Quote: Originally Posted by ZombieToast Okay, maybe this is a silly question, but...why does it matter?

No, not a silly question at all and I will gladly answer. It matters to me, because this is how 99.9% of games arrive from the manufacturer to retail shelves day one of the game being made available. I've never purchased a used console or game in my life because I like my games and systems brand new. When I see a game shrink-wrapped, to me that signifies the possibility it may have been a return that someone opened, meaning "used" and some store/marketplace/ebay seller is trying to pawn that cheaply wrapped crap off to me.

I've monitored this carefully over the years since I started buying games and I will admit that there are some instances wherein that maybe the only way to receive the game new. The fairly recently released Resident Evil Mercenaries 3DS comes to mind as I've checked this game at every Wal-mart, K-mart, Best Buy, Target, Gamestop and even ordered copies from Amazon and the Capcom store day one and I've yet to find one y-sealed. So for now, I can accept that game into my collection as is, unless one turns up somewhere Do you by chance know where I can get one I've noticed that after a few months sometimes less, that unless it's a game from the wonderful Nintendo, (whom all game manufacturers should ascribe to emulate in their wrapping policies) there's a big possibility that the majority of copies occupying the shelves will be shrink-wrapped. Back when Monster Tale DS came out, I saw that Target had a decent stock of y-sealed versions but didn't want to pay $30 at the time. Lo and behold they put it on sale for $19.99 sometime later and I visited 8 Targets that day and could only find shrink-wrapped copies

I'll be the first to admit there are way more important things in life to occupy one's mind and time with other than how a game comes packaged. But people obsess over all types of behaviors plenty of other people might find silly or without merit on a daily basis. Mine just happens to be ensuring I have a y-sealed copy when possible, that's all