Just Bought Big Huge Games' Game Library

Doomstink

Doomstink

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I had a few of my employees attend the Big Huge Games liquidation auction in Timonium, MD today and amongst other things, I bought the studio's entire game library. I believe it is around 800 - 1000 games, plus a bunch of strategy guides.

These haven't arrived home yet so I haven't been able to sort through it all yet, but I'm pretty stoked.

Since most of you don't know much about PC games, I'll just tell you that right off the bat there is about 10 games I saw in the pictures worth a combined $500 - $600. I paid $1,400 for everything on the shelves. Roughly $1.75 - $1.40 a piece per game.

Also picked up 88 Xbox 360 controllers at $6 a piece. Should be easy sales on craigslist.

Rest of the stuff we bought was all for my game studio - a few workstations ($150 - $175 each), a Cintiq ($200), and a few monitors ($50 each).

library1.JPG
library2.JPG
library3.JPG
library4.JPG
 
That's pretty cool, but unless the pictures aren't indicative of everything you got, it's gonna be a lot of work to unload that all and make a profit.
 
[quote name='spmahn']That's pretty cool, but unless the pictures aren't indicative of everything you got, it's gonna be a lot of work to unload that all and make a profit.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I'll just have to spend a lot of time listing the stuff. It will probably take me a solid three days of work to get it all sorted, pictured, and listed. Shouldn't be too long until I make a profit. PC stuff used to be worthless. It sells relatively easy now if it is a desirable game. Most of this stuff is RTS and RPG games (since that is what this studio made) - should be very easy to move it all. I should make a profit within a week of listing it. But yeah, it will be quite a bit of work.
 
Is it normal for game studios to have libraries of games? I get that their employees obvious play/own games, but why would the studio itself have a library of games on their books?

And are you planning on posting more detailed pictures, like of the rarer stuff you got? I'm no expert on the rarity of PC games but love seeing stuff like this.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Is it normal for game studios to have libraries of games? I get that their employees obvious play/own games, but why would the studio itself have a library of games on their books?

And are you planning on posting more detailed pictures, like of the rarer stuff you got? I'm no expert on the rarity of PC games but love seeing stuff like this.[/QUOTE]

Yes, it's definitely normal to have a game library. When you're designing games it's important to play and study similar games, past and present. SEGA has an amazing library/archive (http://blogs.sega.com/2008/08/07/the-sega-game-archive/).

When I get the games in hand, I'll take some pictures of the rarer stuff.
 
That's an incredible haul, but I must admit that I didn't flip out at it until I saw that you got a Cintiq for $200. Priorities, you know :p
 
[quote name='Doomstink']Yes, it's definitely normal to have a game library. When you're designing games it's important to play and study similar games, past and present. SEGA has an amazing library/archive (http://blogs.sega.com/2008/08/07/the-sega-game-archive/).

When I get the games in hand, I'll take some pictures of the rarer stuff.[/QUOTE]

Damn, that's a crazy collection. Too bad it doesn't seem to help much though... since most of their games suck.:p
 
[quote name='blueshinra']That's an incredible haul, but I must admit that I didn't flip out at it until I saw that you got a Cintiq for $200. Priorities, you know :p[/QUOTE]

To elaborate, the Cintiq was sans video box and A/C adapter. I was able to get the video box from Wacom for $200 and an A/C from China for $9. $409 for a Cintiq is still a steal. One of our artists already has a UX21 and his productivity is insanely high with it. They had several Cintiqs at the auction - most of the UX21s sold for $900 - $1100 while the smaller DTZ-1200W models were only hitting $550 - $650.

They've got another auction next week (on the 23rd) and they've got 40+ Cintiqs on the auction block. They accept online bidders at a 13% fee (which we learned isn't bad - on site bidders have to pay a 10% fee anyways).
 
I hate auctions like that with winner's fees. Just went to one last weekend, it's rare around here for auctions to charge fees anyway.
 
[quote name='Doomstink']To elaborate, the Cintiq was sans video box and A/C adapter. I was able to get the video box from Wacom for $200 and an A/C from China for $9. $409 for a Cintiq is still a steal.[/QUOTE]
No kidding; those things are expensive, even used! $409 is even less than I paid for my 9x12 Intuos3 several years ago (and which I still use; Wacom hardware is awesome).

