It’s not really too shocking that Xbox Fitness is closing down, I’ve never even heard of the app until now, and I can’t imagine many people were going to it for their daily work out. However, it’s the manner in which the app is closing that is noteworthy.
Starting today, Xbox Fitness will no longer be available for purchase, though if you already have a copy, it’s accessible for another year (until June 30, 2017 to be precise.) Once this date passes, the application will no longer be accessible, period. Even if you paid full price. There was a Free With Gold version, which will be supported until December 15 of this year.
While this isn’t mind blowing, and will likely not impact a very significant chunk of Xbox’s total users, it’s still unfortunate that a product someone could have paid full price for may very well be yanked entirely. Just another example of a bleak “games as a service” future where nothing is definite, and certainly doesn’t last forever. Granted, the full closure date is so far off that there’s plenty of time for Microsoft to go back on their decision, but it seems rather unlikely.