The Rarest & Most Valuable Xbox 360 Games
It may make a lot of us feel really old, but there’s an adult generation that “grew up” on the Xbox 360 and the collecting season for it is just beginning. (And it wasn’t that long ago that I dug into the R&V guide for the original Xbox) Â While this generation has a lot of budget shopping opportunities, this new environment we are living in is ripe for collectors starting to hunt down the rarities early. Â And as you’ll see below, there’s also a handful of items below that are the result of high-quality games that a certain niche but demand outstrips demand.
I was skeptical about how interested I would be personally in this guide, but I actually had a lot of fun learning about these pieces and putting it together. Â I hope you enjoy it as well!
In stark contrast to the Cheapest Games series, this Rare & Valuable series takes a look at the most in-demand and expensive games for a console. Below you will see two prices beside each title. The first is the average daily selling price, which is typically the going rate for the either a loose disc or a game in a case but without a manual. The second price is the highest price in the past three months which is usually the price for a gem mint copy (sealed values are then listed separately). The list is ordered by the balance of the two primary prices.
Prices Current as of August 2021
Treasured Standard Releases
NBA Elite 11: $5,000 – $10,000
High profile games that end up being canceled always make for interesting stories — especially when the games ended up actually being printed, recalled, and eventually leaked.
Everyone is looking for the next Stadium Games that has become one of the Holy Grails in NES Collecting for the chance of a multi-thousand dollar score.
NBA Elite 11 was indeed cancelled near the end of its production run due to the last-minute discovery of some compromising bugs after advance player testing, including one where Chicago Bulls’ Luol Deng almost never missed a shot from the left baseline. It seems that EA did a pretty good job in halting the shipments of the game, but apparently at least a few copies of the game got leaked out into the public somehow. Way back in 2010 after the cancellation, somebody sold one copy of the PS3 version on eBay for $225, however, within a few years things heated up considerably. In 2016, PS3 copies were selling for about $2,000 to $3,000 and a graded copy sold in the $10,000 range. In 2017, PS3 units sold for a little over $5,000 each.
If you’ve been paying attention, we’ve only talked about the PS3 version so far. It wasn’t until July of 2017 that the first authentic Xbox 360 versions of NBA Elite 11 surfaced for sale. Oddly enough, the eBay auction was for 5 copies of the game together: 3 Xbox 360 copies and 2 PS3 copies. The auction closed for $30,000.
So, at least we know there are some 360 copies in the wild, but it’s hard to get a solid appraisal on them. But it does seem that the 360 versions are more rare so far (but who knows if/when more copies will surface) so I feel thank putting the wide $6,000 to $10,000 range is reasonable in this heated 2020s market era.
Check for NBA Elite 11 on eBay
NCAA Football 14 $80-$150 ($130 to $350 Sealed)
Walmart Edition: $85 – $150
Standard Edition: $80 – $115 ($130-$350 Sealed)
Most of us retro collectors have been conditioned into thinking that most older sports games are next to worthless. However, in 21st century, there are a few that have ended up being treasured collectors items.
In the last decade, there was a lot of pushback about college athletes not being paid for their likenesses, names, etc. EA Sports and other sports game developers, as a result, backed down from producing college sports games. This forced fans of the sub-genre to keep playing their older games (fortunately, these games can be updated with some community effort).
As result, the best and most modern of the games have retained their value quite well. This increased demand, in addition to a relatively modest supply (college sports games typically don’ t sell as well their pro sports counterparts) results in significantly elevated resale values. NCAA Football 14 is one of the primary benefits of this as it is the last NCAA football game produced.
Just recently, there is talk that EA will be getting back to producing a NCAA football game again before too long. Gamers will still want to play what they have until this new game is released, but you might also see some getting ahead of the trend and selling their highly-valued titles now vs later. It will be interesting to see how this development changes the value of this game and the other college sports games you’ll see mentioned below.
In the meantime, it would be good to keep an eye out at thrift shops, garage sales, etc as most people will assume that old sports games aren’t worth a whole lot.
However, I will put this warning out there: these college sports game values could be a completely temporary supply and demand situation. Normally, we see rare and ultra-popular games rise in value over the years (especially in relation to the rather low price-point/pre-nostolgia zone the 360 is in currently. My guess is that these college sports games won’t hold up in value over time unless there are no better installments produced. The might not go to the dirt-cheap route of some classic sports games, but don’t expect them to remain holy grails of the system forever. The sealed and graded version I’m seeing sell at high prices are especially concerning, in my opinion.
