Summary
Much to the dismay of many, theXbox 360digital marketplace will besunsetted on July 29. Dozens of games will be lost to history, andhundreds more have had their prices slashedbefore the store’s imminent shutdown.
While many are opting to splash their cash on the console’s digital sale, others have decided to pick up physical copies to ensure their games are safe forever. However, this has meant that as the prices of Xbox 360 digital games come down, the cost of a typical physical copy has gone up. With Microsoftannouncing the closure almost a year ago, we decided to take a look at how the prices of physical 360 games have changed over this period as the end approaches.
TheGamer’s Research
As part of our research, we looked at 35 different Xbox 360 titles. These games were randomly chosen byTheGamer’s editorial teamto minimize any selection bias. We then usedeBay’s Product researchtool to analyze the UK prices of these games over the last 90-day, six-month, and one-year periods.
We found, that of the 35 games we analyzed,30 of them had increased in price over the past 12 months. That means 85% of the games we checked saw an increase. Only Crackdown, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga,Red Dead Redemption, Saints Row 2, andSoulCalibur 4saw their prices decrease over that period.26 of these games increased in price at some point over the last six months.
Theaverage price increase across the 30 games is just over 14 percent.If we factor in the other five games that saw their prices decrease, the cost of physical Xbox 360 gameshas still risen by roughly ten percent.
Artoon’s Vampire Rain saw the highest percentage increase, rising by over 39 percent over the space of a year, whileSaints Row 2saw the biggest decrease, losing 35 percent of its value in that same time period.
In terms of a pound increase,Lollipop Chainsawjumped by almost £11 in 12 months, a 34 percent rise. Once again, Saints Row 2 was the biggest loser, seeing its value fall by a little over £2.
Interestingly,whether a game was onXbox Game Passor not seemed to have no bearing. While Crackdown did see a 5% decrease, other games available on Microsoft’s subscription service all saw increases. This included Viva Pinata, Brutal Legend,Fallout 3, andFable Anniversary, as well asDragon Age: Originsand Skate 3, which are available through EA Play. When separated, these six games jumped by the overall survey average of 10 percent.
For parity, we also looked at the 21 games from our list that had a PS3 version. Only 11 of these 21 games saw a price increase over the last 12 months (52 percent), and the average increase was much lower, at 4 percent, versus the 14 percent seen by Xbox 360 games.This further indicates that the closure of the Xbox 360 marketplace is having a significant impact on the prices of Xbox 360 games.
The Full Xbox 360 Data
Below, you may see the full data we used for our analysis:
£39.14
£35.50
£34.30
14 percent
£11.55
£12.51
£11.51
1 percent
£9.03
£9.29
£8.62
5 percent
£22.77
£20.84
£18.99
20 percent
£6.37
£6.43
£5.98
7 percent
£20.61
£18.82
£16.70
23 percent
£10.14
£10.19
£8.95
13 percent
£4.44
£4.40
£4.37
2 percent
£17.34
£14.88
£14.40
£23.25
£22.39
£20.58
£4.73
£4.90
£4.98
-5 percent
£12.22
£10.53
£9.76
25 percent
£5.86
£5.33
£4.61
27 percent
£19.68
£17.04
£15.81
£17.18
£16.28
£15.54
11 percent
£13.15
£13.17
£12.84
£4.70
£4.58
£4.34
8 percent
£6.71
£6.47
£6.36
6 percent
£8.65
£8.41
£7.21
£12.33
£11.96
£11.43
£6.93
£6.89
£8.28
-16 percent
£43.08
£37.73
£32.19
34 percent
£11.57
£10.17
£9.80
18 percent
£6.30
£5.78
12 percent
£11.74
£11.72
£12.41
£5.73
£6.05
£7.74
-35 percent
£20.32
£19.56
£20.08
£7.01
£6.69
SoulCalibur 4
£4.27
£4.47
£5.13
-17 percent
£7.47
£7.51
£7.00
£8.01
£7.24
£6.64
21 percent
£28.96
£27.78
£26.89
£12.63
£10.13
£9.10
39 percent
£7.20
£5.26
37 percent
£21.03
£20.15
£19.77
To avoid clogging the page with tables, here is alink to the dataused for the PS3 analysis.
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 initially launched in 2005, with two further revisions following in 2010 and 2013. A popular console, it expanded upon the Xbox Live service, and was positioned as a multimedia device.
