There will always be a demand for old games, not just in our generation, but for generations to come. Videogames are one of the most popular forms of entertainment, and the number of iconic properties spilling out of videogames into the rest of pop culture easily equals the spread of comic characters in decades past.
Some suggest that younger people today growing up largely without physical media won't be interested in collecting or playing on original hardware. But, the physical games and systems from back in the day are easily as iconic as the characters and games themselves. All of us here know the pleasure of merely holding a physical cartridge or an original controller, even if it is for a system we DIDN'T grow up with. There is a tactile response to an old game, just like an old comic or an old card. You don't need to have grown up with that to learn an appreciation for it.
Additionally, of course, there are plenty of old games that can only be found on older systems... and even games that can be downloaded on newer systems don't carry over the sense of presence that old carts bring. Like when I hold a copy of Mario 3, I feel like I am holding the game. I HAVE Mario 3. Emulation, legal or otherwise, cannot replicate that.
I reckon, if there is a dude today paying 50 grand for a comic book published 40 years before they were born, in 40 years time there will be a dude not yet born paying a similar amount for an NES game, no doubt.
the first game to hit 1m is probably going to be a game that we don't even know exists today. Some prototype early development cart of Zelda 3 or SMB 4 for NES. Something one of a kind that also is from a hugely popular series. It's on no ones radar at all. It will just pop up in some random lot of games and people will lose their mind trying to get it.
I think prices have topped out. I've noticed SNES game prices seem to be lowering some.
I wonder if after people around 30-40 who grew up with NES, SNEs etc stop collecting and driving these crazy prices if anyone will even really collect the original cartridges? I'm sure some people will still play the games and they will be historically interesting but how many people born 20 years from now are going to care about owning a copy of Stadium Events or Dinosaur Peak? Let alone shell out thousands for one? How many people are going to care about having a room full of shelves with old games on them when they could just buy a tiny device that has them all on it? Or download them?
Its nostalgia s much as anything that's driving the prices. Once people who grew up with them lose interest in collecting I don't see prices rising any more. With comics some old ones are worth money because they're so rare and they're art and characters like Batman and Superman are bigger today than ever. Baseball cards are history and art too.
Video games are art, and their covers and labels etc are art but the main value in a game is playing it and the main "art" is the game itself. How many people are really interested in owning a sealed copy of a game? How many people really want to dedicate a large portion of their house to storing physical copies of games?
I mean I have no doubt that 50 years from now people will still pay huge money for Action Comics number 1 and the first issue of Detective Comics to have Batman......but Stadium Events? Little Sampson? TG16 games? I can't see there being a huge lucrative market for the original physical copies in 50 years.
The same exact thing can be said for comics. I don't care to collect but I do read with some regularity and have complete digital runs of some books. You can read Action Comics 1 online right now.
So in 50 years, the rare game items will certainly be worth much more to collectors in the hobby but pricing will never reach the status of comic books because of materials and the eras in which they were produced. Comics of the time were disposable media so rarity is a natural side effect of that. Video games grew out of arcades which were designed as relatively permanent fixtures to bilk youngsters out of quarters and there are many still operating today.
I feel like the technology to play these old systems will eventually dry up unlike comics or sports cards. That being said I can see the collectability of owning an 80's arcade game.
I feel like the technology to play these old systems will eventually dry up unlike comics or sports cards. That being said I can see the collectability of owning an 80's arcade game.
That's where you get more guys into the repair market for that stuff then. I've seen a lot more younger guys working on pinball machines and arcades than I thought I would.
I feel like the technology to play these old systems will eventually dry up unlike comics or sports cards. That being said I can see the collectability of owning an 80's arcade game.
That's where you get more guys into the repair market for that stuff then. I've seen a lot more younger guys working on pinball machines and arcades than I thought I would.
Agreed. I had an issue with my multicade a few months back and the company that normally fixes it sent out some 20 something year old to install a new board. He was talking about how busy he was fixing home and bar units. He said him and his brother want to start their own company since there is alot of money to be made.
Mint, sealed, first print SMB is THE holy grail of video game collecting. Historical significance, rarity, demand, and he's still the flagship mascot for a still relevant video game company.