Check for NCAA Football 14 on eBay
Check for NCAA Football 14 on Amazon.com
College Hoops 2K8: $55-$185 ($170-$195 Sealed)
College basketball games have never had especially large print runs compared to their professional league peers, but the games do have a dedicated following. After the drought of college based sports games, College Hoops 2K8 has remained been regarded as perhaps the best college basketball game of all time. Some even rank College Hoops 2K8 as one of the best sports games of all time.
The legacy mode, in particular is the gold standard for those that want to be in the role of a General Manager. This gave players a lot of depth that made up for some of the rough edges in the actual gameplay experience. Many view it as more of a top-notch simulation game. There’s also a strong enough community that current rosters are available to keep the game current for die-hard players.
Since there hasn’t been any new releases in years, fans of this “genre” will often stick with their favorites and this one did the trick for a lot of fans.
Check for College Hoops 2K8 on eBay
Check for College Hoops 2K8 on Amazon.com
El Chavo Kart: $73-$105
It’s not uncommon to see a Mario Kart-inspired racer based on an animated series. We’ve seen quite a few of them show up on the PS1, N64, and newer consoles.
El Chavo Kart, in particular was based on El Chavo Animado, a popular animated series in Spanish-speaking countries. This game is based on the Unreal Engine and was brought to the 360 and PS3, in addition to a brief stint on Android.
The Xbox 360 games was originally only released in a handful of South American countries. However, there were a handful of copies sold in the United States as well, primarily in heavily-Latin American populated markets such as Texas. It is said that there were about 5,000 units sold in the United States during its initial run.
However, many gamers in Mexico have mentioned that the game used to be quite inexpensive there. In years past, you could pick it up in Mexico for $5 to $10. Eventually, Mexican gamers started selling copies to their US-based friends and more units started showing up on eBay and such.
It will be interesting to see how the supply and demand holds up from Xbox collectors, especially since El Chavo Kart isn’t regarded as an especially high-quality racer.
Check for El Chavo Kart on eBay
Check for El Chavo Kart on Amazon.com
NCAA Basketball 10: $45-$150 ($130-$185 Sealed)
If College Hoops 2K8 is most frequently regarded as the best college basketball video game of all time, NCAA Basketball 10 may hold the #2 spot in that lineup. This one also happens to be the very final NCAA Basketball game released commercially on a console.
While College Hoops 2K8 was highly treasured for its simulation aspects, NCAA Basketball 10 has it beat on overall presentation, the real college vibe, and the two commentary teams of ESPN and CBS Sports. And much like College Hoops 2K8, the community for this games is strong enough that there are also efforts to keep the rosters and such up to date.
It’s also worth mentioning that NCAA Basketball 10 features Oklahoma Sooner, Blake Griffen on the game’s cover.
Check for NCAA Basketball 10 on eBay
Check for NCAA Basketball 10 on Amazon.com
Marvel Ultimate Alliance Gold: $55-$125 ($200-$300 Sealed)
Marvel Ultimate Alliance Gold [Platinum Hits]: $50-$75 ($200-$250 Sealed)
Ultimate Alliance is a powerhouse of a superhero RPG that appeared on an impressive amount of platforms. The game was developed by Raven Software and was a follow-up to their X-Men Legends series. The game as a whole sold quite well, but these particular editions of the game included popular DLC content that was soon after discontinued on the digital marketplace.
The Gold Edition was released in May 2007 and included the DLC packs including a Hero Pack, consisting of Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Hawkeye, and the Hulk, and a Villain Pack, which includes Magneto, Sabretooth, Venom, and a playable Doctor Doom.
The Gold Edition was then discontinued from the retail scene when the Platinum Hits version was released in September 2007. The good news is that this Platinum Edition also included the DLC packs. The bad news is that the Gold Edition and Platinum Hits discs are now the only way for new gamers to obtain those DLC packs. Neither pack is especially plentiful as they weren’t on the market for especially long.
Check for Marvel Ultimate Alliance Gold on eBay
Children’s Miracle Network: $65-$90
Microsoft’s Children’s Miracle Network Bundle was sold in 2009 as a “value” bundle that not only offered three family-friendly Xbox 360 games (Viva Pinata Party Animals, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Shrek The Third) for a retail price of $30, but had 100% percent of its net proceeds from sales donated to support Children’s Miracle Network, an organization that raises funds for children’s hospitals throughout North America.
