Regional releases
The set of games that came out in a region or country. Most often, US collectors are looking to get US sets rather than much more difficult worldwide sets. Sometimes people will count all the games in the US set, plus PAL and/or Japan exclusive titles.
Licensed games
Games officially licensed by the console manufacturer. The most basic type of game on a list.
Example: Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Unlicensed games
Games released during a console's lifetime that weren't licensed. Usually this doesn't count pirated games or homebrew games, only games released during a console's lifespan.
Example: Bible Adventures (NES)
Pirate games
Usually multicarts, hacks, or straight up bootlegs. These are so endlessly numerous and obviously unofficial that almost no one would count them as part of the full set in a console library, but rather interesting curiosities. Reproduction games kind of fall into this category, but since they're pirated games produced indefinitely on demand, I don't think anyone would consider them collectible. The collectible releases are specific to the time the console was originally out.
Example: 999999-in-1 (Famicom), Somari (Famicom)
Really Dubious Unofficial "Releases"
This is a separate category of pirated games that have more care put into them. Two examples are Rose Colored Gaming and Good Deal Games releases. Both of these companies spent some sum of money on unreleased protoypes with the intention of selling unofficial reproductions. I consider this slightly different from a standard AliExpress pirate game.
Example: RCG's ShadowHawk (SNES), PCEWorks PC-Engine Memories (PCE) pirate box sets.
Homebrew games
Unlicensed games usually released by hobbyists long after a console's lifetime. There isn't much difference between homebrew and unlicensed games, but many lists do not count homebrew releases. These can be somewhat hard to track since many get tiny production runs and some never sold in cartridge form may be put onto reproduction cartridges making it less clear what releases were "real".
Example: Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril (NES)
Competition cartridges
Nintendo World Championships, Star Fox Super Weekend, Atlantis II, etc. Competition carts have been a part of game collecting forever, but it's 50/50 whether they get included in set lists. Donkey Kong Country Competition Cartridge is an even more special case since it was sold via Nintendo Power, so some people consider it as an official mail order release that's part of the SNES set.
Example: Atlantis II (2600)
Non-retail releases
This is much more common with older games. It's a game or promo made for a console that may have been sold or given away, but not to the public. The Lightspan games on Playstation were sold directly to schools for example.
Example: Caterpillar S.O.S. (Colecovision)
Non-Games
There are various kinds on non-games on consoles. This can take the form of utility software, videos, network adapter software, accessory software, etc. You can really split hairs on these. The Colors of Modern Rock is not a game, but it is a Sega CD format disc. The X'Eye was packed in with a Karaoke sampler disc, but it's just a regular CD. This is a major category of items where what "counts" towards a full set is really subjective.
Example: Woody Woodpecker Vol. 1 (3DO)
Demos, Betas, Prototypes, Magazine Discs, Samplers, etc.
Many lists exclude these, but sometimes not. An interesting case is Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, which is technically a demo but most people consider it a separate game.
Example: Playstation Underground
Variants
There are many types of variants. Label variants, not for resale games, version changes, different publishers, cartridge color, screws, etc. The very nitty stuff like product code and copyright year variants are often poorly documented and rarely on set lists. Major variants like gold/gray Zelda and Atari picture/text labels do sometimes show up separately on lists.
Usually if a certain category of games from this article doesn't show up on a full list of games, it's because the list creator considers that category a type of variant.
Example: Metroid (NES) "Classic Series" label
Collector's/Limited Editions and "big box" bundles
Some people count these editions as variants, some count them as separate releases.
Example: Halo 2 Collector's Edition (Xbox) and Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix Dance Mat Bundle (Xbox)
Same game, different name
There are a number of ways this can happen. Stadium Events was pulled from shelves and re-released as World Class Track Meet. There's also Chuck Norris Superkicks and Kung Fu Superkicks which was released without Chuck's license. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles become Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles overseas. Probotector is Contra but has significant graphical changes. Where you draw the line at what constitutes a new game and what is simply a variant varies collector to collector.
Example: Chuck Norris Superkicks and Kung Fu Superkicks (Colecovision)
Re-released games under a budget label
Games that were simply re-released under platinum hits, greatest hits, player's choice, etc. Many set collectors only want original black label releases rather than both.
Example: Super Mario World (SNES)
Re-released budget games with improvements
There can be different levels of this. Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition is the Greatest Hits version of DMC3, but contains enough content additions and gameplay tweaks that they call it "Special Edition". Many GH releases include an updated version of the game with bug fixes. Greatest Hits Jet Moto 2, for example, decreases the player count and maintains a better framerate. Where is the threshold for where one of these updated releases count?
Example: Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition (PS2)
Multiple releases with different code versions
Either because the game was improved, changed, or something was removed you can see multiple releases of the same game. Sometimes it's a subtle -1 at the end of a product code with minor fixes. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas after the hot coffee incident was re-released with the offending code removed. The original release is now known as the "AO" version. The CBS Electronics published Victory on Colecovision has gameplay additions over the Coleco release. Does it count as a different game?