Also, thanks for the tip about the online auction, but I don't really have the money to spare on a Cintiq right now, even a potentially $200-400 one :whistle2:|
 
I flipped through all the discs a few minutes ago and there's definitely some great stuff here.

Biggest rarities I discovered were "Gold Marketing" discs for Rise of Nations and its expansion. Don't know what they'd be worth but they're definitely unique and rare.
 
Now I just found "Gold Marketing" discs for Age of Mythology and the Expansion. The Age of Mythology is actually an Online Multiplayer Alpha Disc.

On top of that I found a disc containing a 2005/2006 build of Castle Crashers that was submitted as their 2007 IGF entry. This is probably the best thing I'll find.

I've also got two Blu-Ray discs containing early builds of something. I don't have a PS3 dev kit or a computer with a blu-ray drive, so I can't verify the contents. I know they are builds because one of them has RC1 written on it - which is short for "Release Candidate 1" - that's the first big step towards a releasable game but there is probably tons of bugs and cut content. I'm willing to bet money that this is KoA: Reckoning. The other disc is labeld "NASH" - don't know what is on it. Could be something they never released or announced (crossing my fingers on that).
 
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A lot of studios have a huge video game library to use for research. When I worked for a studio, we pretty much used it to rent games. I manage to get their entire rpg ps1 games when they had to make room for the next gen games. It was awesome.
 
[quote name='The Lord of Awesome']I'm not sure on how liquidations work so I'm curious. Did you get rights to any of the games or just physical disks?[/QUOTE]

I just got all the physical games in their library - all of their intellectual property will be auctioned off on Tuesday. No idea what that will sell for - I'd imagine a lot since that probably grants you the profit gained from those IPs.
 
i spend way to much money on buying and breaking controllers, im jealous as youll probably make $2000, on the controllers. while ive wasted that much.
 
Did an initial count and I've got 10 copies of Battle for Middle-Earth (4 complete in box) and 2 copies of Battle for Middle-Earth II. These will probably sell for $50 a piece when The Hobbit hits theaters. EA doesn't have the rights to produce or sell these anymore - most of the ones on the internet right now are cheap Chinese bootlegs

Also found two copies of Microsoft Office 2003 Professional in box and Microsoft Visio Professional 2003 in box. Those are another easy $100 a piece. I think I'll have my $1,400 back pretty quickly.

I'm not sure how my wife feels about our office room being overrun with games, though. I've almost ran out of space to store these and I still have two boxes to go through.

Neatest thing I've found so far is a binder full of balance sheets that a designer used on Rise of Nations. It's interesting to see their processes first hand - I've also got a few notepads filled with meeting notes for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, once again - pretty interesting stuff.
 
I was thinking about going to the other auction up here on tuesday. This makes me want to go even more. See what collection they have there and maybe get a bloody sock.
 
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[quote name='Dokstarr']I was thinking about going to the other auction up here on tuesday. This makes me want to go even more. See what collection they have there and maybe get a bloody suck.[/QUOTE]

Considering the extravagance of the stuff already listed for the auction, 38 Studios' game library will probably put the one I bought to shame.
 
[quote name='209chromatic']Give us more pics, please.[/QUOTE]

I'm planning to, got to sort through it all first. The auctioneers packed it all up in seven boxes (with little rhyme or reason) and the company stored discs seperate from boxes (and for many PC games they stored the jewel cases and manuals seperately). I've spent about five hours so far reuniting discs with their boxes. Once I've done that I'll try to take pics of the really good stuff.
 
[quote name='The Lord of Awesome']If you wanna sell some of that stuff on CAG I'm willing to take a look at what you got[/QUOTE]

I'll be putting up a tradelist when I sort through everything. It will definitely be easier to sell some of this through CAG before listing on eBay.
 
[quote name='Doomstink']Considering the extravagance of the stuff already listed for the auction, 38 Studios' game library will probably put the one I bought to shame.[/QUOTE]

I've never gone to an auction before. I looked into it after I saw on internet that they were going to have everything up for auction.

