In an attempt to clean up their online store, Microsoft has decided to give the ax to some of the less popular titles.  Titles that qualify for the purge must have a 65% or lower average on Metacritic, be at least 6 months old, and have a low conversion rate (people who buy the game after trying the demo).  A list has shown up on the internet showing the games that may possibly get delisted based on their age and Metacritic score.  List after the break.

(Hey, I put Tombstone in the picture... get it?)



The games up for death row are:

Crystal Quest
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
Hardwood Hearts
Texas Hold 'em
Fatal Fury Special
Contra
Marathon: Durandal
Missile Command
Time Pilot
Track & Field
Hardwood Backgammon
Hardwood Spades
Pac-Man
Frogger
Mad Tracks
Root Beer Tapper
Super Contra
Geon: Emotions
Soltrio Solitaire
Arkadian Warriors
TiQal
Rush'n Attack
Defender
Double Dragon
Xevious
Gyruss
Asteroids / Asteroids Deluxe
Battlestar Galactica
Centipede & Millipede
Spyglass Board Games
Tetris Splash
Ecco the Dolphin
Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Wing Commander Arena
Novadrome
Shrek-N-Roll
Scramble
Tempest
Street Trace: NYC
Word Puzzle
New Rally-X
Cyberball 2072
Screwjumper!

Again, the games listed are not necessarily going to be delisted.  This is just the list of XBLA games that are over 6 months old and have less than a 65% on Metacritic.  The other deciding factor in whether a game will go is the conversion rate which only Microsoft knows.  There is also going to be a three month heads up before any delisting so don't worry about having something like Street Trace: NYC slip through your fingers.  If you already own any of the games that do get delisted don't worry, because you will still be able to re-download them.  Only new buyers will be unable to get the games.

I don't even own any of the games on here and don't care to.  The only thing on this list that I would want to get before its delisted is Double Dragon.  I wasn't surpsised to see many of these games on this list.  Most of them are either overpriced retro titles which  you can get your fill of with the demo, or crappy third party games.

If Microsoft was serious about cleaning up XBLA they'd change the whole layout of the store.  Am I the only one who feels that its a pain to search XBLA?  Maybe back when it started and there weren't many thing available the current layout was alright, but now that there is a lot of content on it going to the online store feels like you have to wade through everything just to find what you want.  The whole store just has a really clunky feeling to it.  I haven't seen a lot of the Sony online store, but from what I've seen it looks much easier to access and find things.