XBOX 360 Marketplace

[Atari 5200 Guy]

It is official.  While XBOX will keep the 360’s online services working, they have said they will be shutting down the 360 marketplace by July 29, 2024. You will still my be able to download and play owned 360 games, digital and physical.  After July 29, 2024 the 360 will no longer be able to access the marketplace.  This move also affects the console’s ability to play digital movie and tv content through the Microsoft Movies & TV app.  Backwards compatibility will continue on modern Xbox consoles.

With that said, I have been browsing the 360 store for games left I’d like to try to obtain and made a small discovery.  There are some games that are free.  Free is good!  And these games are good ones.  What I have found so far are:

Crackdown, Crackdown 2, Too Human, Resident Evil Revelations 2

There are others but if you haven’t bought a 360 yet, and have been meaning to, now’s the time.  You don’t even need to buy a game with it.  What is free is some of the best 360 has to offer and will provide many hours of entertainment.  If you can get a machine with a hard drive included. You can also use external usb storage devices up to 2 TB total to download games to.  I just recommend a HDD because some games require internal HDD to access some features.

if you find more free 360 games on the Xbox store please share!  Lets get these while we can!

[RickR]

I *JUST* got an xbox 360 for free.  I don't know how to access the store, but I'll try to figure it out and grab those free games you mentioned.  Any help or any other games to grab would be most appreciated! 

I set up my profile on the 360 to be local (no MSN account).  Do I need to set up a microsoft account to access the store?

 

 

[Justin]

To be fair, Microsoft launched Xbox 360 on this week in 2005, so they've been providing support for the system for 18 years. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

3 hours ago, RickR said:

Do I need to set up a microsoft account to access the store?

You will need a Live account. A Silver account will work if you don’t want to pay for Gold.  You would need that only if you plan to play online.  You can set one up using your Xbox.  It will need access to your internet.

Finding the store from the 360 dashboard is actually easy.  Once you have an account setup use the shoulder buttons on the controller (LB and RB) to navigate to different areas of the dashboard.  Go to the GAMES section and on the bottom you can pick SEARCH GAMES or browse games alphabetically.  You can also use a USB keyboard to help type in characters if you need to.

There are three distinct 360 models.  The original models are known for and started the Red Ring of Death symptoms.  These are white in color with either a white or chrome disc tray and name plate.  There is a black elite 360 model that looks like those mentioned but should have had the RRoD issue fixed.  The most popular models appear to be the S models.  These have air vents on top and come in various colors and decor. The E models were the last revision and attempted to capture the original XBOX One styling.  
 

Both S and E models have wi-fi built it, the original and elite models don’t. You’ll have to hardwire with an Ethernet cable.  
 

57 minutes ago, Justin said:

To be fair, Microsoft launched Xbox 360 on this week in 2005, so they've been providing support for the system for 18 years. 

Microsoft has mentioned how impressive it was learning their fan base still plays and supports the 360 with original hardware.  Even with the RRoD issues the 360 did what it was made for.  The only aspect of XBOX I didn’t like was having to pay to play online when I already have to pay for internet.  But 18 years is a long time and Microsoft is not shutting it down completely.  Just the marketplace and Movies and TV sections…everything else will still be functional.

[RickR]

Mine is an "E".  I have it hooked up to wifi already.  I will try setting up a silver account.  Thanks.

 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

16 hours ago, RickR said:

Mine is an "E".  I have it hooked up to wifi already.  I will try setting up a silver account.  Thanks.

 

😁

[RickR]

Well, my attempt at this was pretty frustrating!  This is why I was so hesitant to try.

My existing Microsoft Account wouldn't work because I had dual layer authentication.  So I finally figured out how to create an "application password", but that didn't work either.  Why?  I guess my account was already associated to another 360 (probably my children's console from many years ago).  No way to unassociate that I could find.  So then I created a new account, but that was a huge ordeal.  I simply could not figure out their confusing CAPTCHA.  I am not a robot.  I finally tried the audio version and that worked.  But OMG.

Finally, I got my 360 logged in but it wouldn't download any games.  First I'd get an error message about no credit card on file (these are free games!), but where is the screen to enter a credit card?  There is none that I could find.  After that message, it wouldn't connect at all unless I rebooted the console. 

 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

The 360 can be finicky.  I use Xbox.com on a computer to add credit card info then use the 360 for downloading 360 games.  
 

The games are free but for whatever reason Microsoft still asks for current payment information.  
 

