed that the Prime Video app for the 360 suddenly didn't work as well as it had for years. Some functions like subtitles didn't work any longer, and certain titles just wouldn't even appear. Earlier today I received an email from Amazon confirming that the 360 Prime Video app will soon be discontinued. While this isn't a surprise, I am one of what must be a few million people who are still using their 360s for streaming and other media enjoyment. 

 

I also noticed that several major titles have had their servers shut down, or are scheduled to by the end of the year. Max Payne 3, all of the Bungie Halo titles, GTA V, and others. Some titles that are getting up there in the years, like Quake 4 and the original Saints Row, have been plagued by Leaderboard issues and seem to have been left to rot. These server closures have actually impacted my gaming, as I've had to make the effort to get quite a few online Achievements ahead of the shutdowns. 

 

Anyway, this is all just to serve as a heads-up about how the 360 apps and game servers aren't going to be around forever, and that those reading this should enjoy them and finish any online Achievements while it's still possible to do so.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/14/2021 at 7:11 PM, Blazing Lazers said:

Earlier in the year, I noticed that the Prime Video app for the 360 suddenly didn't work as well as it had for years. Some functions like subtitles didn't work any longer, and certain titles just wouldn't even appear. Earlier today I received an email from Amazon confirming that the 360 Prime Video app will soon be discontinued. While this isn't a surprise, I am one of what must be a few million people who are still using their 360s for streaming and other media enjoyment. 

 

I also noticed that several major titles have had their servers shut down, or are scheduled to by the end of the year. Max Payne 3, all of the Bungie Halo titles, GTA V, and others. Some titles that are getting up there in the years, like Quake 4 and the original Saints Row, have been plagued by Leaderboard issues and seem to have been left to rot. These server closures have actually impacted my gaming, as I've had to make the effort to get quite a few online Achievements ahead of the shutdowns. 

 

Anyway, this is all just to serve as a heads-up about how the 360 apps and game servers aren't going to be around forever, and that those reading this should enjoy them and finish any online Achievements while it's still possible to do so.

Yeah, it’s weird. Microsoft said not to worry because as long as Xbox One was supported it was little extra effort to support the 360, but sound like that may have been hot air. 

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I wouldn't be too concerned for Xbox 360 support in general. What's being shut down is content that required publisher hosted server infrastructure, which isn't justified to keep online and maintain if few people are continuing to take advantage of those resources.

 

And streaming apps evolve and when numbers drop below a certain threshold, a streaming service isn't going to invest resources to continue to support a now niche platform when they go to upgrade their service and break compatibility with older iterations of their platform. And sometimes they're discontinued simply because the streaming service and platform holder don't renew a deal for a particular platform due to low viewership on that system.

 

Blazing Lazers may very well be correct with his estimation of how many 360's are still utilized to view Amazon Prime, but alas it's apparently not a significant enough number for Amazon and Microsoft to continue to bother to support. But the general Xbox Live framework for the 360 hopefully will be sticking around for some years yet, although this is certainly one step closer to an end. 

Edited by Atariboy
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10 hours ago, Swami said:

Remember the Xbox One Fitness Channel, “Xbox Fitness”? There’s a service that died an early death. Hundreds of thousands of people pissed off about that. I’m not sure how well they were refunded either. 

MS refunded folks that had purchased content through XBox Fitness (Mrs DD and I being two of those folks), though it was 'store credit'.  Users that had purchased content were given twelve months to ask for a refund.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It seems MS only intends to keep the 360 games around and not the other stuff like streaming apps...because, gamers!

 

And with the limited internal storage of the Series X/S drive due to the large size of downloaded games, there wouldn't be much room for many apps anyway.  So all I can say is invest in a $30 streaming stick for the non-gaming stuff... ?‍♂️

 

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We used an Xbox 360 as our primary streaming app device for only a couple of years. We replaced it with a roku and used the 360 for gaming and Media Center recordings. We now have a Roku Ultra 4k on every tv in the house. A game console uses way too much power just to stream video anyway. Could you imagine the cost of electricity for a family of four each watching a separate streaming service on four game consoles? UGH!  

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/8/2021 at 4:31 PM, MrMaddog said:

It seems MS only intends to keep the 360 games around and not the other stuff like streaming apps...because, gamers!

