Магазин игр Xbox: история и изменения платформы

Digital distribution platform

Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace) is a digital distribution platform currently used by Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console and formerly by the Xbox One. The service allows users to download or purchase video games (including both Xbox Live Arcade games and full Xbox 360 titles), add ons for existing games, game demos along with other miscellaneous content such as gamer pictures and Dashboard themes. Initially used by the Xbox One during its launch in 2013, after five years the Xbox Games Store was replaced by Microsoft Store, as the standard digital storefront for all Windows 10 devices. The subsequent Xbox Series X/S consoles also use Microsoft Store. The service also previously offered sections for downloading video content, such as films and television episodes; as of late 2012, this functionality was superseded by Xbox Music and Xbox Video (now known as Groove Music and Microsoft Movies & TV respectively). In August 2023, Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 Store will be shutting down on July 29, 2024; however, backwards compatible Xbox 360 titles will remain available for purchase on the Microsoft Store for Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S after the Xbox 360 Store's sunset date.

The Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) branding encompasses digital only games that can be purchased from Xbox Games Store on the Xbox 360, including ports of classic games and new original titles.

The Games on Demand section of Xbox Games Store allows users to purchase downloadable versions of Xbox 360 titles, along with games released for the original Xbox. Most of all, some of the delisted downloadable contents of the respective Xbox 360 games are also included in this edition.

As part of the "New Xbox Experience" update launched on November 19, 2008, Microsoft launched Xbox Live Community Games, and later renamed to "Xbox Live Indie Games", a service similar to Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA), with smaller and less expensive games created by independent developers and small studios. Such games are added to the service after successfully passing through a peer review system that prevents inappropriate content from appearing in games and ensures that games meet certain technical standards and do not misrepresent their content.

After the Spring 2007 dashboard update, Microsoft increased the security on the regional content restrictions. This made obtaining entertainment content for international markets impossible, while the US market has a substantial offering in comparison. Even some free content, such as downloadable extras for retail games, is impossible to obtain in certain regions, despite there being no legal or censorship problems (an example of this would be the second Gears of War map pack; while the first pack was initially available free worldwide, the Spring 2007 update made both unavailable to many Xbox 360 owners). In the case of New Zealand, all child accounts were banned from downloading any marketplace content in mid June. as of 2010 these are still locked from downloading anything apart from software updates and user created content, no matter what the rating.

Besides using direct funds to purchase items from the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft offered Xbox gift cards that could be purchased at retail outlets or included in game packages. These cards included a 25 alpha numeric code that could be redeemed via the Xbox or on the web for specific content or towards Xbox Points to be used for purchase on the store. In 2017, Volodymyr Kvashuk was hired at a contractor within Microsoft. He was part of a team to test Microsoft's e commerce websites which included the purchasing of Xbox gift cards. Kvashuk found that in the test scenarios, he was being given legitimate Xbox gift card codes. He began quietly collecting codes and later sold these to others. By the time he was caught by federal agents, he had obtained over $10 million in value of Xbox gift cards and sold these at about half their value for Bitcoin, from which he purchased an expensive house and car. Microsoft had discovered the large use of these gift cards and eventually traced it to an internal source, leading them and federal agents to Kvashuk, who was convicted and found guilty on 18 felonies in 2020.