A technical error has removed a significant number of games from Xbox Live.

Gamasutra reports that more than 1000 games vanished from the system in the US this morning, most of which were independent titles.

That took the total number of games on the service from 2100 to 949.

Locally the numbers are unclear, and while games such as Castle Crashers and Battleblock Theater are gone, some related items such as DLC packs remain.

This fortnight's Games With Gold title, Magic The Gathering 2013, is also unavailable.

The glitch has affected both the browser and console-based Xbox Live stores.

A Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed that a technical error is to blame and that a fix is underway.

"We're aware there is an issue affecting the Xbox Games Store that has temporarily removed some content including Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Live Indie Games titles," said the spokesperson.

"This is a technical glitch and we're working to fix the issue as soon as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience."

The missing titles were first spotted by a number of indie developers including Milkstone Studios.

"We're missing 16 of our 25 games," the developer tweeted.