For years, owners of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video game console could watch cable content on-demand and use the console as a wireless replacement for one of Comcast’s cable boxes. All of that is coming to end on September 1st. That’s when Microsoft says it and Comcast will remove the Xfinity for Xbox 360 app from Xbox Live entirely.
Microsoft announced the Xfinity app would disappear from Xbox Live in a short, terse message sent over Xbox Live late last week. “Effective 9/1/15, the Xfinity On Demand app will be removed from Xbox 360 consoles,” the message reads. It seems that only users who downloaded Xfinity for Xbox 360 received the message.
Microsoft nor Comcast have said why the app is being removed, but it is telling that there’s no Xfinity app on the Xbox One. The diagnosis can’t be good for users who’ve come to rely on the app either, Microsoft isn’t just shutting the app down, it’s remotely removing it from the consoles of anyone who installed it. It is worth noting that the Xfinity on Xbox 360 app has offered users a pretty poor setup experience for years, with some users never being able to sign up.
Microsoft is encouraging users to access on-demand content directly through the many apps that Xbox Live offers. That won’t entirely fill the void as Xbox One and Xbox 360 are still missing some key video player apps for specific channels.
