Games of the passing generation that will grow in value/maintain value (PS3/Wii/DS/PSP/360)

[GREEN00]

I have only been "in the know" in regards to games for the past several years, so I have scarcely witnessed firsthand a "normal" game transform into a desirable game with greater demand than supply, ie: Earthbound/Suikoden 2/Xenoblade.

Which games of the passing generation will eventually join this pantheon? Here are some candidates and general thoughts,


-Wii, DS, and PSP will have the lionshare of these games.
*Wii was underappreciated in its time (like the Gamecube). I expect it to get a second wind amongst game enthusiasts like the Gamecube did, and for many of the "hardcore" games to jump in price (ie:Fire Emblem:Radiant Dawn). If nothing else, it has the Nintendo legacy behind it which will maintain an interest in the console amongst old and new Nintendo fans alike.

*DS has a wide array of quirky, original games, with low print runs. Finding many DS games CIB is made more difficult than other recent games due to Gamestop's policy of throwing DS boxes away en masse to save shelf space. DS is the king of JRPGs for its generation, and JRPGs are a prime genre for continued demand and willingness for buyers to invest money in. Many DS games will likely be difficult to effectively port in the future.

*PSP too was underappreciated in its time. It shares many similarities with DS (low print runs, JRPGs, quirky games, etc.). Games got lower printings than they might have otherwise due to rampant piracey.


Individual games,
*No special/collector's editions, only the "normal" releases of games
*NTSC only


Valkyria Chronicles (PS3) Outstanding game, very unique, exclusive, no digital version. VC2 disappointed, VC3 wasn't localized, both were PSP and scaled down compared to VC1.

Vanquish (PS3/360)

Ni No Kuni (PS3) HD JRPG, exclusive, studio ghibli name recognition

Xenoblade (Wii) This will only go up in value if it isn't rereleased, especially with a "Xenoblade 2" on the way, which is sure to increase demand for this game beyond even what it is now

Tales of Graces f (PS3) HD JRPG, exclusive

Tales of Vesperia (360) HD JRPG, exclusive, very well received

Tales of Xillia (PS3) HD JRPG, exclusive

Deadly Premonition (360, Director's Cut PS3) Cult classic, low print run

The Last Story (Wii) JRPG, well received, XSEED published, Operation Rainfall association

Pandora's Tower (Wii) end of generation release, XSEED published, Operation Rainfall association

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Wii) Treasure developed, high quality, unlikely to be rereleased/ported

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii) Fire Emblem series gains more fans with each game, high quality, ambitious, JRPG, small print run

Little King's Story (Wii) unique, XSEED published, cult classic

Tatsunoko vs Capcom (Wii) exclusive, will possibly never be rereleased

Hotel Dusk:Room 215 (DS) I expect people to want to collect the DS/3DS visual novels, high quality, unique setting & artstyle, CiNG went bankrupt

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (DS) high quality, visual novel, has sequels, *first printing has a different box art

Ghost Trick (DS) visual novel, low print run

The World Ends With You (DS) well received and one of the few well received recent Square Enix games

Radiant Historia (DS) well received and had already hit high prices before a reprint

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I'm going to leave it there, I could list many more games, on the DS & PSP in particular.

[Bojay1997]

I have only been "in the know" in regards to games for the past several years, so I have scarcely witnessed firsthand a "normal" game transform into a desirable game with greater demand than supply, ie: Earthbound/Suikoden 2/Xenoblade.

Which games of the passing generation will eventually join this pantheon? Here are some candidates and general thoughts,


-Wii, DS, and PSP will have the lionshare of these games.
*Wii was underappreciated in its time (like the Gamecube). I expect it to get a second wind amongst game enthusiasts like the Gamecube did, and for many of the "hardcore" games to jump in price (ie:Fire Emblem:Radiant Dawn). If nothing else, it has the Nintendo legacy behind it which will maintain an interest in the console amongst old and new Nintendo fans alike.

*DS has a wide array of quirky, original games, with low print runs. Finding many DS games CIB is made more difficult than other recent games due to Gamestop's policy of throwing DS boxes away en masse to save shelf space. DS is the king of JRPGs for its generation, and JRPGs are a prime genre for continued demand and willingness for buyers to invest money in. Many DS games will likely be difficult to effectively port in the future.

*PSP too was underappreciated in its time. It shares many similarities with DS (low print runs, JRPGs, quirky games, etc.). Games got lower printings than they might have otherwise due to rampant piracey.


