Does anyone know for certain what the colors on SNES labels indicate?

[Informationator]

I'm talking about the colored bars in the upper-right hand corner. Is this correct?

Red Bar - Published by Nintendo
Gold Bar - Player's Choice - 1 Million copies sold
Purple Bar - Published by a 3rd party

...or do the bars have to do with developers rather than publishers?

Thanks :)

[joshnickerson]

I think that's about right, though there have been some inconsistencies... I seem to remember a few Nintendo published titles with a purple bar and vice versa.

[Shulamana]

I never noticed a pattern with those before, interesting.

[wiggyx]

I'm talking about the colored bars in the upper-right hand corner. Is this correct?

Red Bar - Published by Nintendo
Gold Bar - Player's Choice - 1 Million copies sold
Purple Bar - Published by a 3rd party

...or do the bars have to do with developers rather than publishers?

Thanks :)

The gold bar is obviously correct, but looking through my collection of boxes, I don't see any correlation between publisher and the bar being either purple or red. Most games have a red bar, whether published by Nintendo or not. The purple bar is far less common and I can't see any reason for its existence.

[Informationator]

The gold bar is obviously correct, but looking through my collection of boxes, I don't see any correlation between publisher and the bar being either purple or red. Most games have a red bar, whether published by Nintendo or not. The purple bar is far less common and I can't see any reason for its existence.

I wish we could find some official word somewhere... It'd be weird for them to put something like that on a cartridge and never ever explain it at any point. I wonder if Nintendo would respond if I emailed them...

I have a little over 400 uniques in my collection right now and there are waaaay more purples than reds. Another thing... the ones with the red bar simply say "Nintendo" in the upper-left corner while the ones with the purple bar say "Licensed by Nintendo". That's what led me to believe that the purple-bar'd games are 3rd-party.

Some of the games have pink bars but that's almost certainly poorly-calibrated printing :P

[wiggyx]

God, I feel like a tard. I'm looking at the boxes, not the cart labels. Yeah, the whole red = 1st party and purple = 3rd party theory makes good sense now that I'm looking at the right thing.

[djshok]

Wasn't there a green/teal bar too, or am I imagining it? (too lazy to take all the carts out of their boxes right now to check)

[wiggyx]

Wasn't there a green/teal bar too, or am I imagining it? (too lazy to take all the carts out of their boxes right now to check)

Maybe you're thinking of the title on the spine? A lot of the early games, especially 1st party games had teal titles.

[Informationator]

Wasn't there a green/teal bar too, or am I imagining it? (too lazy to take all the carts out of their boxes right now to check)
wiggyx is correct, but you might also be thinking about rear labels. Certain games such as Scooby Doo Mystery and Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday have distinctly green-tinted rear labels.