Celeste and TowerFall are no longer for sale on Xbox, and that was a deliberate choice by the people who made them. Developer Maddy Thorson confirmed on Bluesky that both games were pulled from the Xbox store in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, as GamesRadar+ and Kotaku report.
Xarmo couldn't check the Bluesky post directly, so the details below are attributed to the outlets that reported it.
What Thorson said
According to GamesRadar+, players noticed the two games had quietly disappeared from the platform, and Thorson confirmed the reason in response to the speculation. GamesRadar+ quotes the post: "For those who're asking, yes we delisted Celeste and TowerFall on XBox. We did this to support the BDS boycott."
Shacknews reports the same wording and adds the practical part for anyone with an Xbox copy: players who already own Celeste keep access to it, but new buyers can no longer purchase it on Xbox.
If you were planning to pick it up somewhere else, GamesRadar+ says Celeste is still available on PlayStation, Nintendo and non-Microsoft PC platforms.
Why Xbox
Shacknews describes BDS as a Palestinian-led movement that targets companies supporting Israel, and says Microsoft, Xbox's parent company, is among the companies listed on the BDS website. GamesRadar+ reports that BDS lists Microsoft among the companies it asks supporters to boycott, alongside HP, Disney, Intel, Dell and Reebok. The movement specifically names Microsoft's gaming division, asking supporters to "boycott Microsoft products whenever possible", to avoid Xbox games and other Microsoft-owned titles such as Minecraft, Call of Duty and Candy Crush, and to cancel Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, according to the same report.
GamesRadar+ also notes that Microsoft has provided cloud and AI services to the Israeli military, and that, as The Guardian reported earlier this year, the company cut off one Israeli intelligence agency from that technology after an inquiry. GamesRadar+ says BDS counted that as a win but maintains that Microsoft still provides other technological support to Israel.
Not the first this month
Kotaku and Shacknews both point out that Thorson's decision follows House House saying its co-op game Big Walk would not be released on Xbox, also in support of BDS. Kotaku describes Celeste and TowerFall as the second high-profile indie case this month, and mentions No Games For Genocide, a collective of developers and other games workers urging a boycott of Xbox games and services as part of the wider BDS campaign. Kotaku also mentions Penguin Colony, which isn't aimed at Xbox but took its own stand in support of BDS by banning the game's sale in Israel.
GamesRadar+ goes further and calls Celeste "arguably the highest profile title yet" among the games pulled from Xbox or kept off it for this reason.
Kotaku recaps the history: MaddyMakesGames released the archery party game TowerFall in 2014, first on the Ouya, and Celeste followed four years later in 2018. Celeste won best indie game at The Game Awards that year, and GamesRadar+ notes it remains one of the best-rated games on Steam. If you've never played it, the Steam store page is still up.
None of the three reports includes a response from Microsoft, and Xarmo hasn't seen one.
Reporting notes