Even thought it was an admirable fund-raiser, it seems that not a lot of people picked up this deal. However, the games included weren’t exactly highly regarded. Even if there are a lot of these discs floating around, there haven’t been a lot of them that have surfaced in the aftermarket.
Check for Children’s Miracle Network on eBay
FIFA 19 (Revised Cover w/ 3 Players): $73-$86
FIFA 19 (Original / Rolando Cover): $47-$57
Released on September 28, 2018, [the original release of] FIFA 19 Legacy Edition was the second to last game released for the Xbox 360 — nearly 13 years after the 360’s retail debut. The only game that was released later was Just Dance 2019, which only beat it by a month.
FIFA is, of course, a very popular series, but the 360 was definitely on its last retail legs, so there wasn’t a huge print run.
The original release of the game featured Cristiano Ronaldo on the cover and in all the marketing pieces. However, just five months later, in February 2019, EA has decided to give the game a new cover, and has replaced Ronaldo with fellow Juventus forward Paulo Dybala, Brazil star Neymar and Manchester City’s midfield maestro Kevin de Bruyne. While EA never alluded to the reasoning, Ronaldo was involved in some recent controversies, and perhaps they figured they shouldn’t put their eggs all in his basket.
So while the original release of FIFA 19 was a small enough print run as it was (especially for a high-profile franchise), this revised cover (after the bulk of the game sales were already completed) made for a much more elusive variant of the game.
Also, if you’re paying closely to the timelines, the later three-player cover variant also came out four months after Just Dance 2019, so the revised release of FIFA 19 could be considered the final Xbox 360 retail release.
Check for FIFA 19 on eBay
Check for FIFA 19 on Amazon.com
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: $45-$95 ($120-$165 Sealed)
Typically, licensed movie games are both cranked out in high quantities and don’t have much of a following. For a while, this was the case for Peter Jackson’s King Kong. The game was released in 2005 for just about every platform in the era — including the original Xbox. To give publisher Ubisoft some credit, they put some real talent behind the game. They put Michel Ancel as Design Lead on the project after having success with Rayman and Beyond Good and Evil. The efforts on King Kong got respectable reviews at the time of its release, but didn’t really have a lasting following.
However, in the summer of 2019, the game received a bit of a resurgence. In their retrospective entitled “Peter Jackson’s King Kong was the most innovative game of its console generation”, Polygon writer Xalavier Nelson Jr. shared, “It’s one of the few games from that period that still feels like it came from the future. King Kong’s combination of cinematic stylings, rudimentary but working ecosystems, improvisational combat, a minimal HUD that forces information to be shared through more clever means than numbers on a screen, muddy textures striving for realism, and focus on player freedom within tightly-scripted encounters, functions as a prophetic statement of intent for the generation that would come.”
Before that article, the Xbox 360 version of Peter Jackson’s King Kong had been flatlined in the $10 complete price range for the previous decade. After Polygon shared their praise, the game promptly doubled in value before year-end. All of a sudden the game was brought to gamer’s consciences again. During the 2020 era where game collecting was skyrocketing, Youtubers started spreading the word about how under-appreciated the game was and the value doubled yet again from there and continued a steady climb.
You may recall that Peter Jackson’s King Kong was published on a handful of systems. If you look at the resale prices of all the ports, they are all still rather cheap, but the Xbox 360 version is well above them all in value. Microsoft’s dedication to backwards compatibility is the main driver here. Not only is the 360 one of the best versions of the game, but it plays very well on the Xbox One. So with the renewed buzz of the game, it’s not a surprise that people are tracking down the copy that can be played on one of the most widely used consoles currently.
Check for Peter Jackson’s King Kong on eBay
Check for Peter Jackson’s King Kong on Amazon.com
Import Tuner Challenge: $41-$85 ($125 Sealed)
The title and cover presentation of this game kinda gives off a budget game vibe to a lot of gamers. However, Import Tuner Challenge was actually the final main installment in the decade running ShutokÅ Battle series of games known as Tokyo Xtreme Racer in North America and Tokyo Highway Challenge in Europe, and was the last Genki-developed video game.
Up until 2020, the game could often be found for $20 or less in complete condition, but collectors and racing enthusiasts have been on the hunt for this one in a sea of forgotten Xbox 360 gems.