The 360 is not the easiest to shop with.  Never has been.  At times it is slow, it sometimes locks up requiring a complete power disconnect, and other times it just sits there with the ring spinning like it doesn’t know what to do.  Its dashboard has been messed up since its last update after Xbox one came out.  Microsoft has never tried to correct the issues.  It was fine until that last update.  
 

if nothing else use your Windows account with Xbox.com and go claim the games that way.  Then sign in to that same account on your 360.  

[RickR]

11 hours ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

The 360 can be finicky.  I use Xbox.com on a computer to add credit card info then use the 360 for downloading 360 games.  
 

The games are free but for whatever reason Microsoft still asks for current payment information.  
 

The 360 is not the easiest to shop with.  Never has been.  At times it is slow, it sometimes locks up requiring a complete power disconnect, and other times it just sits there with the ring spinning like it doesn’t know what to do.  Its dashboard has been messed up since its last update after Xbox one came out.  Microsoft has never tried to correct the issues.  It was fine until that last update.  
 

if nothing else use your Windows account with Xbox.com and go claim the games that way.  Then sign in to that same account on your 360.  

I can't thank you enough for walking me through this.  I'll try to xbox.com/browser method. 

[RickR]

Here are a couple more that appear to be free:

[RickR]

And two more. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

5 hours ago, RickR said:

I can't thank you enough for walking me through this.  I'll try to xbox.com/browser method. 

You’re welcome.  I’m an Xbox ambassador so I do what I can when I can. I favor the 360 more than the newer Xbox consoles because Xbox has managed to control the games on Xbox one soo much it feels like you never own a game.  I’m not dogging their methods but at the same time I don’t agree with all of it.  

If you have gold and get free Xbox one games with gold you can play what you claim as long as you have gold.  Lose gold and you can’t play them.  When the service was on 360 you got to play what you could claim then if you lost gold you could still play what you claimed.

The 360 is still a very able console with tons of great games.  So once you claim them on your computer you should be able to download them on your 360.  If you need help let me know and I’ll do my best to guide you.  I think once you mess around and get to know the 360 you’ll like it. 

If you ever want to know what all games you downloaded to your 360:

At the dashboard use RB to navigate to the System area, select account, select downloads.  If you ever get digital 360 games or dlc and remove them you can get them again by going here.  Avoid the purchase section of this area as it doesn’t work.  At least I’ve never got it to work.

[Smell Dawg]

23 hours ago, RickR said:

And two more. 

Holy smokes I forgot about that Doritos game!  That made for a pretty good time considering it was free!!

[RickR]

OK, I'm back at it this morning and I have some tips for any future new xbox users....If you have added games via xbox.com on your computer (which is a heck of a lot easier than doing it on the xbox!):

• On the XBOX, sign in using that same account
• Go to "System", "account", and then "Download history"
• The games you added on the internet are listed here, simply click on each one and "re-download"

On 11/23/2023 at 1:34 PM, Atari 5200 Guy said:

At the dashboard use RB to navigate to the System area, select account, select downloads.

Yeah, what he said 🙂

 

[RickR]

Whoops, except it seems like the wifi on xbox is super finicky.  It started downloading and then paused and now says "There's a problem connecting to xbox service".  

I may move the xbox down closer to the router just to get these games downloaded.  Although I've never had issues in this room upstairs before.  

 

[RickR]

My setup. 

[RickR]

For future reference regarding XBOX 360 wifi:

• Moving it closer to my router did not help
• My router is fast and combines 5 and 2.4 GHz bands using the same SSID.  I finally guessed that this was the problem.
• I created a "guest" network on my router that is 2.4 GHz only and has no access to anything else on the network.  BOOM, it started working. 
• I'm now downloading games.  Some of them take a LONG time as they are 6Gb in size. 

 

 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

The 360 was never fast at d/l anything through WiFi.  If you can find a way to do it the 360 gets its fastest internet speeds through Ethernet cable.  At least mine do.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

On 11/24/2023 at 9:56 AM, Smell Dawg said:

Holy smokes I forgot about that Doritos game!  That made for a pretty good time considering it was free!!

For sure!  I’m still playing that one.  
 

I kind of wish Xbox would have left the indie games on there a while longer.  I still have and play Xenominer.  Gave a whole $1 for it. Best dollar I’ve spent on the 360.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I forgot.  There’s a free shoot ‘em up called Aeris something.  I’ll see if I can find it.

I couldn’t find it using my phone.  It’s in the A section.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Atari 5200 Guy

[Smell Dawg]

20 hours ago, Atari 5200 Guy said:

I forgot.  There’s a free shoot ‘em up called Aeris something.  I’ll see if I can find it.

I couldn’t find it using my phone.  It’s in the A section.

"Aegis Wing"!  If that style of couch co-op is of interest, "Assault Heroes" was a good one, too 🙂 (not free though)