Xbox Buyers Lose Celeste and TowerFall in the BDS Boycott Fight

Maddy Thorson has removed Celeste and TowerFall from sale on Xbox, turning support for a boycott of Microsoft into a concrete loss of choice for players. ^[2][3]

On October 29, the games' developer confirmed that the removals were deliberate. Both titles remain available on PlayStation, PC and Switch, according to reports of the change. The action singles out Microsoft's platform rather than withdrawing the games from sale altogether. ^[2][3][5]

The decision supports the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, known as BDS, which has called for a boycott of Microsoft gaming products. It follows House House's decision to keep its game Big Walk off Xbox for the same reason. One studio has withheld a release. Another has removed games players could previously buy. ^[1][2][4]

Thorson's explanation was blunt: "For those who're asking, yes we delisted Celeste and TowerFall on XBox. We did this to support the BDS boycott." ^[2][3]

That is a more consequential intervention than a statement of solidarity. A developer is using control over distribution to impose a small but visible cost on a platform. The immediate loss falls on prospective Xbox buyers. The political purpose is to make Microsoft answer for a dispute that extends well beyond games.

Two games, one targeted withdrawal

Celeste was released in 2018 and TowerFall in 2013. These are established games being removed from an existing storefront, rather than projects whose platform plans were never settled. Their age gives the decision its particular force: a political campaign has changed where people can buy works that have been available for years. ^[2][5]

For a player who wants either game on Xbox, the result is straightforward. A new purchase through that platform is no longer possible. Availability elsewhere preserves a route to the games, but only through another system. That is little consolation to someone whose chosen place to play is Xbox. ^[3][5]

The cultural loss is modest in scale and real in substance. Two titles do not empty a storefront. They do narrow its selection, and they demonstrate that a platform's relationship with creators can depend on the conduct of the company behind it.

No financial effect on Microsoft has been established. It is also not clear whether existing Xbox owners can still download and play their purchases, or what conditions Thorson would set for restoring sales.

Microsoft has given no reported response specifically to this delisting. Those limits matter: the confirmed action concerns new purchases, not the disappearance of games from players' libraries. ^[2][3][5]

The decision's strength is its precision. Thorson can keep selling the games while refusing to sell them through Microsoft.

Players elsewhere need not join the boycott to retain access. The pressure is aimed at a particular commercial relationship.

That also makes the disagreement unavoidable. A player may support the cause and dislike the removal. Another may reject the boycott entirely. Neither response changes the developer's choice about where to offer the work. Political agency belongs to creators as well as customers, and sometimes their choices collide.

Why games are the pressure point

The Palestinian BDS National Committee published its Xbox boycott call on July 4, 2025. Its campaign asks people to cancel Game Pass, boycott major Microsoft-owned games and avoid Microsoft Gaming products, including Xbox hardware and games from Microsoft-owned labels. ^[1]

BDS says Microsoft is a priority target because of what it describes as the company's provision of Azure cloud and AI services to the Israeli military, alongside other ties to Israeli institutions. These are the movement's stated grounds for the campaign, not independently established findings about how those services have been used. ^[1]

Microsoft has acknowledged supplying AI technology to Israel's Ministry of Defense, according to IGN. A company spokesperson said Microsoft had found no evidence that its technologies were used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza. ^[3][5]

The spokesperson also told IGN that Microsoft had completed an investigation into alleged use of its technology for mass surveillance of civilians by Israel's Ministry of Defense. The company said a final report was published in June and that it had established an anonymous employee reporting process for concerns about possible policy violations. ^[5]

The campaign seeks to apply pressure through a different part of Microsoft's business from the one at the centre of those allegations. Xbox customers are being asked to change their spending because of the parent company's activities elsewhere. Developers can add another kind of leverage by changing what Microsoft is able to offer them.

Thorson's action takes that logic beyond consumer restraint. The campaign asks players to decline products. A delisting means the developer declines the transaction first.

That makes the boycott more visible, though not necessarily more financially powerful. An absent game is a concrete consequence players can encounter. It is not, by itself, evidence that Microsoft will change its policies.

The cost is part of the argument

House House has already confronted the strongest objection: players lose something they wanted. In explaining its decision not to release Big Walk on Xbox, the studio acknowledged that some people would miss playing with friends. It said it would like to bring the game to Xbox if Microsoft and/or Xbox were removed as BDS targets. ^[4]

That is a credible objection, not a public-relations inconvenience. A platform decision can determine who gets to share a game with whom. The studio's acknowledgement gives its position more weight because it accepts that solidarity has a cost for people other than the company being targeted.

House House also identified a possible route back. Its stated willingness to release on Xbox if the target status changes makes the withheld release conditional. Thorson's public explanation establishes the reason for removing Celeste and TowerFall, without specifying an equivalent condition for their return. ^[2][4]

For Microsoft, the immediate challenge is therefore broader than two lost listings. Two developers have now shown different ways to act on the same campaign: withholding a future release and withdrawing existing games. That does not establish an industry-wide movement. It does give other studios concrete choices to consider. ^[2][4]

The argument for treating games as separate from their platforms becomes harder to sustain when creators themselves refuse that separation. Distribution is part of how a work reaches its audience, and deciding who may sell it is a form of control developers can exercise.

The next consequential step would be another studio making that choice, or Microsoft responding directly to the withdrawals. House House has already named the change that could bring Big Walk to Xbox: Microsoft or Xbox ceasing to be a BDS target. For now, two older games have left, and a new one is being kept away. ^[2][4]