Game Software Factory Seal General Guide

I would love to make this a more comprehensive guide in the future; for now, however, this will have to do. Also, you will not find every console known to man here; pretty much just the ones I'm interested in dealing with.

Also of note is that this guide is only intended to apply to Optic or Magnetic disk media, or otherwise fragile media (such as swipe-cards). Many Gameboy games, for example, have Factory Seals, but as the non-volatile cartridge memory of the Gameboy is highly resilient to damage (that is, after several decades of normal use there will be no practical deterioration) they and others like them will not be considered in this article.

There are several basic kinds of seals used to indicate almost beyond doubt that a game has never been used or even handled before. A Factory Seal indicates that it was sealed at production time by the Manufacturer or Publisher, and that since then it has not been removed. Most manufacturers consider Factory Seals part of their anti-piracy strategy - if the game is Factory Sealed (and not merely covered in plastic), you know it's authentic. However, they do a poor job of educating consumers, and many retailers deliberately remove seals from their stock in order to put the game itself in a higher security area as an anti-theft practice.

There are four major categories of Factory Seals:

Folded Plastic
Shrinkwrap
Security Stickers
Other

Game Type	Seal Type
GameCube (US & PAL)	Folded Plastic
GameCube (Japan)	Shrinkwrap
Dreamcast	Folded Plastic
PlayStation	Folded Plastic
PlayStation 2	Folded Plastic
XBox	Security Sticker
Saturn (US)	Shrinkwrap
Saturn (Japan)	Folded Plastic
Saturn (PAL)	Other
Sega CD (US)	Shrinkwrap
Mega CD (Japan & PAL)	Folded Plastic
64DD	Shrinkwrap
Famicom Disk System	Security Sticker
CD-i	Folded Plastic
Amiga CD32	Folded Plastic
e-Reader	Other
PC	Shrinkwrap

Folded Plastic

Folded Plastic is the major type used by manufacturers of console games. Folded plastic is almost always a single sheet of plastic that is folded around the sides of the game case. It is sealed at one side (usually the side of the case that opens), and it is folded squarely at the tops and bottoms and then glued there also. The folds are what allow it to be easily identified, and make it harder to falsify.

Some types of folded plastic have "Tear Strips", often near the lower edge. They allow the seal to be easily removed by grabbing the strip and pulling, thereby tearing the plastic. Not all types of Folded Plastic seals have Tear Strips: most PlayStation and PlayStation 2 seals do (very often having "PlayStation" or "PlayStation 2", respectively, branded strips in Japanese and PAL regions). Some (but not all) GameCube seals have Tear Strips, and a few in the PAL region have Nintendo branded Tear Strips.

Folded Plastic seals are used by almost any media type that has a standard CD or DVD case. This includes the following media types:

PlayStation
PlayStation 2
Mega CD (Japan & PAL)
Saturn (Japan)
Dreamcast
GameCube (US & PAL)
CD-i

Notes:

The PlayStation had many different standard case sizes over its lifetime, and all of them had Folded Plastic seals. Some had Security Stickers as well, but the absence of these is not useful for determining the Factory Sealed state. The PlayStation 2 also made use of Security Stickers, mostly in the US region.

Some Japanese Mega CD, Saturn and Dreamcast games had non-standard box sizes: if a CD case thicker than a regular CD case was used, it would usually have a Shrinkwrap and not Folded Plastic seal. All double-CD cases fit into this category, plus some other "extra-large" cases. The occasional US Dreamcast game also had an oversize case and therefore had a Shrinkwrap seal. This was not true for PAL releases, however, which all had the exact same size case - the rare exceptions having blister packaging in addition to Shrinkwrap.

Only GameCube games that were released in the US or PAL territories had Folded Plastic seals; GameCube games released in the Japan region did not. Non-standard game boxes (even standard cases within non-standard boxes) usually had no seal at all (although they sometimes had a sticker - not really a security sticker in the true sense of the word, and often were released in another version in standard packaging). Pokémon Box from all regions had oversized packaging and a sticker seal, while the US and PAL versions of The Legend Of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures were released in an oversized box and in standard GameCube cases.

XBox games are not universally protected by Folded Plastic seals, and those that are can have rather different seals from others. However, all XBox games released in standard XBox cases have Security Stickers.

The folds can best be seen at the corners on the top, although on rare occasions they are on different sides and the top is unbroken plastic.

The Tear Strip of a PS2 game in some regions has small print embedded into the strip itself. It is rare for US titles, but very common in other regions.

The printed Tear Strip of an original PS game is almost exclusive to the Asia region.

The Tear Strip with the embedded "Nintendo" print is only found on PAL region games, and even then most commonly only on Nintendo-published games.

Shrinkwrap

Shrinkwrap is the next most common seal type, used almost exclusively by the PC game industry due to the wide variance in box sizes.

