Will sealed collecting be as big of a hit for newer systems as it was for older systems?
I feel that part of the appeal of sealed collecting is that you have an item that is a rarity. Back in the NES days, everyone was thinking about playing the games. Collecting didn't really become a thing until over a decade later. So the vast majority of games that were bought got opened and played. Most sealed games were unsold stock that made its way into the age of collecting. So sealed games were pretty rare.
Nowadays, a lot of people buy new sealed games with the intention of collecting it, so they keep them sealed. If so many people are holding onto sealed games for current gen consoles, then sealed games for these newer consoles will be less of a rarity than sealed games for older consoles. Since they are less rare, they should not be valued as highly by collectors.
What do you think?
Nowadays, a lot of people buy new sealed games with the intention of collecting it, so they keep them sealed. If so many people are holding onto sealed games for current gen consoles, then sealed games for these newer consoles will be less of a rarity than sealed games for older consoles. Since they are less rare, they should not be valued as highly by collectors.
What do you think?
Comments
Take a look at Limited Run Games. They started out by printing the lease amount of games they can possibly order from their respective platforms. The fact that they're called limited run games tells us that they know they're selling to a collectors market.
The only games that will be valuable in the future are fan favorite games, cult classic games, cult favorite publisher libraries (e.g. Altus, FROM Software, etc), j-RPGs, and oddball games that get pulled from shelves early in their release, or games that didn't see a full release but few retail copies got out.
The real collectible market in the future is going to be consoles with a high amount of downloaded content in them that don't require an online connection, and consoles with rare DLC and downloadable games installed.
Willing to bet that hackers will even collapse that market eventually by figuring out how to install ROMs of DLC onto official consoles.
Who will give a shit about a sealed PS4 game? No one.
Buying a sealed copy eliminates the question of completeness, and also has a related benefit: unboxing vids/pics. Just as collectors nowadays are documenting all the things that came with various older games even by opening up sealed games from years ago, so to will future collectors.
Another advantage is that, at least with the Wii and 360, a lot of the games never made it onto any digital marketplace, and likely never will. Physical copies will command a premium in the years to come, and sealed copies will sell for even higher amounts because a sealed game almost always means a clean and scratch-free disc. As an example of this, look up Operation Darkness for the 360 some time. If you've never even heard of it, know that it's a 360 exclusive by Atlus, and that alone should draw your interest. If you have heard of it, congrats on knowing your 360! But good luck finding a complete copy with a clean disc.
Now, there are of course exceptions to almost everything, and the Xbox 1 is one of them. A while back I posted a thread asking about collecting for it, after realizing that nobody else anywhere online was even talking about collecting for that system even after it had been out for several years. Sealed collecting will be next to useless for that system given so many titles for it require massive downloads to properly function.
But the question was "will it be as big as for older systems".
No, it wont.
On a side not, I've been playing a lot of PS3 and have nearly all the games I want; so the other day I was really enjoying playing batman and thought maybe I should get a collectors edition. So as I was looking into collectors editions for a few games I had to think about the PS4. Which versions are definitive? Does it make more sense to get it on the PS4 that is more combatabile with my newer TV?
In the end I decided that except for Demon Souls and maybe Ghostbusters I might avoid the collectors editions in the PS3
So sealed Switch/Wii U will always be a way bigger deal than Xbone or 360. And I don't suspect there will be too many cheap Switch games ever. Plenty of NES games hit $10 sealed, but the sheer quantity of NES games sold was totally ridiculous. They're still some of the most common objects in people's houses even today.
To add to the discussion, I think it also relates to the strong attachment retro collectors have of their past consoles as opposed to the current gen consoles.
Back then, we tend to focused on one platform at a time and likely following either a Nintendo or Sega brand (games weren't cheap and not many consoles to choose from!). Nowadays gamers have luxuries to buy 2-3 consoles simultaneously and with various brands. So having more consoles at a given time, likely means less overall attachment (relatively) and less of the nostalgic power to be drawing them into collecting.