Individual games,
*No special/collector's editions, only the "normal" releases of games
*NTSC only


Valkyria Chronicles (PS3) Outstanding game, very unique, exclusive, no digital version. VC2 disappointed, VC3 wasn't localized, both were PSP and scaled down compared to VC1.

Vanquish (PS3/360)

Ni No Kuni (PS3) HD JRPG, exclusive, studio ghibli name recognition

Xenoblade (Wii) This will only go up in value if it isn't rereleased, especially with a "Xenoblade 2" on the way, which is sure to increase demand for this game beyond even what it is now

Tales of Graces f (PS3) HD JRPG, exclusive

Tales of Vesperia (360) HD JRPG, exclusive, very well received

Tales of Xillia (PS3) HD JRPG, exclusive

Deadly Premonition (360, Director's Cut PS3) Cult classic, low print run

The Last Story (Wii) JRPG, well received, XSEED published, Operation Rainfall association

Pandora's Tower (Wii) end of generation release, XSEED published, Operation Rainfall association

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Wii) Treasure developed, high quality, unlikely to be rereleased/ported

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii) Fire Emblem series gains more fans with each game, high quality, ambitious, JRPG, small print run

Little King's Story (Wii) unique, XSEED published, cult classic

Tatsunoko vs Capcom (Wii) exclusive, will possibly never be rereleased

Hotel Dusk:Room 215 (DS) I expect people to want to collect the DS/3DS visual novels, high quality, unique setting & artstyle, CiNG went bankrupt

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (DS) high quality, visual novel, has sequels, *first printing has a different box art

Ghost Trick (DS) visual novel, low print run

The World Ends With You (DS) well received and one of the few well received recent Square Enix games

Radiant Historia (DS) well received and had already hit high prices before a reprint

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I'm going to leave it there, I could list many more games, on the DS & PSP in particular.

I think it's very unlikely any of the games you listed will ever end up "rare" or particularly valuable. There are just too many people collecting nowadays and many people buying doubles so they can keep one sealed. I think the truly rare and valuable games are going to be ones nobody really cared about at release and therefore didn't bother to collect at the time. Unfortunately, it's way too early for this past generation to know what those will be.

[ProjectCamaro]

I think it's very unlikely any of the games you listed will ever end up "rare" or particularly valuable. There are just too many people collecting nowadays and many people buying doubles so they can keep one sealed. I think the truly rare and valuable games are going to be ones nobody really cared about at release and therefore didn't bother to collect at the time. Unfortunately, it's way too early for this past generation to know what those will be.

While I do believe there will always be some that are collectable I do agree with you. I look at the Star Wars toys, the originals can be extremely expensive but that's because no one ever thought they'd be worth money so they all opened the packages, played with them, and killed their value. When the new movies came out I saw tons of people buying up the new toys to put away for profit and it never came and never will. It's always the items people don't think will be valuable which turn out to actually be worth a lot of money.

[Xander]

I think it's very unlikely any of the games you listed will ever end up "rare" or particularly valuable. There are just too many people collecting nowadays and many people buying doubles so they can keep one sealed. I think the truly rare and valuable games are going to be ones nobody really cared about at release and therefore didn't bother to collect at the time. Unfortunately, it's way too early for this past generation to know what those will be.

Well he listed Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn for the Wii and its value is already higher than it was at launch. While we might not see another situation à la Xenoblade Chronicles, some of those titles are very likely to maintain their value or grow a little.

[recorderdude]

I'm thinking that Chibi-Robo Park Patrol for DS might be one of the rarer titles later on. It was released as a Walmart Exclusive, was a quirky game about gardening most didn't get into, and yet, like other Skip games, still has its fanbase. It's relatively easy to find new now online (though most of the new titles appear to be a different-region run withut the walmart-sticker case design) but, considering it was even more ignored than the first game due to the major changes in gameplay and walmart exclusivity, I can see this one getting a little more valuable in the future.

[theclaw]

It doesn't have a Walmart symbol in either Canada or Australia.

[Bojay1997]

Well he listed Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn for the Wii and its value is already higher than it was at launch. While we might not see another situation à la Xenoblade Chronicles, some of those titles are very likely to maintain their value or grow a little.

If you're talking sealed than I agree, but open complete copies are averaging right around $50 which means after Ebay fees, sellers are taking a slight loss. I stand by my contention that anyone scooping up any of these games in hopes of cashing in years from now is going to be very disappointed. When you factor in time value of money and the sheer number of people collecting now versus five or ten years ago, it's likely there are many, many copies of these particular games safely stored in collections.

[dbm11085]

When you factor in time value of money and the sheer number of people collecting now versus five or ten years ago, it's likely there are many, many copies of these particular games safely stored in collections.

