Back in May, news that Microsoft would de-list low-selling, underperforming XBLA titles caused a bit of a stir. Well now that delisting might be put off or even canceled, according to Microsoft VP John Schappert.

Schappert told IGN that the original reports laying out how games would be targeted for deletion were, of course, taken out of context. Actually, I kind of buy his explanation. He said that the standards for delisting — a MetaCritic score of less than 65 and a trial conversion rate below 6 percent — were meant as parameters only, not absolute triggers for the XBLA axe. And that's good. Because Fable II: Pub Games is presently scoring a 55 on MetaCritic.

But ultimately, the new Xbox Live dashboard (not "experience") that goes live Nov. 19 might make delisting unnecessary. Originally, the idea was to reduce clutter in the marketplace. New sorting options in the new experience (ah, shit!) dash should make navigating the titles easier.

XBLA De-Listing Deferred [IGN via Gamasutra]

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