Check for Import Tuner Challenge on eBay
Check for Import Tuner Challenge on Amazon.com
Fallout 3 DLC- Mothership Zeta: $70 – $125
Mothership Zeta is the fifth and final add-on for Fallout 3, developed and published by Bethesda Softworks. In addition to being sold digitally, the DLC code was sold in a retail case that looks similar to a game. It’s still selling in the above range — two units in the last couple of months, so it hasn’t let up yet. But there definitely aren’t a lot of units floating around.
Apparently, the collectability it high enough that the demand has raised the resale value up quite a bit. Some may consider this a part of the “complete retail set”, but I’m listing this separately as it’s not technically a game disc.
If anyone has additional insights into the collectability of this item, please let me know.
Check for Fallout 3 DLC- Mothership Zeta on eBay
Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen (Canadian Version) – Hard to Get Pricing
This is exceptionally hard to find, along with a lot of the other region variants. Cover is the same, but the game is in French
Japanese Xbox 360 Exclusives of Value
I will expand this section before too long. Â These are all Shmups / 2D shooters — many of which are region-free. Â I’ll plan on doing a full shmups guide before too long too. Â Good stuff.
- Muchi Muchi Pork! / Pink Sweets: $180-$300 (eBay)
- Sakura Flamingo Archives: $180-$280 (eBay)
- Under Defeat HD: $159-$170 (eBay)
- Dodonpachi (5): SaiDaiOuJou: $130-$190 (eBay)
- Shooting 10th Anniversary : $120-$165 (eBay)
- Ginga Force: $90 -$170 (eBay)
- Radirgy NOA Massive: $80-$160 (eBay)
Additional North American Xbox 360 Games of Value
- Operation Darkness (will be promoted to full listing above soon): $48 – $115Â (eBay)
- Akai Katana: $36 – $90Â (eBay)
- Raiden Fighters Aces: $40 – $85Â Â (eBay)
- Silent Hill Downpour: $33-$88 ($90-$215 graded) (eBay)
- Saw II: Flesh & Blood: $40-$79 ($140-$145 Sealed) (eBay)
- Splatterhouse: $40-$77 ($80-$150 Sealed) (eBay)
- Konami Classics Vol 1. (w/ Castlevania SoTN): $34-$80 ($80-$160 Sealed)Â (eBay)
- King of Fighters XIII: $35-$75 (eBay)
- Blitz The League II: $30-$80 ($100 Sealed) (eBay)
- Naruto Broken Bond: $34-$76 ($100 Sealed) (eBay)
- F1 2014: $38-$70 (eBay)
- Legend of Spyro Dawn of the Dragon: $39-$67 ($100 Sealed) (eBay)
- Deathsmiles: $35 – $68Â (eBay)
- Cabela’s Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts: $27-$75 (eBay)
- Raiden IV: $40 – $66 ($100-$130 Sealed) (eBay)
- WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007: $30-$70 ($73 Sealed) (eBay)
- Spiderman Web of Shadows: $28-$57 ($85-$105 Sealed) (eBay)
Top Collectors Editions and Bundles
I didn’t want to spend as much time and space on Collectors Editions, but I don’t want to overlook them completely…
Dead Space [Ultra Limited Edition]: $400-$600,1000 Sealed)
The Xbox 360 era kicked the “collectors edition” trend into full gear. There’s quite a few special editions of high-profile games that were released for the 360, but one particular piece stands out in terms of stature and value.
The 360 edition of Dead Space Ultra Limited Edition had a production run of only one thousand copies and was jam-packed full of Dead Space goodness that more than justified its original $149 price-tag. As well as a copy of the game, it includes an artbook, a graphic novel, and lithographs signed by the game’s art director and executive producer.
At the time of its release, Dead Space wasn’t the obvious success it is now in hindsights. Perhaps that is why this collectors edition actually appreciated in value so much. After selling more than a million copies of the standard version of the game and spawning two sequels, newer fans of the series can’t help but be tempted by this landmark edition.
