Video Game Bubble?

ZackScott

ZackScott

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Hey guys,

I myself have been caught up in buying some collector's editions of video games, and I have even bought a few regular games still sealed. I do this mainly for collection purposes. I feel that if I don't buy them now for my own personal collection, then I'll have to shell out even more money a few years from now.

Anyway, I was reading this Wikipedia article about comic books, and I am reading things that sound very similar to today's video game market: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book_collecting#The_speculator_boom

"During this time, comic book publishers began to pander specifically to the collectors' market. Techniques used included variant covers, polybags, and gimmick covers. When a comic was polybagged, the collector had to choose between either reading the comic book or keeping it in pristine condition for potential financial gain, or doing both by buying two copies. Gimmicks included glow-in-the-dark, hologram-enhanced, or foil-embossed covers. Gimmicks were almost entirely cosmetic in nature, and almost never extended to improved content of the comics. However, many speculators would buy multiple copies of these issues, anticipating that demand would allow them to sell them for a substantial profit at some nebulous point in the future."
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You see sealed games sell for a lot more on eBay, and some limited collector's editions (Resident Evil 4, Bioshock, Dead Space) sell for a lot more than their retail value on eBay. Are we experiencing the same thing with video games that we experienced with comic books?
 
Video games have become more mainstream as of late. It's simply become more popular and acceptable by social standards. Naturally, one can draw the comparison to comic books because around that time, comics were becoming more popular as well. However, one problem is that the boom resulted largely from people who didn't even read comics snatching them up in high volume. It was around the time when some big time auctions sold for ridiculous sums of cash. Much more than even the most expensive copy of a sealed game today.

Comics have an inherent "collectibility" quality to them that video games simply don't have... yet. The comparison would be much stronger for Collector's Edition DVDs to Collector's Edition games. I do think that games are more of a middle ground between electronic media and comics in terms of collector's purposes, though.

With comic books, I think it's also a little bit different because the main intent of buying a Collector's Edition of a game is still for exclusive content for most gamers. Also, video games are a much larger investment than a few issues of Iron Man. Variant covers provided nothing except confusion among casual readers.

Do I think it's becoming more of a marketing gimmick? Yes. Do I think it'll signify a market crash in Video Games like with comics? Absolutely not. Am I still going to buy Collector's Editions? Hell yes. What can I say, I'm a whore.
 
Personally I think video game speculation is pretty much over at this point, for a few reasons.

One, as GuardianE stated, video games are more mainstream than ever. More copies get printed and even the more obscure, niche-oriented games are easy to find online.

Two, special/limited/collector's editions have become so ubiquitous that we've practically come to expect them for most games. Generally they're not particularly "limited" either, and the extras don't compare to something like the Lunar games from Working Designs.

Three, re-releases! Cult RPGs like Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and Ar tonelico get reprinted. Old games are remade for new systems, bundled into cheap collection discs, or released to the Virtual Console/PSN/XBLA. The sense of urgency, that a given game could become impossible to find later if you don't snatch it up now, just doesn't exist anymore.

It's just hard to imagine any game printed in 2008 becoming the next Chrono Trigger, where a sealed copy will be worth thousands of dollars years later (and even games like CT are going to lose value over time as they're remade and re-released ad infinitum).
 
These are all good points. I especially like the point that people buying the "limited" collector's editions are actually gamers. Although you don't see current sealed games selling for a ton, I think one of the most recent examples is Final Fantasy X. A black-label sealed copy of that goes for a couple hundred bucks (even though used copies are totally easy to find).

I guess what I was concerned about is not so much a crash in terms of popularity, but a crash in terms of collectibility. Personally, I love it when one edition of a video game is released. I don't feel like I have to pay more just to get the complete game.
 
[quote name='Ryuukishi']Two, special/limited/collector's editions have become so ubiquitous that we've practically come to expect them for most games. Generally they're not particularly "limited" either, and the extras don't compare to something like the Lunar games from Working Designs.[/QUOTE]

Holy crap, yes.

I remember when Lunar was released, and I'd never seen anything like that before. I hadn't even heard of the game when it was on Saturn, but to see a publisher pull out all the stops like that was pretty awesome.

Nowadays, every C-title has it's own collector's edition, and most of them don't even try to put anything of value in it. Didn't the Fable II special release just include a code for additional downloadable content? That's unacceptable.

Not that Fable II is a C-title by any means, but how long is it going to be until we see Dream Pinball II: Extreme Collector's Edition on store shelves?
 
[quote name='Renaissance 2K'] Didn't the Fable II special release just include a code for additional downloadable content? That's unacceptable.
[/quote]

Yeah, and the messed up thing is a bunch of them didn't even ship with the dlc. Now to make up for that they are offering the dlc to anyone with a live account on the xbox website. So people payed 10$ extra for something that is now available to anyone who wants it.
 
I guess one exception would be the Dead Space Ultra Limited Collector's Edition. They apparently only made 1000 of them, and they sold for like $170 total, and now they are going from $300 to $400 on eBay.
 
I had to get FFXII collectors edition because it was the only one left. Wouldn't have wasted my money on that otherwise.
 
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