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Midway XBLA games pulled

Publisher's full slate of Live Arcade titles yanked from Marketplace; Smash TV, Gauntlet, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 among those no longer available.

128 Comments

When Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade, it did so without much support from top-tier third-party publishers. Beyond casual specialist PopCap Games, the most notable name on the Xbox Live Marketplace at launch was Midway, with the publisher selling arcade classics Gauntlet, Smash TV, and Joust from day one.

Would you buy that for a dollar? Well, tough. You can't anymore.
Would you buy that for a dollar? Well, tough. You can't anymore.

Now those games--as well as Cyberball 2072, Robotron: 2084, Defender, Paperboy, Rootbeer Tapper, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3--have been pulled from the Xbox Live Marketplace. A Microsoft representative said the group of games was removed from the service late last week "due to evolving rights and permissions."

Those problems don't seem to have affected the publisher's PlayStation Network titles, as games like Mortal Kombat II were still available on the PlayStation 3 downloadable storefront this morning. Inquiries to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which now controls Midway's library of intellectual properties, were not returned as of press time.

While that prevents gamers from adding those titles to their library for the first time, they aren't gone from the service entirely. As the Microsoft representative said, "Xbox Live members will always be able to play and re-download any titles they have already purchased."

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luckylifer

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lol its so weird, i typed up in microsoft points how much the current cost of the game is in dollars and got around 5,200,000$. talk about a cheap game!

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hubesung

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We just need to wait on Warner Bros. for whay and how long?

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Avatar image for Dagg3rFa1lz
Dagg3rFa1lz

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WHY?!?!?! I Never Got A Chance To Download Gauntlet!!!!!

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stunna0416

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So WTF i spent my money on a few of these games and what are they saying, sorry your S.O.L? F**K that i want my money back for that. Or at least some damn MS points.

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Shika_Stoner

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Search your download history. Redownloading worked for me. Not sure if you can still play online multiplayer though.

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KingLizard22

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OMG, i want so bad UMK3!!! hope Warner Games re. released the game again. Im hoping on that

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jjmonster2006

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they're full of s*it. I deleted defender because it was showing up as a trial game on other profiles. I deleted it because my intentions were to re-download it, but I can't get it back. thanks for stealing my money you ******* thieves. I will have revenge on this. Wait till I finish school. I'm making my own gaming company and I'm going after Microsoft.

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gamescottsman

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So does that mean I spent money on Ultimate Mortal Kombat - I now try and re-download it and I can't? WTF Where's my money MS!

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nburdine

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I bought a 12 Month Gold Membership card with a free download code for Joust after this was annouced and it still worked. So as long as you can get a hold of a code they are still somewhat available.

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sdcazares1980

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Warner Bros should be able to re-release these games since they are classic legacy games.

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Trickst3r

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I have Smash TV :)

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Gamesmasterx

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Damn, I was gonna go buy Smash TV. And to anyone (And @metroid24 ) who bought one of these games already, I am pretty sure you can get them again via download history, hope that helps.

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metroid24

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that sucks and im gonna get a new harddrive next week how am i gonna transfer it since i cant redownload it crap

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King_Jeremy_77

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Glad i downloaded Paperboy when i did.

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johnrkinsey1

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Ugh. Midway or the new Midway discovered a Disney secret. Release games for a given period. Pull the games for a given period. Creating scarcity builds desire. I suddenly want Paperboy and SmashTV. Damn. Hopefully, we will see the games back in a few months.

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Deaner04

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Had I known that sooner I would have bought smash tv, glad to hear my Mortal Kombat will still be playable though phew

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VXLbeast

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Defender is grand. And I still miss Midway. : /

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Darth_Nater307

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& I was thinking about getting "Smash TV". Shame, shame, shame. :(

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KickinIt_ftw

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I worked at Nintendo before Ken Lobb left for Microsoft. That guy was a straight BEAST on Robotron: 2084. He was the terror of our smoker's break room; playground legend status haha. Guarantee you that if one XBLA game is saved to his hdd, that's it.

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XanderZane

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Damn.. I forgot to get Root Beer Tapper. I already have Smash T.V., Robotron 2084 and Paperboy. Actually, I own all the Midway Collectors PS2 and PSP games, so I'm good. All those games are on the collectors games. The only thing that sucks is no achievements or leaderboards.

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theKSMM

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Though I like having the ability to play retro games on the big consoles, I tend to enjoy them more in portable form. They're great to play in short bursts, and most of them look much better on a small screen than a living room TV. Also, I find the cost prohibitive for most of these games. Finding them in a compilation or included through a service like makes them a much better overall value.

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WestSideAzn

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Wow... I was about to go and buy Smash TV too...

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megamega777

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This may only be short-term since: -"Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which now controls Midway's library of intellectual properties" and -"As the Microsoft representative said, "Xbox Live members will always be able to play and re-download any titles they have already purchased." We just need to wait on Warner Bros.

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DrEvilKoala

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I wondered why I couldn't find Smash TV anymore... A shame...