Check for Dead Space Ultra Limited Edition on eBay
Additional Collectors Editions
- Fallout 3 [Survival Edition]: $250-$300,500 Sealed) (eBay)
- Dragon Age: Inquisition Inquisitor’s Edition: $200-$275 ($500 Sealed) (eBay)
- Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning [Signature Edition]: $175-$250 ($450 Sealed) (eBay)
- The Beatles: Rock Band Special Value Edition: $180-$225 ($300 Sealed) (eBay)
- The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition: $145-$225 ($425 Sealed) (eBay)
- Titanfall [Collector’s Edition]: $150-$200 ($375 Sealed) (eBay)
- Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning [Collector’s Edition]: $150-$200 ($400 Sealed) (eBay)
- Band Hero Superbundle: $135-$200 ($325 Sealed) (eBay)
- Rocksmith [Guitar Bundle]: $150-$180 ($450 Sealed) (eBay)
- Saints Row: The Third [Platinum Pack]: $135-$175 ($325 Sealed) (eBay)
- Rock Band 2 Bundle: $125-$160 ($310 Sealed) (eBay)
- Crysis 2 [Nano Edition]: $110-$155 ($300 Sealed) (eBay)
- Ghost Recon: Future Soldier [Limited Edition]: $100-$150 ($260 Sealed) (eBay)
- Bioshock Infinite [Ultimate Songbird Edition]: $95-$140 ($155 Sealed) (eBay)
- Destiny [Ghost Edition]: $100-$120 ($230 Sealed) (eBay)
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Thanks for the new article!
I thought we were done with rare and valuable games for the newer consoles, but here we are. Funny that most of them are sports games, glad I’m not missing much there. On the flip side, I’m glad my efforts at tracking down the special edition of Marvel Alliance were not a waste.
You’re very welcome! Yeah, I finally feel comfortable taking on this particular generation now. I’m going to try to do R&V guides for the rest of this generation over the next year. It’s a good time to take a snapshot and see how it evolves over the next decade.
And congrats on the Marvel Alliance!
There are a number of other games to consider.
Operation Darkness was flat for several years, but now hovers around the 80+ area and is getting harder to find. In addition, there are several shmpus released in Japan that are demanding some serious money, and it’s interesting because while many are region locked, a few are not.
Thanks for the recommendation — and yeah, I have a brief outline of a 360 shmups guide. I should have thought to check on all those values. Perhaps I will do a quick follow-up soon.
Again, your thoughts were very helpful.
I added a bunch of items to the list. Operation Darkness indeed has grown quite a bit. I have it on the “extras” list for now, but it is worth of a full entry, so I’ll work on that before too long.
I also added a tentative Japanese section that has the most valuable shmups so far.
Great read…I really enjoy these articles! One “series” of games for the 360 that I’ve noticed are creeping up in value (at least where I game hunt) are the “Earth Defense Force” games.
Thanks for the support! And I’ll keep an eye on those 🙂
All those sports titles! There’s a lot of Japanese exclusive rare and sought after titles. We need the racket boy shmups guide for the 360!
I have a very brief outline of a 360 Shmup guide so far, but I just finished up the massive 360 one, so I do need a little break. I won’t forget about it though 🙂
Haha no worries. I just sold a sealed copy of Sakura Flamingo Archives for 300 a few months back. It’s probably worth more now
Wow cool. I wasn’t even aware of Sakura Flamingo Archives — I didn’t have it on my 360 shmups list. Milestone really got around to porting all those games that started on the Dreamcast 🙂
Thanks again!
It’s actually a pretty bad bare bones port that does not even have a tate mode. I was a real shooter completionist back in those days . Most people probably would not have heard of it. You barely took a break!
Thanks for the follow-up — helpful for my eventual shmups guide.
And yeah I had some spare time today to work on revisions — I always try to make sure I’m at least fairly thorough too!
Anyone have experience with the 360 version of King Kong? Is it a significant upgrade over the last-gen versions?
Konami Classics (which includes Symphony of the Night) goes for 55-60$ CIB. That should have legs going forward
Good call! Sometimes it exceeds $60 complete — it was strong enough for me to add to the honorable mentions. Thanks!
Hi is this listing being updated ? I was sure I saw a final fantasy game on your list and now it’s gone ?
This was the first installment and I haven’t updated quite yet. Maybe you’re thinking of a different guide?
There’s a mistake in the Akai Katana listing – both the name of the game and the eBay listing link have the wrong spelling. – Ed
I appreciate that — thanks!
I have enjoyed these current Earth Defense Force games. One of my favorite series when I see it is the Earth Defense Forces range.
I enjoy the current version of this Earth Defense Force game. It’s my favorite game series when I see it in the Earth Defense Forces range.
Spiderman Web Of Shadows is now worth significantly more at $85-120 in used condition.