I had a few questions if you don't mind. I tried poking around the site and didn't see the answers.

Are you able to get any kind of look at the stuff before you have to start bidding. It looks like there 1800 lots from the site so I can't imagine you are able to walk around and get a look at it, or is it just when they get to it you have to look very briefly on the stage or something?

Also, what is the time frame for removing stuff. It just says on the site within the given timeframe. I could use my brother-in-law's truck but I'd have to see what time he is available, etc. Is it you have to remove the same day of the auction and by like 5pm? If worse came to worse I could just make multiple trips in my car I guess with loads or something.

Some of the game statues and props look pretty cool. I could definitely use a 6ft battle hammer in the living room. Also from the pics one of the tables looks like a table top gaming table. I could be wrong and just pretending it is.

Edit: Just looked closely. Is a custom 38 studios gaming table. Table top gaming and Curt Schiling's broken dreams all rolled into one
 
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[quote name='Dokstarr']

Are you able to get any kind of look at the stuff before you have to start bidding. It looks like there 1800 lots from the site so I can't imagine you are able to walk around and get a look at it, or is it just when they get to it you have to look very briefly on the stage or something?[/QUOTE]

You can walk around and check things out before the auction for about an hour. You can't test electronics (and they don't test them either, buyer beware). If it is anything like the game library I bought, the actual discs will be locked up - so you can't verify what cases actually have corresponding games (I've had a 95% success rate so far).

[quote name='Dokstarr']
Also, what is the time frame for removing stuff. It just says on the site within the given timeframe. I could use my brother-in-law's truck but I'd have to see what time he is available, etc. Is it you have to remove the same day of the auction and by like 5pm? If worse came to worse I could just make multiple trips in my car I guess with loads or something.

Some of the game statues and props look pretty cool. I could definitely use a 6ft battle hammer in the living room. Also from the pics one of the tables looks like a table top gaming table. I could be wrong and just pretending it is.[/QUOTE]

You have to remove everything the morning of the following day. At least that is how it went for my employees. No one was allowed to take anything home the day of the auction.

They had one of those gaming tables at BHG, it went for $1,100 IIRC. It looked amazing for board games and trading card games.
 
Thanks for the info. I'm hoping I can find one of my friends to go with me to make it easier if I end up spending the entire day there. There goes my hope for getting the gaming table for cheap. I was hoping everyone would be there to scoop up the workstations and office supplies and will ignore the gaming tables lol.
 
There is some cool stuff I want to bid on. I hope most of the people are there to scoop up electronics and stuff like that and don't want the game stuff. I'm kind of interested in the statues, figurines, prints and games.

The only thing is I have no idea how much to go up to on some of the prints and statues. Are they gonna go up to crazy values like 100s and 100s of dollars or be relatively cheap? The battlehammer prop looks pretty cool - could stand that in the corner or maybe use it as somesort of cosplay costume at some point and look like a "badass"

Even though I'm a pretty shitty artist I always thought tablets were cool. Maybe I will try to toss a bid out on one. I guess I should look up some of what they have and maybe toss up a bid for one of the 100's they are auctioning.

Since you need cash I guess I will be hitting up the bank right at 9am and then heading up there.
 
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I know this already started, but you can look at the final prices from the Big Huge Games auction on the auctioneer's website. I think some of the prints were in the $100 range. Good luck!
 
It was a big bust. I knew it was gonna be bad when a guitar hero guitar for xbox went for 125.

As for gaming stuff this is what I think I remember. 2 wired 360 controllers, N64 no wires, some 360 wires, two wired headsets went for 85.

2 DDR pads went for like 300. 1 was a beat up red octane soft pad and the other a cobalt flux metal one. Cobalt flux didn't have cable to connct to anything.

