Report / Published 2026-10-31

Maddy Makes Games delists Celeste and TowerFall from Xbox over BDS boycott

The studio confirmed both games were pulled on purpose to support the pro-Palestinian boycott, making it the latest indie developer to leave Xbox over Microsoft's ties to Israel.

Two pale wooden shelves on a muted grey wall: a row of plain unlabelled vessels in terracotta, pale blue and deep navy stands on the lower shelf while the upper shelf is empty, in a flat vector style with warm orange and cool blue tones.
Conceptual editorial illustration; not a documentary photograph.

THE SHORT VERSION

  • Maddy Makes Games removed Celeste and TowerFall from the Xbox store on purpose, and Maddy Thorson said the studio did it to support the BDS boycott.
  • Both games remain on sale on PlayStation, PC and Switch, and neither report says whether the removal is permanent.
  • Microsoft has previously acknowledged supplying Azure and AI services to Israel's Ministry of Defence while saying it found no evidence the technology was used to target or harm people.

Two games come off one storefront

Maddy Makes Games has removed Celeste and TowerFall from the Xbox store, and the studio says the decision was deliberate. GamesIndustry.biz reports that players noticed both games had disappeared from the platform on 29 October, and that Maddy Thorson confirmed the removal on social media the next day. Eurogamer reports that the two games were delisted suddenly earlier this week and that neither can now be bought inside the Xbox ecosystem.

Both games are still sold on PlayStation, PC and Switch, so the removal is specific to Microsoft's console rather than a withdrawal from sale. Eurogamer treats the pair as one decision and lists them in a single sentence, which matches how the studio described it. Neither report includes a statement from Microsoft about Celeste or TowerFall, and neither says whether the removal is permanent or temporary.

What the studio said, and what it left out

"For those who're asking, yes we delisted Celeste and TowerFall on Xbox," Thorson wrote. "We did this to support the BDS boycott." Both outlets carry the same two sentences and neither quotes anything longer from the post. The confirmation gives the act and the reason in one short answer, and it does not mention a date, a contract, or any discussion with Microsoft before the games came down.

The post does not argue the case. It does not describe Microsoft's conduct, set out the campaign's demands, or ask players to do anything, and both outlets supply that context around the quote rather than inside it. GamesIndustry.biz describes Maddy Makes Games as one of several developers supporting the boycott, which places the studio in a group rather than at the front of it.

Why Xbox is on the boycott list

The two reports explain the campaign differently. Eurogamer says Xbox appears on the BDS list because of Microsoft's partnership with Israel and its prison system, attributing that reasoning to BDS itself, and notes that the company has supplied Azure cloud and AI systems. GamesIndustry.biz traces the boycott to an Associated Press investigation into whether Microsoft's Azure and AI technologies were used by the Israeli Ministry of Defence to target civilians or cause harm in the conflict in Gaza.

Microsoft has answered the allegation before. GamesIndustry.biz reports that the company acknowledged supplying the ministry with software, professional services, Azure cloud and AI services, then concluded after an internal review that it had no evidence to date that its technology had been used to target or harm people. Eurogamer states that reports, including one it links, dispute that conclusion. BDS has also asked consumers to cancel Game Pass subscriptions, boycott Xbox franchises including Call of Duty and Candy Crush, and stop buying Microsoft gaming products, according to Eurogamer.

The developers who moved first

Celeste and TowerFall are not the first games to leave Xbox over the campaign. Eurogamer reports that House House said a few weeks ago that Big Walk would not come to Xbox, and that the developer of Tenderfoot Tactics did the same in 2025. GamesIndustry.biz names Ice Water, the studio behind Tenderfoot Tactics, Speculative Agency, the developer of All Will Rise, and Dan Dilorio, the creator of Luck be a Landlord, as other developers supporting the boycott.

"We would love for people to be able to play the game on Xbox, but not until Microsoft and/or Xbox have been removed as BDS boycott targets," House House said. The studio added that it made the decision with the belief that coordinated collective action can confront even the most powerful interests. That statement attaches a condition to the withdrawal, which is more than the Celeste post does. Thorson's note leaves open when, or whether, the two games return.

What the reports do not price

Neither report puts a number on what the delisting costs. Celeste and TowerFall are older releases that have been sold on several platforms for years, and neither outlet says what share of their sales came through the Xbox store. Neither says what happens to players who already own the games, whether the studio has contractual obligations to Microsoft, or how a storefront handles a title that a developer withdraws on its own.

The reports leave the commercial side open, which is where the risk sits. A small studio that relies on storefronts for discovery is giving up one of the places where its games are sold, and it is doing so without a public dispute with the platform holder. Romero Games' move to a new publisher while keeping ownership of its shooter describes a different version of the same calculation, with a studio treating its publishing arrangements as something it can renegotiate.

The next test is who follows

The next signal is whether other developers follow. GamesIndustry.biz already lists four studios or individuals supporting the boycott, and only one of them has pulled two games from a major platform. Microsoft has not commented on these two titles, and the company is arguing about money elsewhere: Xbox said consoles are supply-constrained as hardware sales fell 14%, and Gears of War: E-Day reportedly sold 400,000 copies.

The wider test is whether a storefront can be treated as a political site at all. Activision's agreement this week to remove real news footage from Modern Warfare 4 after bereaved families objected is the same shape of decision made for a different reason, with a publisher changing a product after public pressure rather than a court order. In that case the change arrives as a patch. In this one it arrived as an empty shelf, and neither outlet says when, or if, it fills again.

Sources & reporting limits

  1. Maddy Makes Games removes Celeste and TowerFall from Xbox in support of pro-Palestinian BDS boycott
  2. Celeste and TowerFall dev explains why both games were suddenly delisted from Xbox
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