Microsoft has no control of third party streaming apps, unfortunately. Netflix, Amazon, whatever. If Netflix for instance decides the user base on 360 is too low, they are going to give their app the axe. They did it with the Wii U earlier in the year, and the support for the original Wii was dropped what now feels like ages ago. Also consider technological constraints as well, as streaming/encoding advances occur. After a point it may just not be feasible to keep these apps functioning on this aging hardware. The 360 is 15 years old now, heh. The reality sucks, but it is what it is.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bumping this topic a bit with an unexpected discovery: the Original Xbox games that were recently added to the Backwards Compatibility program are visible on the 360 store and can be downloaded and played on it! I just verified this with Star Wars Clone Wars, and plan to try the other "new" additions soon. I'm sure that some YouTuber will do a comparison between this, the One, and the Series, but as it is it seems to play just fine.

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Worth noting that only those additions last month that were previously emulated during the life of the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility program, were added to the 360 store. They play on Xbox 360 hardware just as they would've if you had already had the disc prior to November 15th. 

 

I say that since this last batch of BC additions for the XB1/Series line, for the first and apparently last time, includes several original Xbox games that never made the cut for the 360's own backwards compatibility program. Those selections are exclusive to the Xbox One and Series platforms since they obviously didn't reawaken the 360's BC program that saw its last update back in November 2007. Below is the list.

 

  • Advent Rising
  • Chicken Little
  • Gladius
  • Gunvalkyrie
  • Otogi: Myth of Demons
  • Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors
  • Secret Weapons Over Normandy
  • Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
  • Star Wars Starfighter Special Edition
  • TimeSplitters 2
  • TimeSplitters: Future Perfect

 

And just as an interesting side note, of those additions that are 360 compatible, a few were previously available digitally years ago on the 360 store. Both Max Payne games to name at least two in the last batch, were made available to download as Xbox Originals but had been long since delisted. So at least for those, this was just a relisting to the 360 storefront of what Rockstar Games had pulled years ago. 

Edited by Atariboy
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  • 3 weeks later...

So this brings me to 360 achievements...

 

I know Halo is losing some achievements tied to multiplayer & 343 servers. For single player, or non 3rd party server dependent, for achievements are they coded into the game? Then ping XBL once met for gold/tracking? 

 

Anyone have insight into that?

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On 12/27/2021 at 10:49 PM, Jagosaurus said:

So this brings me to 360 achievements...

 

I know Halo is losing some achievements tied to multiplayer & 343 servers. For single player, or non 3rd party server dependent, for achievements are they coded into the game? Then ping XBL once met for gold/tracking? 

 

Anyone have insight into that?

I recently got the last H3 Achievements that I was missing. They were all online ones, but a few of the DLC Achievements can be done offline such as the ones that require going into the map editor.

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@Blazing Lazers Nice! I played several of the Halo games under my buddies' gamer tags in my college bachelor pad. I did go back and grab some MP achievements from Reach and H3, and beat all the 360 campaigns under my tag.

 

IMO the chart below from 343 does a bad job lol. What do blanks indicate? If you have yes, no, & limited support icons... what is left to leave as blank LOL!? The text in support page linked below does a better job of adding context IMO. I think achievements tied to single player should mostly be good unless somehow also tied to Bungie/343 servers. 

 

I booted up Reach for a couple games this week. The 30 FPS takes some getting used to again after MCC, H5, and Infinite ?. Will you be playing 360 titles headed up to 1/13 sunset? I may hop on some over next 2 weeks. Sad to see them go, but MCC has vastly improved and does a good job of preservation... even if the PC Gear Box versions of CE & H2. 

 

I also want to go back and play original Halo Wars. Looks like some of those achievements may not work (again with the table blanks lol). From a preservation standpoint, just noticed XB1 HW Definite Edition (vs 360) didn't get a standalone physical release on XB1, but this one includes both remaster of HW 1 & HW2: Halo Wars 2: Ultimate Edition ... will have to pick it up. HW DE achievements not impacted.

 

Thought below would be helpful for anyone not closely following Waypoint, MCC, 343 blogs, etc:

 

XBOX 360 ONLY- ONLINE SERVICES WILL BE REDUCED OR DISABLED FOR HALO 360 GAMES ON JANUARY 13, 2022

 

Quote

WHICH ACHIEVEMENTS WILL NO LONGER WORK? 

Only Achievements that depend on game servers will be affected. The types of achievements that will no longer be available are: 

  • Achievements that require matchmaking  
  • Achievements based on challenges 
  • Legacy Avatar awards tied to certain in-game activities 

 

Quote

WILL HALO WARS: DEFINITIVE EDITION BE AFFECTED? 

Halo Wars: DE (on Xbox One and PC) will not be impacted.    