Beatles rockband for like 100. (no disc)

guitar hero guitar 125. Another one was like 50 or 75 I think.

the game collection was like 10 or 20% of what Doom got. Went for 400. Consisted of a bunch of pc games. Most mmorpgs. Multiples WOWs, tabula rasa, city of heroes, etc etc. Some other normal ones like thief. Some good board games (but who knows if complete) and alot of D and D sets. It went for 400

the two signed koa printd went for 1400 together. The unsigned were 250 I think. Neverwinter night print was like 3 or 400. The koa statue went for 1100. The hammers went for 300 and 375. I went to 350 but didn't go any higher.

game tables weren't auctioned off.



All in all a bust. I got there at 915 (auction at 1030) and had to wait outside in line for an hr. It went down the street and around the corner.

maybe because there was so much coverage the prices went up. News trucks, news guys, interviews, etc.

I did see a used tv with no guarantee gor for more than new.
 
Any chance you have an extra copy of kingdoms of amalur for pc in that stack you might want to get rid of or is it just a bunch of random games ?
 
Yeah, I've been watching the prices online all day and they are bat shit crazy compared to last week's auction. My employee told me there was no news teams or press on site. I saw the picture of the game library this morning and could immediately tell it was no good. I'm betting the employees looted all the console stuff (either that or they are holding those for next week's auction).

I can't believe those prints sold for as much as they did - those same prints, unsigned, go for $30 on eBay. The worst thing I saw was a Core 2 Duo Desktop Computer sell for $900. The awesome thing about those computers is they don't even test them before the auction (no one does). Buying auction electronics is a HUGE risk and the bidders today didn't seem to understand that. Also, an online bidder bought 60 metal lockers. How they hell are they going to afford shipping on those?

In any case, I'm really pleased with what I got. I'm still sorting through it all so pictures are forthcoming. I'm trying to wrap up a new expansion for my company's game, so I don't have very much free time.
 
[quote name='squishface']Any chance you have an extra copy of kingdoms of amalur for pc in that stack you might want to get rid of or is it just a bunch of random games ?[/QUOTE]

Oddly enough there was no copies of Reckoning in their library. I believe I have early builds of the game on burned Blu-ray discs, though.
 
I don't know what it says, when while I should be stunned at the pictures of games, I'm more envious of the bookshelves and more surprised at the "my employees" line.
 
[quote name='Rasen']I don't know what it says, when while I should be stunned at the pictures of games, I'm more envious of the bookshelves and more surprised at the "my employees" line.[/QUOTE]

I own a video game company, so the employees are from that not from my eBay business. They were at the auction to buy equipment for work and I couldn't resist having them bid on the library. The bookshelves were sold separately from the game library, so unfortunately - they're not mine. Not sure I'd have room for them in any case.
 
I'm a retro dude myself, but this is absolutely incredible. Easy profit for sure. Why did it go so cheap though, with the other auction prices were through the roof, why did this one sell for (I'd imagine) such a net loss? Were there lots of people or something? I mean crap, if I was there bidding I wouldn't have let it go for that, I can see that lot getting up to 2000 reasonably.

Gotta say though dude, congrats! Hope it helps out your company so you can bring to life some awesome games and put some food on your employees tables and your own in this uncertain time for small businesses.
 
[quote name='therealdanhill']I'm a retro dude myself, but this is absolutely incredible. Easy profit for sure. Why did it go so cheap though, with the other auction prices were through the roof, why did this one sell for (I'd imagine) such a net loss? Were there lots of people or something? I mean crap, if I was there bidding I wouldn't have let it go for that, I can see that lot getting up to 2000 reasonably.

Gotta say though dude, congrats! Hope it helps out your company so you can bring to life some awesome games and put some food on your employees tables and your own in this uncertain time for small businesses.[/QUOTE]

There was only one other person interested in the library and he claimed it was only worth $800 tops (probably assumed all PC games were worthless). I was prepared to drop $2500 on the lot but came out substantially better.
 
[quote name='therealdanhill']I'm a retro dude myself, but this is absolutely incredible. Easy profit for sure. Why did it go so cheap though, with the other auction prices were through the roof, why did this one sell for (I'd imagine) such a net loss? Were there lots of people or something? I mean crap, if I was there bidding I wouldn't have let it go for that, I can see that lot getting up to 2000 reasonably.[/QUOTE]

I think the labor to resell would be a large factor in the collection not fetching top dollar. PC gaming is pretty niche, and I can tell you right off that for every good title I saw in there, there was maybe ten that would show up at my Good Will for $3 each. To handle a collection like that, it takes someone with a power-selling venue who knows exactly when and where to sell.
 
