Xbox 360 game boxes now look an awful lot like Xbox One boxes

By Gabe Gurwin November 17, 2016

xbox 360 boxes change one xbox360newbox1 — Imgur/divangreedy8

In a move to better emphasize the Xbox One’s support of over 200 backwards-compatible Xbox 360 games, Microsoft appears to have altered the older games’ packaging to match the new console.

Reddit user divangreedy8 spotted the new game boxes at a retailer yesterday. They appear to be the same size as the original Xbox 360 boxes — which are larger than PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One boxes — but they now sport the same darker green and a label designed to emulate the molded text of the Xbox One’s boxed. Alongside the “Xbox 360” logo is an “Xbox One” logo, as well.

The games’ covers now also state explicitly that they work on both Xbox One and Xbox 360, and the ugly gray “platinum hits” label seen in Fallout 3 has now been removed in favor of a small “greatest hits” emblem on the games’ front.

There continues to be demand for several fan-favorite Xbox 360 games, which are now cheap enough for any Xbox One owner to quickly build up a backward compatible collection. Back in 2014, Electronic Arts began reprinting copies of its acclaimed game Skate 3 after it saw newfound popularity on YouTube thanks to PewDiePie. The game was just made backward compatible on Xbox One last week, and as more games are added to the program, we expect to see these new boxes rising in prevalence.

While the new Xbox 360 boxes will certainly make your collection look more uniform on a shelf, a less-than-attentive customer could easily mistake the packaging for a standard Xbox One game. Microsoft might be the only company to have this problem, as the PlayStation 3’s box underwent a revision midway through the console’s lifespan and Nintendo’s Wii and Wii U boxes are two completely different colors.

Does the change in packaging matter to you, or are physical media just a means to an end? Be sure to let us know in the comments!

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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