 

12142020_blogtable_xbox360_eol_1120x680-

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5 hours ago, Jagosaurus said:

@Blazing Lazers Nice! I played several of the Halo games under my buddies' gamer tags in my college bachelor pad. I did go back and grab some MP achievements from Reach and H3, and beat all the 360 campaigns under my tag.

 

IMO the chart below from 343 does a bad job lol. What do blanks indicate? If you have yes, no, & limited support icons... what is left to leave as blank LOL!? The text in support page linked below does a better job of adding context IMO. I think achievements tied to single player should mostly be good unless somehow also tied to Bungie/343 servers. 

 

I booted up Reach for a couple games this week. The 30 FPS takes some getting used to again after MCC, H5, and Infinite ?. Will you be playing 360 titles headed up to 1/13 sunset? I may hop on some over next 2 weeks. Sad to see them go, but MCC has vastly improved and does a good job of preservation... even if the PC Gear Box versions of CE & H2. 

 

I also want to go back and play original Halo Wars. Looks like some of those achievements may not work (again with the table blanks lol). From a preservation standpoint, just noticed XB1 HW Definite Edition (vs 360) didn't get a standalone physical release on XB1, but this one includes both remaster of HW 1 & HW2: Halo Wars 2: Ultimate Edition ... will have to pick it up. HW DE achievements not impacted.

 

Thought below would be helpful for anyone not closely following Waypoint, MCC, 343 blogs, etc:

 

XBOX 360 ONLY- ONLINE SERVICES WILL BE REDUCED OR DISABLED FOR HALO 360 GAMES ON JANUARY 13, 2022

 

 

 

12142020_blogtable_xbox360_eol_1120x680-

If you aren't already on TrueAchievements I highly recommend it. Sure, it can take multiple times to get a good Boosting session going but unless you have a quadbox (or better!) setup with multiple Gold accounts and game copies there's really no other way. There's been a very active Halo 3 and Reach boosting community for the past year due to the impending deadline, a deadline that was already delayed into January. It's everyone's last chance to get the Achievements and experience the online matchmaking as it used to be.

 

It's also worth recommending that anyone who might want to finish off the online components and Achievements for quite a few 360 games should do so sooner rather than later. Some of the servers have been up for 15 Years now and many more are over a decade old. They won't be around forever.

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@Blazing Lazers, yeah, True Achievements is great. I've hopped on a few MP games with some community members to work at a few cheevos, but haven't gotten too hardcore. 

 

I think the only 360 games losing achievements currently are those that rely on 3rd party dev severs. Some 360 games uses MS infrastructure for the MP. Obviously, any also tied to ongoing challenges, leaderboard, etc that require dev updates can go away. I haven't verified this, but I think what happens is the game is coded for the achievements, then it basically just tells the MS XBL infrastructure, "hey, this metric was met" ... which is how offline achievements are tracked once back online. I'm a nerd though and want to know the specifics from the coding & cloud connectivity side. May head to reddit and report back... 

 

MS has said the backwards compat games will be good for some time (at least through the XB series lifespan). Them embracing BC really helped the 360 library live on. Side note - missed opportunity to add achievements to the OG Xbox games compatible. Sony did it for some of their classics and we've seen platforms like RetroAchievements add it to retro games in emu.

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Strictly speaking, no Xbox 360 games are losing achievement support and none ever have.

 

Certain achievements though that required online functionality in order to earn have obviously became unattainable due to online services being discontinued, which in rare instances includes games where every achievement was tied to now shuttered online functionality (Game Room is a prime example). This isn't new and has been going on all the way back to when the Xbox 360 was only a year or two old and online support started to be discontinued for older games.

 

But all the single player and local multiplayer based achievements in the 360 Halo games will remain achievable, will still count towards your gamerscore, and will still appear in your online list of achievements even though Xbox Live support for multiplayer, leaderboards, and so on has been discontinued for these games.

 

Lastly, there's indeed a limit of how many achievements that you can earn offline and then have pop on your online account the next time you go online (I assume there's a system cache to track this with limited capacity, pushing older achievements out if you earn too many offline). While possibly fixed these days, I've in the past read a few accounts from folks that were quite annoyed that only their most recent achievements were represented when they took their console back online since not only do they not appear on Xbox Live, but it also in effect would break those achievements. The local user profile considers them earned which means that they can't be re-earned in order to make them appear on your online profile.

 

I assume though that we're talking several thousand worth of gamerscore here before reaching a limit. Anyone that's offline and earns a few hundred gamescore in an old 360 game during an outage before their internet comes back online has nothing to worry about. 

Edited by Atariboy
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