[quote name='Indigo_Streetlight']I think the labor to resell would be a large factor in the collection not fetching top dollar. PC gaming is pretty niche, and I can tell you right off that for every good title I saw in there, there was maybe ten that would show up at my Good Will for $3 each. To handle a collection like that, it takes someone with a power-selling venue who knows exactly when and where to sell.[/QUOTE]

The good part about this is that, yes, I've got a lot of duds here - but even if I just straight out threw away all the $15 or less games. I'd still walk away with at least $3,000 and not a terrible lot of work. I'm pretty certain I can get $200 for the Castle Crashers disc I found - I don't even know what the early builds of Reckoning will sell for. These days game companies are so protective about not letting early builds out - stuff like this is incredibly rare, especially something high profile like Castle Crashers. I've also got several Marketing Gold discs for Rise of Nations. No idea how to price those - but rare game collectibles sell pretty easy regardless of platform, they just have to be from a good series. Hell, I sold a not for resale Kane & Lynch soundtrack (personally made by Jesper Kyd) for $150 when I got that from Atomic Games. I guess since I'm part of the game industry, it's easier for me to recognize how rare some of this stuff is.

I do have somewhere around 50 games that sell for $40+ each. Plus a pile of software tutorials and texture libraries that are $100 a piece. Not to mention the two copies of Office 2003 professional and one copy of Visio 2003 Professional. Anyone who got a close up look at that game library should have been able to see an incredible opportunity.

It won't be hard for me to move this stuff as I sell at two conventions in North Carolina (Escapist Expo and Animazement) and I could very easily move a bunch of my duds for $5 a piece at our local flea market.
 
Well, now that I'm home, took a nap, I can think about the craziness of the auction today.

Everything pretty much went for at least twice I would've paid at the most for it. I'd write down in the guide 30 or 40 bucks and it would go for 85 or 100 (+ 10% fee and sales tax). I seriously doubt people were even looking at the stuff they were buying. The box with the two 360 wired controllers was on the floor in the corner and I didn't see anybody digging through it (aside from me) and then once it went up people started bidding it right up.

The first guitar hero up on the block went for 125 (+ fees, etc.). Just the guitar. Auctioneer started the bidding at 100 and someone immediately went for it and then it jumped up to 125.

The people bidding on the game stuff weren't even what I expected. Alot of the people were in there 60's and above. The old man who bought the guitar for 125 had to be 75+ in a suit and bought a bunch of stuff for alot of money.

From a collecting stand point, I feel like the prices for stuff from 38 studios was more inline for the prices for stuff that should be coming from Nintendo, Valve, Sega, Bethseda, Capcom, etc. The 700 dollar signed print comes out more to be more than 800 after fees.

I'll be honest. I had real high hopes after seeing the pics of the MD auction games. I thought such a huge place with all Schilling's money would've so much more gamewise. I feel pretty stupid going to the bank and taking out so much money and not spending a dime. I thought if things went well I could've spent a few thousand or so, and I would've if the prints and props went for normal prices and if the game collection was better.
 
[quote name='Doomstink']The good part about this is that, yes, I've got a lot of duds here - but even if I just straight out threw away all the $15 or less games. I'd still walk away with at least $3,000 and not a terrible lot of work. I'm pretty certain I can get $200 for the Castle Crashers disc I found - I don't even know what the early builds of Reckoning will sell for. These days game companies are so protective about not letting early builds out - stuff like this is incredibly rare, especially something high profile like Castle Crashers. I've also got several Marketing Gold discs for Rise of Nations. No idea how to price those - but rare game collectibles sell pretty easy regardless of platform, they just have to be from a good series. Hell, I sold a not for resale Kane & Lynch soundtrack (personally made by Jesper Kyd) for $150 when I got that from Atomic Games. I guess since I'm part of the game industry, it's easier for me to recognize how rare some of this stuff is.

