Why Celeste And TowerFall Are No Longer Available On Xbox

Celeste One Of Two More Games Removed From Xbox Over BDS Boycott Published Oct 30, 2026, 4:31 AM EDT Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. Sign in to your TheGamer account Celeste is no longer available on Xbox, nor is TowerFall, another game from the same indie developer, Maddy Makes Games. The Maddy in question has now confirmed that the reason the games have been delisted is so that the studio can show its support for the BDS Boycott. Celeste Leaves Xbox Fans noticed that the Maddy Makes Games titles were no longer available on the Xbox Store on Thursday, with Maddy Thorson eventually addressing their disappearance on Bluesky. “For those who’re asking, yes we delisted Celeste and TowerFall on Xbox. We did this to support the BDS boycott,” Thorson confirmed. Both Celeste and TowerFall are still available on all other platforms, and if you already own the games on Xbox, they are still in your library and will remain playable. You can also still download them if you bought them previously. You can just no longer buy them on Xbox if you don’t already own them. Celeste, TowerFall, And Big Walk The Celeste studio is the second to show its support for the BDS boycott in this way in a matter of weeks. Big Walk, one of the highest-rated games of 2026, did not release on Xbox earlier this year despite being available on PC and all other consoles. Developer House House has since confirmed it has no plans to change that, pointing to the BDS boycott as the reason why. The BDS boycott is a movement in which people attempt to avoid supporting, or even using, companies that are deemed complicit in supporting Israel during its conflict with Palestine. Microsoft is one of those companies, and if Maddy Makes Games is making the same pledge as House House following the removal of its games from the Xbox Store, then Celeste and TowerFall will remain delisted until Microsoft’s ties to the Israeli government are severed. House House’s statement declaring why Big Walk isn’t coming to Xbox left many, myself included, surprised that we hadn’t seen a studio boycott Xbox over the BDS movement in this way before. Perhaps studios didn’t even consider it an option, but now that the Big Walk developer has opened the floodgates, we might start to see a slew of other games leave the Xbox platform. That certainly seems to be what has happened here via Celeste and TowerFall. There are likely various licensing deals and contracts in place that prevent some games from leaving Xbox - it’s almost certainly why House House’s Untitled Goose Game hasn’t been delisted yet. I’m betting these aren’t the last games we see removed from the Xbox Store over the BDS boycott, though. Released January 25, 2018 ESRB E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language Developer(s) Extremely OK Games Publisher(s) Extremely OK Games Engine microsoft xna Genre(s) Platformer