Disclaimer: I'm a msftie, I've even had some "history" internally with codeplex, but I'll try to answer this as well as I can given public knowledge and speakin

Disclaimer: I'm a msftie, I've even had some "history" internally with codeplex, but I'll try to answer this as well as I can given public knowledge and speaking as an "outside dev" I think it's a hard decision to make, but they've made the right choices in how they're doing it. An archive in perpetuity allows the content (the important bits IMO) to be preserved. Code-hosting-platform-ecosystem is another argument I've heard for preserving it, but a legacy platform with (from the public numbers I've seen) comparatively negligible usage and very little forward investment doesn't to me seem like it's doing much to contribute to competitiveness in the ecosystem anyway. Re: Long term validity of products, all I can say unbiasedly is that codeplex is over a decade old. That, next to the usage trend, competitors, and the ramp-down plan, paint a picture that wouldn't make me worried about product existence. (And I say this as someone who was very sad about the XNA decision, I thought it was a swell little engine, and was parent to some games I love playing even today)