Due to the impending shutdown of the Xbox 360's online store, the price of numerous physical games has increased significantly in recent months. Many fans have been inspired by this to purchase their preferred Xbox 360 games digitally.

Microsoft will formally close the Xbox 360 digital marketplace on 29th July. This means that the only option to legally play games on the system will be to purchase physical discs going forward. Because of this, the demand for many of these physical games—including a number of beloved games like Fallout 3 and Fable Anniversary—is expected to continue to soar, driving up their costs significantly.

TheGamer's analysis indicates that the average cost of thirty of the most popular Xbox 360 games went up by more than 14%, with over 85% of the games under investigation experiencing a price increase. Even though TheGamer's investigation only included roughly 30 games, it gives a pretty good indication of what might be in store for the 360's physical game market as Microsoft gets ready to discontinue support for the system.

The Next Store to Close Permanently is the Xbox 360 Store

Conversely, Sony has not yet disclosed any intentions to close its PS3 digital marketplace, and price hikes there have been far less substantial, coming in at about 4 percent. The only remaining digital game marketplace from that generation of consoles is the PlayStation Store, which closed along with Nintendo's online stores for the Wii and Wii U in recent years.

The games with the biggest price increases, according to the data, are Lollipop Chainsaw, Viva Pinata, and Vampire Rain. Some games, including Soulcalibur 4 and Saint's Row 2, have actually witnessed price drops, but these have proven to be anomalies. A current-gen remaster of Lollipop Chainsaw is in the works, but for those who don't already possess them or are prepared to pay for the actual disks, many of the others will be lost to time.

Thankfully, Microsoft held a final, enormous sale for the Xbox 360 before the store permanently closed, so gamers who are holding onto the device still have time to purchase a few digital titles. Though many 360 games are also backwards compatible with the Xbox One and Series X/S, it may still be worthwhile to buy up a few vintage titles for those without the original hardware.