Example: Victory (Colecovision)
Multiple games re-released on one cartridge
This is definitely an inconsistently tracked item. Atari and Colecovision have double-enders where two games with individual releases are on a single cartridge. Some lists exclude these as variants. Almost every list includes NES carts like Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt though.
Example: Artillery Duel / Chuck Norris Superkicks (Colecovision)
Multiple games re-released on one disc
A package where each games had an individual release but they are put onto a single disc.
Example: New Super Mario Bros U + New Super Luigi U (Wii U)
Multiple games re-released on multiple discs
A normal sized (usually DVD box) release that contains multiple discs of previously released games. Some people differentiate this from single-disc releases because the discs themselves are actually the same as what was released before. These exist in budget label and black label releases.
Example (Budget): Tom Clancy's Classic Trilogy (Xbox)
Example (Black label): Outlaw Golf/Seablade (Xbox)
Box sets of re-released games
A box set wrapped around games that already exist individually on a platform.
Example: Mortal Kombat Kollection (PS2)
Box sets that include a game that never had an individual release
Xbox has two different box sets that include Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City but neither of these games had individual releases on Xbox. To further complicate things, Blockbuster received individual rental only copies of these two games. How do you track something like this on a list of games? Different sources handle it entirely differently.
Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection might fall under here as well, since it's a PS2 box set that includes a PS1 version of Metal Gear Solid.
Example: Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy (Xbox)
Games that only existed as part of another release
Bayonetta on the Wii U is technically a bonus disc for the original release of Bayonetta 2. Because of this, some lists count Bayonetta in lists of Wii U games even though it never had an individual release. It's a very strange case and I can't actually think of another. Star Fox Guard is similar, but every release of Star Fox Zero includes it.
Example: Bayonetta (Wii U)
Multi-disc games where discs get counted separately
This is a dumb category but I've seen it happen. A game will have two discs, like Dead or Alive Ultimate on Xbox, and the two discs get counted as separate games in a full set list.
Example: Armored Core Nexus Disc 1 and Disc 2 (PS2)
Unreleased games
I'm not sure if this counts because it's usually an error on the list's part. This is very common with with community-edited lists like Wikipedia and RFGeneration. Bad release info for a never-released game starts floating around the internet, then all of a sudden everyone is copying off each other and that game gets put onto a release list.
Example: Kao the Kangaroo Round 2 (Xbox). RFG and Wikipedia currently say this game had a US release
How many US Xbox games are there?
When you apply all of the above to this question, it becomes difficult to agree on one answer. I think at an absolute bare minimum you have to say around 862, but probably more depending on what you want to collect. Here are some of the cases that make it difficult to agree on a number:
Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City
These two games were only released in the GTA Double Pack and GTA Trilogy. They did receive individual releases, but only for rentals as blockbuster. Do you count each game once even without individual releases? Do you count the box sets? Only one box set? Even neither of them?
Tetris Worlds: Online
This is just Tetris Worlds re-released with Xbox Live capabilities (you can see the orange banner on the box art). Whether this is a variant or different game is up to you.
Outlaw Golf/SeaBlade and Platinum Hits combo packs
Outlaw Golf/SeaBlade is a black label, single disc, unique release except for the fact that both games already have individual releases. There are a number of similar Platinum Hits packs such as Tom Clancy's Classic Trilogy. Even if you don't normally count PH releases, do you count something like Tom Clancy's Classic Trilogy which has no black label analog?
The three double-game pack-ins are also up in the air here. Does JSRF/Sega GT 2002 count?
Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition and MLB 2k5 World Series Edition
Both of these are updates to existing games with additional content. MLB 2k5 is a special post-season release, not some kind of collector's edition. I wouldn't count them as "variants" but some might.
Dead or Alive Ultimate
If you're an idiot you can count these as separate games, although I don't see that much.
Box Sets
Halo Triple Pack and the GTA bundles. Do they count in the number?
Big Box Bundles
The DDR Ultramix games all have big box dance mat bundles. The Karaoke games have microphone bundles. Do you list these separately from the game alone release? There's an actual skateboard that comes bundled with a rare release of Tony Hawk's Project 8. What do you do with that?
Collector's and Limited Editions
Xbox is before every single game had a CE release, but there's still Halo, Getting Up, NASCAR, Godfather, Jade Empire, four different types of Mortal Kombat: Deception, etc.
Non-Games
The Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Video Chat discs are kind of a black box release. Should they count?
Unreleased Games
This shouldn't affect collector's lists but does affect premade lists that are out there. Some games never released in the US that appear are SnoCross 2, Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2, Fuel, and Animaniacs. There's also ultra-rare releases like Action Double Pack: Halo/Brute Force. This is rare enough that pictures don't exist of the physical item online. I personally question if it was released.
This was meant more as a thought experiment than a real question. If you ask me, the answer is 868. I don't count any bundles, double-packs, re-releases, or non-games, and I count GTA3, VC, Morrowind GOTY, MLB2k5, and Tetris Worlds Online separately.