I think ultimately these cartridge based will degrade over time physically and so 80 years from now the ones that potentially still play off the original roms will be worth quite a bit. You can look online right now for discontinued chips and electronic parts and they hold a pretty high price as they become harder to get. New Blank cassette tapes, especially High biased ones are becoming pretty expensive as well. There is really no way to know what the future holds as far as game pricing goes. What if someday they start policing the internet and clearing out all the data that has copyrighted material and then no one can get the roms or if all of a sudden they start enforcing copyright laws and people who create repros with licensed software start paying huge fines or serving prison terms? that could be a game changer as well.
Comments
Some suggest that younger people today growing up largely without physical media won't be interested in collecting or playing on original hardware. But, the physical games and systems from back in the day are easily as iconic as the characters and games themselves. All of us here know the pleasure of merely holding a physical cartridge or an original controller, even if it is for a system we DIDN'T grow up with. There is a tactile response to an old game, just like an old comic or an old card. You don't need to have grown up with that to learn an appreciation for it.
Additionally, of course, there are plenty of old games that can only be found on older systems... and even games that can be downloaded on newer systems don't carry over the sense of presence that old carts bring. Like when I hold a copy of Mario 3, I feel like I am holding the game. I HAVE Mario 3. Emulation, legal or otherwise, cannot replicate that.
I reckon, if there is a dude today paying 50 grand for a comic book published 40 years before they were born, in 40 years time there will be a dude not yet born paying a similar amount for an NES game, no doubt.
I think prices have topped out. I've noticed SNES game prices seem to be lowering some.
I wonder if after people around 30-40 who grew up with NES, SNEs etc stop collecting and driving these crazy prices if anyone will even really collect the original cartridges? I'm sure some people will still play the games and they will be historically interesting but how many people born 20 years from now are going to care about owning a copy of Stadium Events or Dinosaur Peak? Let alone shell out thousands for one? How many people are going to care about having a room full of shelves with old games on them when they could just buy a tiny device that has them all on it? Or download them?
Its nostalgia s much as anything that's driving the prices. Once people who grew up with them lose interest in collecting I don't see prices rising any more. With comics some old ones are worth money because they're so rare and they're art and characters like Batman and Superman are bigger today than ever. Baseball cards are history and art too.
Video games are art, and their covers and labels etc are art but the main value in a game is playing it and the main "art" is the game itself. How many people are really interested in owning a sealed copy of a game? How many people really want to dedicate a large portion of their house to storing physical copies of games?
I mean I have no doubt that 50 years from now people will still pay huge money for Action Comics number 1 and the first issue of Detective Comics to have Batman......but Stadium Events? Little Sampson? TG16 games? I can't see there being a huge lucrative market for the original physical copies in 50 years.
The same exact thing can be said for comics. I don't care to collect but I do read with some regularity and have complete digital runs of some books. You can read Action Comics 1 online right now.
So in 50 years, the rare game items will certainly be worth much more to collectors in the hobby but pricing will never reach the status of comic books because of materials and the eras in which they were produced. Comics of the time were disposable media so rarity is a natural side effect of that. Video games grew out of arcades which were designed as relatively permanent fixtures to bilk youngsters out of quarters and there are many still operating today.
I feel like the technology to play these old systems will eventually dry up unlike comics or sports cards. That being said I can see the collectability of owning an 80's arcade game.
That's where you get more guys into the repair market for that stuff then. I've seen a lot more younger guys working on pinball machines and arcades than I thought I would.
I feel like the technology to play these old systems will eventually dry up unlike comics or sports cards.
There's always emulators.
I feel like the technology to play these old systems will eventually dry up unlike comics or sports cards. That being said I can see the collectability of owning an 80's arcade game.
That's where you get more guys into the repair market for that stuff then. I've seen a lot more younger guys working on pinball machines and arcades than I thought I would.
Agreed. I had an issue with my multicade a few months back and the company that normally fixes it sent out some 20 something year old to install a new board. He was talking about how busy he was fixing home and bar units. He said him and his brother want to start their own company since there is alot of money to be made.