Some interesting bits of information coming out of Next-Generation's website, via one Mark Whitten of General Manager stature.

Apparently there is to be no Sping Update for Live. Which is sort of odd. But it gets weirder – Microsoft will be purging the catalog of  so-called "underperforming" arcade titles. He even gave the criteria:

"...XBLA titles that have been out for more than six months, have a Metacritic score of less than 65%, and have a conversion rate of less than 6% will be eligible for desliting."

Which is more than odd, it's absolutely baffling. I thought one of the advantages of digital distribution was unlimited shelf space? Why would they let metacritic determine what is good and bad for everyone? This sort of strikes at the heart of the way MS portrays Live, as a premum service somewhat immunized to the vagaries of cancelled online communities and arbitrary moves like this one. Very hard to understand the thinking here. Whitten offers only a flimsy reasoning of "making things easier to find", which last I checked was a function of the interface design and not the number of titles.

On a good note, they are also promising a forthcoming "tool" to transfer your DRM from repaired consoles properly, so that's a bit of a relief if it works well. That is due sometime next month.

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