Shrinkwrap is a single cut-to-size sheet of plastic, much like a Folded Plastic seal. However, it is not folded, but wrapped loosely and then heat-sealed along three edges. A needle at one corner of the seam extracts the air, causing the characteristic "shrink" of the plastic. Finally, this point is sealed also, once again by heating the edges to melt them together.

Shrinkwrapping is a very cheap process; so cheap, in fact, that it can be easily replicated by anyone for less than a hundred dollars for the equipment and less than a few cents for the materials.

Shrinkwrap seals are used for the following media types:

PC
GameCube (Japan)
64DD
Saturn (US)
Sega CD (US)

Notes:

The Japanese GameCube and 64DD seals are easily recognizable; the seal always traces along the center of the back of the item. The presence of the seam is a sufficient, but not an absolute, guarantee that it is legitimate, and its' absence is as guarantee that it is not. Incidentally, most (but not all) other Nintendo format games use the same process.

XBox games are not universally protected by Shrinkwrap seals, and those that are can have rather different seals from others. However, all XBox games released in standard XBox cases have Security Stickers.

Japanese Shrinkwrapped Nintendo games always have the seam in the centre of the back of the game.

The top and bottom also have seams in the centre, which join with the seam on the reverse.

64DD games have the same type of shrinkwrap as most other sealed Nintendo games.

Security Stickers

Security Stickers are stickers placed over the opening of game cases so that they cannot be opened while the seal is in place. Usually, the adhesive or design of the seal means that it cannot be removed without being destroyed. Even when preserved, it cannot be re-applied without a casual examination revealing the fact that it has been removed.

Security Stickers are used for the following media types:

XBox
Famicom Disk System

Notes:

XBox titles typically (but not in all cases) have a Folded Plastic or Shrinkwrap seal in addition to their Security Sticker. Which other seals they have, if any, depends on many factors such as the title, origin, manufacturer, publisher and region. None of these, however, are useful for determining the Factory Sealed status; this can be conclusively determined by the state of the Security Sticker, and only by the state of the Security Sticker.

Some PlayStation games, particularly for non-US regions, have Security Stickers, while it is usually the US region that has them in the case of PlayStation 2 games. If present and not mutilated, they can be used to indicate an unbroken seal. However, their absence is no indication that the seal has been broken - even when another identical copy has one - because they were applied at different times and in different places for different items. They are never used instead of a plastic seal. Unlike XBox Security Stickers, they are applied outside the plastic, while XBox Security Stickers are placed inside the plastic, if there is any plastic at all.

XBox Security Stickers always use the same design and format, with the barcode and holographic sticker being the important identifiers.

It's the holographic tape used that makes the PS2 Security Sticker such a useful indicator.

Famicom Disk System Security Stickers tear away when removed, leaving a "VOID" stamp on the cover and removing the adhesive and coloring from the sticker.

Other

Packet Plastic and Blister Plastic is used rarely for video games; the only modern games that use it are Nintendo e-Reader cards, and even then, only because they are more like trading cards than games (from a packaging point of view). Sega Saturn games from the PAL region commonly made use of Blister Plastic (either instead of or in addition to other seal types), and Sega Dreamcast games from the PAL region also made use of Blister Plastic in rare cases.

Packet Plastic is usually a pre-sized plastic pocket that the media slips into before being sealed. They are sealed either with glue (more usual for foil packaging) or by heated clamps which melt the edges together (common for plastic packets). Blister Plastic is a pre-molded plastic "bubble" that allows observers to see. They are glued to the cardboard base in the case of Nintendo e-Reader cards; for other products they might be stapled to the cardboard, or melted to other plastic sheets.

Many e-Reader cards use both types of seal, while others use only one. Those included with other games or hardware tend to use just Packet Plastic.

Games that use these types of seals include:

e-Reader
Saturn (PAL)

Notes:

In ancient times, various floppy disks used Packet Plastic, but usually only for single 3½" floppy disks with little other packaging. This kind of packaging was rare even when floppy disks were ubiquitous; now that floppy disks are themselves rare, this type of packaging is likewise obsolete for this type of media.

The PAL Saturn games were a mixed bag; most PAL Saturn Games also had Blister Plastic seals, but some had Security Stickers, some had Folded Plastic, and some had Shrinkwrap. Some had more than one type!

Blister Plastic is used in rare occasions for both floppy disks and CD-ROMs in rare cases; usually, when there is a single disk included with hardware also within the blister, such as cameras or external drives.

A tiny number of PAL Dreamcast titles made use of Blister Plastic - it was used only for games larger than two GD-ROMs, which is exactly two games; Shenmue and Shenmue 2

Saturn games in PAL territories commonly made use of Blister Plastic cases, with a "Blister Card" similar to the "Spine Card" of Japanese games. However, it seems to be title dependant, as a large number of PAL Saturn games made use of every other seal type instead of or in additon to Blister Plastic.

Here both types of seal are demonstrated; some e-Reader cards do not make use of one or the other packaging types, however. Obviously, most promotional cards don't have any packaging (or at least not of this kind), but this is often true for all software.