Amazon Stops Selling Xbox Live Arcade Games

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Amazon has stopped selling Xbox Live Arcade games – the pint-sized downloadable games that many enjoy on their Xbox 360s. When you buy the game from Amazon, you’re given a 25-character code that allows you to download the game for free from online. It’s a little odd, since a year ago Amazon had launched a special store portal for Xbox Live content.

Amazon has issued the warning that they are “no longer selling Xbox Live Arcade game codes.” Any listings you may search for or have bookmarked of Xbox Live Arcade games are now listed as “currently unavailable”. Amazon does remind you that you can still buy Microsoft Points cards from them – which will enable you to buy content from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

The mystery deepens, as Joystiq points out, Amazon is still selling WiiWare and PlayStation Network downloadable games. So, it’s not that they’re banning all that stuff site-wide, it’s likely something to do with their margins on those Xbox games. Or something.

But, Microsoft isn’t doing away with those in-store game cards anytime soon. Case in point, they’ve struck a deal with GameStop to feature downloadable games as well as add-on content for existing games in GameStop retail locations. Apart of the deal is 45 different games, as well as an unknown amount of DLC.

Gamestop President Tony Bartel told USA Today that featuring these plastic cards in retail stores was a “meaningful way to expand the sales of digital distrubtion.” Or, it’s like bringing automobiles for sale to people who can’t ride their horse to the car dealership.

Stupid analogies aside, the ‘headliner’ for the Xbox Live Arcade games featured in GameStop is the recently released and critically acclaimed Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Not bad, eh?