If you are an underperforming game then it’s a dangerous time to be on Xbox Live. In the midst of all their spring cleaning, Microsoft is taking out the trash and uncluttering all the rooms of the house, as though in anticipation of a visit from family you haven’t seen in years.

The dusty old attic of Xbox Live services is the Marketplace, jammed from floor to ceiling with boxes and boxes of games, some of them good, but most of them junk. Microsoft is hoping that their decision to de-list some of the less successful fare will help, but they also realize that’s only a tiny drop in the bucket when it comes to making this bloated behemoth navigable again.

According to Aaron Greenberg, Xbox Live Product Management Director, "I think that we are not... happy with the ability to find and discover content," basically admitting that just browsing the Marketplace is akin to wandering through a grocery store blind and trying to pick out the ingredients for dinner all week. He goes on to state that the Marketplace was originally designed with a few hundred items in mind, but now the roster has swelled to over 17,000 and things have gotten a bit out of hand. He’s hoping that once the initial cleanup is complete then his team can go back and fashion some sort of search mechanism or filter so gamers can more easily find what they are looking for.

Do these recent actions portend a larger overhaul of Xbox Live? Only Microsoft knows, but so long as they are seeking to constantly improve and upgrade the service I’m willing to go along for the ride.