Xbox LIve Arcade vs Retail question

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What makes a game classified are XBLA or retail? That might sound like an easy answer but I have some questions.

Battle Academy - https://www.gamertagnation.com/games.php?g=3927

It is listed as a Xbox 360 games but it is digital only. Wouldn't that be an XBLA game?

Goosebumps: The Game - https://www.gamertagnation.com/games.php?g=4501

Same thing as Battle Academy.

I thought well maybe it is because of the games score. They are worth 1K reach so classified as Xbox 360 (When I filter all games to show only Xbox 360 the retail games show up). That isn't the case because the example below.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition - https://www.gamertagnation.com/games.php?g=1573

That is worth 2,195 gamer score so that kills my 1K theory. It is listed as XBLA but it also has a retail release.

If these are things that need correcting I can submit game correction. Or are they correct?
I always viewed those as XBLA as that is how they were listed on the 360 store.

That being said it gets odd on some of the games like Legend of Kay as that was listed under the 360 store under the same category as other retail games not the XBLA games, it was also digital only.

The Syberia games are two others that have the 1k GS and were listed as XBLA when they came out.

All games at the tail end of the 360 life cycle were like this as they were matching the X1 games idea of 1000 GS per game. Of course Lococycle and Max Curse of Brotherhood were 400 gs games and listed as XBLA.
I believe it is a distinction made by Microsoft where Arcade games are games that have released previously on different platforms, but i am not sure.
What makes a game classified are XBLA or retail? That might sound like an easy answer but I have some questions.

Battle Academy - https://www.gamertagnation.com/games.php?g=3927

It is listed as a Xbox 360 games but it is digital only. Wouldn't that be an XBLA game?

Goosebumps: The Game - https://www.gamertagnation.com/games.php?g=4501

Same thing as Battle Academy.

I thought well maybe it is because of the games score. They are worth 1K reach so classified as Xbox 360 (When I filter all games to show only Xbox 360 the retail games show up). That isn't the case because the example below.

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition - https://www.gamertagnation.com/games.php?g=1573

That is worth 2,195 gamer score so that kills my 1K theory. It is listed as XBLA but it also has a retail release.

If these are things that need correcting I can submit game correction. Or are they correct?
Originally Posted by General Tynstar
It is Gamerscore, BASE Gamerscore. Minecraft XBOX 360 edition launched with a base Gamerscore of 400 points. It then added A LOT of DLC. But, the base game was still a 400 point base, which made it that later generation of Arcade
So it is the gamerscore. I Didn't know that.
In my eyes as a collector if it is digital, it is XBLA.
Does anyone know what digital only 360 games had 1K as a base score?
Does anyone know what digital-only 360 games had 1K as a base score?
Originally Posted by General Tynstar
Looking at the list of games on TA (since this site cannot filter the available Xbox 360 games as specified), I was able to find several games that fit within that criteria.
Looking at the list of games on TA (since this site cannot filter the available Xbox 360 games as specified), I was able to find several games that fit within that criteria.
Originally Posted by Dvader83
You should put in a feature request for this.
I think if you also look at the game title's picture art (can't remember the correct term here) on your xbox it will denote at the top of the art Arcade in a colored bar.

Either it is a White bar with gray letters or an Orange bar with white letters. If a game is sold digitally and there is a retail version (with 1000 gamerscore normally) there is no bar with the word arcade. They just show the artwork that would also be on the retail art case, like some of the Sonic games for example.

I have also wondered why these two different colored bars exit for some games and why not just one or the other to keep it uniformed.
Last edited 03-27-2023 at 01:49 AM by MarvzMitts.
I think if you also look at the game title's picture art (can't remember the correct term here) on your xbox it will denote at the top of the art Arcade in a colored bar.

Either it is a White bar with gray letters or an Orange bar with white letters. If a game is sold digitally and there is a retail version (with 1000 gamerscore normally) there is no bar with the word arcade. They just show the artwork that would also be on the retail art case, like some of the Sonic games for example.

I have also wondered why these two different colored bars exit for some games and why not just one or the other to keep it uniformed.
Originally Posted by MarvzMitts
One is the original branding of Xbox Live Arcade, OG Xbox version, that carried over into the initial year or so of Xbox 360. The other was the "glow up" rebranding of Xbox Live with the New Xbox Experience and the new graphics. They almost never go back and update that artwork. And with Xbox One, everything was 1000 gamerscore, and they just dropped the whole "Arcade" sub-category.
I have also wondered why these two different colored bars exit for some games and why not just one or the other to keep it uniformed.
Originally Posted by MarvzMitts
This changed on 360 cases also just take a range of Xbox 360 games from like 2006 to 2016 and you can see they changed the Xbox logo and letter type they used throughout the years. Also the layout on the back changed aswell

Same when they changed from WP7 to 8 instead of an ugly looking Xbox Live above a Game Icon they changed it to how Windows 8 Games looked

I do think the latter for Arcade Games look better then what the looked before
Last edited 03-27-2023 at 10:57 AM by Dutch x Monster.
One is the original branding of Xbox Live Arcade, OG Xbox version, that carried over into the initial year or so of Xbox 360. The other was the "glow up" rebranding of Xbox Live with the New Xbox Experience and the new graphics. They almost never go back and update that artwork. And with Xbox One, everything was 1000 gamerscore, and they just dropped the whole "Arcade" sub-category.
Originally Posted by futiles
Ahh, that was when they went with the Xbox Network renaming of the service instead of Xbox Live (which is what still use anyway,lol...I also still say dashboard instead of home) and a lot of the arcade games were also restricted to that 50 MB size early on too.

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