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Venom_injektion

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This is sad. Sure hope no more classics get pulled from XBL, or PSN. Ridiculous.

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jl0pez

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No more paperboy? I was looking at getting some of those games. I only have UMK3.

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Egotte

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Sucks that the MK2 port that is horrid is still live on PSN, yet the ever-popular, awesome UMK3 port is gone! What the heck.

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Zeromus1337

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Well, this is just a shame.

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mrzero1982pt2

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@cbx4ever maybe because they know something you dont? maybe because you CHEATED? im level 2 on gow and i know why... BECAUSE I RARELY PLAY ONLINE!

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braindead_hero

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I'd expect to see all these appear in the GameRoom not too long after that launches

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deactivated-64b7010800769

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I'm going to get flamed enormously for saying this, but... I never liked Midway anyway.

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Fenriswolf

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That's ridiculous. My COD4 ranking on PC was reset twice and you don't see me selling my PC and all of its games because of it. And Sony has good customer service? LMAO you mean a company that asks for your payment details beforehand, and $150 to get your console fixed?

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cbx4ever

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The beginning of M$ downfall, I supported M$ till they gave me the run around when it came to fixing my rank on gears of war 2, (was a lvl 55 now everytime i played i'm a lvl1). I traded in all my games execpt for dead rising, keeping the xbox for that game only. Went to ps3 and honestly have no regrets at all with sony. It's bad when you support and defend a company and they just turn their backs on you. I never hated a customer representative so much until I had to delt with M$ customer service. At least with sony, my psp and computer software were not a hassle to fix for them, they were greatly helpful and sony never gave me 2 and a half moths of playing email and phone tag. M$ customer service wouldn't know their elbows from their A holes. Now I see their marketplace is being affected, I'm just trying to warn folks this is their beginning to their destruction.

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SteveTwo

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@ThAdEa82 "I'd buy that for a dollar!" is one of the phrases the announcer in SmashTV pops up to say, as shown in the picture.

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Bangerman15

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i have smash tv and ultimate MK3... dang man root beer tapper was fun too i was hoping to get it sometime in the future lol

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kvan33

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@Worm209 - you have to download your purchase history on to your new xbox. I think that's somewhere in the xbox live account management menu.

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zomglolcats

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GAAAAH. I was going to get Robotron but now I'm too late...

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krashadamz

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No coincidence that the Game Room thing is coming out soon.......

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ThAdEa82

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@FLEEBS - Its been going on for a while Picture caption - "Would you buy that for a dollar?"...since when has any game outside community games been a dollar?

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FLEEBS

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This sucks, and I hope it doesn't become a trend.

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Hvac0120

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[quote="GameSpot"] As the Microsoft representative said, "Xbox Live members will always be able to play and re-download any titles they have already purchased."[/quote] That is a relief. I own one or two Midway games on XBL. Although I rarely play them, I'd like to still be able to go back and play them some time. It's good to know they worked it out so people who already purchased can re-download. This is a huge fear in the digital industry and it would have been a shame if they hadn't been able to secure that. _

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Marcusraitor

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Digital products is not yours, your buying something that you dont have i prefer to have the games on my hand so i can play with my Xbox live account or other Xbox live account or without an Xbox live account is mine i could play anywhere i want offline online i choose is mine.

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Dmitheon

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I expect the new holder of the rights is hoping to negociate a better deal with MS. They'll probably be back in a few months when a revised contract is drawn up, though I wouldn't be surprised is the price go up. OR this has to do with pricing of the games for the new Live Arcade gameroom. Maybe they think they can get more than 400 pts for it.

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Dmitheon

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Worm209. Definitely ping Microsoft. When I had sent my system in for repair, when I got it back there was something specific I needed to do to associate the games with the machine in order to play offline. UNfortunately I don't have the instructions but it's definitely fixable.

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Worm209

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Awwwww Midway games leaving? Rootbeer Tapper is a good game to play when you only have a few mins spare. Someone mentioned DoubleDragon. unrelated to this article, but Anyone ever have this happen to any of their XBLA games?: my versions of DoubleDragon and GoldenAxe that i downloaded from XBLA both no longer work... i bought them ages ago and unlocked achievements on them, but when i put them on now (it is a different console but it happens connected to LIVE & offline) they say they are demo's and it shows the 'unlock full game' message even though i already bought them. Deleting/re-downloading makes no difference and it even says 'you have already purchased this item' when i look at the storefront. I suppose i should phone microsoft to sort it.

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David_Kniffin

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@pamplinas322 If you downloaded it before, it'll still be in your purchase/download history and you can get it again. This only effects those who never got it a first time.

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twztid13

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@im-a-roustabout where did u get the idea that i wanted to the retro games to shut down? i specifically said 'for others who like to revisit older gen games (or play them for the 1st time), this sucks & will HOPEFULLY be resolved (since they're still on psn).'

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ManOfTeal

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Perhaps Sony is buying Midway?

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