Sales are great. It’s impossible to dispute. Getting to grab games you’ve wanted for a while at much cheaper prices? There’s no way to beat that. But some game sales are a little more special than others. Take the recent Xbox Ultimate Game Sale event for the Xbox 360 and One.
The Xbox Ultimate Game Sale is good. In fact, it’s probably better than good. It’s great. Games are up to 40% and 50% off, depending on whether someone also happens to be a Xbox Gold member. If you check the official list over at Major Nelson , you’ll see about 40 games are on sale. It’s fantastic news for people who love getting games on the cheap. But it’s also sad, because the Xbox Ultimate Game Sale isn’t special. It isn’t the Summer of Arcade.
In case you don’t recall, the Summer of Arcade is the sale event Microsoft used to hold every summer, from 2008-2013. It wasn’t as large as the Xbox Ultimate Game Sale. The deals weren’t as extravagant. But there was more personality to it. I mean, to start, the Summer of Arcade was always a time for new games to launch. Remember how great Castle Crashers, Braid, ‘Splosion Man, LIMBO, Bastion, From Dust, Dust: An Elysian Tail , and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons are? All of those games made their Xbox debut during Summer of Arcade events.
It made people feel special. Like, “Hey! You have an Xbox 360 and it’s summer! Let’s celebrate by giving you access to games that aren’t on any other consoles yet!” With so many multiplatform titles out there, a Summer of Arcade revival would have made Xbox One owners feel extra special. I mean, most of the Xbox Ultimate Game Sale titles aren’t exclusives. It isn’t as though we’re getting deals on games that are only available on the one console.
The bonuses were nice too. The Xbox Ultimate Game Sale has pretty deep discounts. You have to appreciate that. But the Summer of Arcade, though occasionally exploitative, made you feel like you earned something when buying more than one of the available games. Even if it was only 400 Microsoft Points or a copy of Crimson Alliance , that little something extra made the sale feel more unique. The Xbox Ultimate Game Sale is basically the Microsoft equivalent of any other digital store sale.
The Xbox Ultimate Game Sale is certainly something to be thankful for. Good titles at great prices? It’s something to definitely take advantage of before the event ends on July 13, 2015. But it doesn’t have the same appeal as the Summer of Arcade used to, and one can’t help but feel nostalgic for the past promotion even while enjoying the current one.