I do have somewhere around 50 games that sell for $40+ each. Plus a pile of software tutorials and texture libraries that are $100 a piece. Not to mention the two copies of Office 2003 professional and one copy of Visio 2003 Professional. Anyone who got a close up look at that game library should have been able to see an incredible opportunity.

It won't be hard for me to move this stuff as I sell at two conventions in North Carolina (Escapist Expo and Animazement) and I could very easily move a bunch of my duds for $5 a piece at our local flea market.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, you definitely have the Storage Wars-type eye and the connections; it's quite possible too the guy you were bidding against was lacking one or the other. I know if I was there (and I missed it, Timonium's in my backyard ;) ) I would have had the eye for some of the CIB games; but I'm not so well set up on ebay to be able to move the original editions versus the EU reprints out there. My utility software knowledge isn't so hot either, so you'd be seeing cash where I'd be seeing question marks. :lol:

By the way, if I were you...I would not sell those Rise of Nations gold marketing discs. :cool: RoN is a title that could turn into a historical significance thing for more than a few collectors in the future.
 
Maybe it's different for PC stuff, but any pre release or even unreleased content I've seen with consoles is only worth a lot if it's a popular game and something that no one has seen. Once multiple copies or even multiple versions of the same game appear they start to lose value. Something like the Rise of Nations wouldn't sell for much more in my opinion unless it differs from the release version. Typically once the game is dumped then the value is gone as well. It seems that other than collecting the one of a kind versions, they also pay a premium to be the person who's name is on the dumped information.

I'm curious how they have the IGF entry for Castle Crashers? If you boot it up and the game actually says Castle Crashers on the loading screen, then there are older versions out there. It had two temporary names they used in builds before Castle Crashers. You can also tell by the UI if it's close to release or still heavy BETA. I was wondering if there were dates on the BR? The only two possible games would be KoA or Ascendant (unreleased), unless they were working on a third PS3 game that was top secret!

Any promo and behind the scenes interests me though! So I'll be waiting patiently to see your full list and for sale thread. :)
 
The Castle Crashers disc has full printed artwork on the disc with all the legal jargon printed around it about never transferring the disc. It's labeled as the IGF 2007 entry with a hand-written serial number on it. Judges for the IGF are industry folk, so their possesion of this disc makes sense. It only works in test or dev kit Xboxes, though so I can't say for sure how far along it is.

The two blu-rays had "RC1" and "NASH" printed on them, respectively. There is build numbers, but I don't think those can translate to dates. RC1 would be release candidate 1, though, so my bet is on that being an early Reckoning build. Most games get beyond RC5 before release, so I'd imagine this is super early. What "NASH" is would be anyone's guess.

I've got friends with PS3 and 360 dev kits so I will likely have them check these out when I get the chance. I'm wrapping up dev on my own game right now, so I have no real time to appreciate my spoils.
 
[quote name='Doomstink']The Castle Crashers disc has full printed artwork on the disc with all the legal jargon printed around it about never transferring the disc. It's labeled as the IGF 2007 entry with a hand-written serial number on it. Judges for the IGF are industry folk, so their possesion of this disc makes sense. It only works in test or dev kit Xboxes, though so I can't say for sure how far along it is.

The two blu-rays had "RC1" and "NASH" printed on them, respectively. There is build numbers, but I don't think those can translate to dates. RC1 would be release candidate 1, though, so my bet is on that being an early Reckoning build. Most games get beyond RC5 before release, so I'd imagine this is super early. What "NASH" is would be anyone's guess.

I've got friends with PS3 and 360 dev kits so I will likely have them check these out when I get the chance. I'm wrapping up dev on my own game right now, so I have no real time to appreciate my spoils.[/QUOTE]

Jealous does not begin to describe my feelings towards the awesomeness that you have. As for NASH, I've got a few obviously wrong guesses:

Needs A Super Hero
Not A Smash Hit
Never Attack Singing Harpies
 
Well it looks like the RI auction brought in 650K which is really like twice what it should've. I guess it helps the state though. At least they didn't get any of my money for the expensive stuff.
 
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