I agree. One other angle to consider I think is how all current systems use hard cases for their games, so I imagine there will be less fluctuation of value based on the package's condition. People are probably less likely to throw away those hard cases, as opposed to the older cardboard boxes and loose manuals. Find a rare NES/SNES game with the box in good shape, and it can fetch high prices. Somehow I can't see that happening with DS games in all honesty.

[xelement5x]

I agree. One other angle to consider I think is how all current systems use hard cases for their games, so I imagine there will be less fluctuation of value based on the package's condition. People are probably less likely to throw away those hard cases, as opposed to the older cardboard boxes and loose manuals. Find a rare NES/SNES game with the box in good shape, and it can fetch high prices. Somehow I can't see that happening with DS games in all honesty.

Have you been to a GameStop recently? It's an ocean of loose DS chips out there, and every single DS game that gets traded in from now until they stop taking them has the case/manual tossed into the bin. Enterprising GS employees may be saving them and selling them online, but the majority that go in the garbage are gone for good. GS is not the end all be all, but a lot of used games go there before being purchased by someone, meaning there will be a lot of loose DS games in the future, just like all the loose GB/GBC/GBA games.

[Aussie2B]

Games that shoot up in value right away are risky territory if you're looking to collect valuable games. When the publisher realizes that they didn't satisfy the level of demand out there, there are decent chances of a reprint or port on another platform. Look at the PS2 Shin Megami Tensei games. Many climbed in value, but they were all reprinted and can now still be bought brand new for pretty cheap. Or look at, say, Rhapsody and Disgaea. Both got quite expensive, but reprints tanked the value and later ports keep the prices down even more. Or there's Pikmin 2, which still goes for some money for Gamecube, but the prices are nothing compared to what they were before the Wii version became available in the US. I could sit here listing examples all day.

[Bojay1997]

Have you been to a GameStop recently? It's an ocean of loose DS chips out there, and every single DS game that gets traded in from now until they stop taking them has the case/manual tossed into the bin. Enterprising GS employees may be saving them and selling them online, but the majority that go in the garbage are gone for good. GS is not the end all be all, but a lot of used games go there before being purchased by someone, meaning there will be a lot of loose DS games in the future, just like all the loose GB/GBC/GBA games.

Yes, but regular consumers aren't throwing out hard cases the way they were with cardboard boxes for the most part. Even if Gamestop ends up throwing out 30% of all DS cases in the US, that's still a massive number out there in the hands of the general public, let alone all the thousands of collectors who now collect anything Nintendo.

[Gregger]

One of them will be the "Game and watch collections" for the DS that are Club Nintendo exclusive rewards.

[chuckydj]

A mighty pessimistic group here. There will be a lot of more valueable wii games in the future. DS and PSP as well. More collectors/hard core tend to be on the ps3/xbox 360 due to more rpgs and such. The wii had so many games it would be a lot of work to collect them all and in a year or two this will all come to realization. A few recent wii/ds reprints ran out and are shooting back up in value.

[Tanooki]

From the going generation there won't be a lot that really commands value, especially over the rate of which they retailed for day one as all of it has been many times over mass produced compared to the cartridge days. There will be some no doubt, but you'll find in many cases it will be severely limited special edition packages and screwy titles that got the minimum print run or near it nationally that those dumbasses at Game Quest Direct don't mass reproduce to kill the value. There is a decent debate on it for the Wii and a rolling working list over at NA. I have one of the games that was well printed in PAL but minimally at best run in the states -- My Horse and Me Riding for Gold which is surprisingly a very good solid horse game between care, training and racing/eventing. THen you hear stuff about Fritz Chess or El Chavo for the NA-USA market which got a super slim release much like those Superstar Soccer N64/SNES titles as most were done just for Mexico.

[Bazoo]

Now, I tend to worry more about playing than stocking on rare items, and Wii is easily modable so some of this is moot. But I think you're right about Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Pandora's Tower. I tend to look toward the games that come toward the end of the console's life, as those games are sometimes ignored or intentionally had small print runs. (In the case of PS2, some insanely awesome anthologies of games came out near the end of its life--Samurai Shodown Collection, Megaman X collection, etc.)

I think you might be spot-on with some other games, but as Bojay said, this environment for collecting is different from yesteryear. I wish we had some info on print runs, because even mediocre games could be end up being rare. It's useful to compile lists like this, as many of these games are amazing--especially 999--and it could end up being important to pick your copy up now, but it's too early to tell.

[kupomogli]

It'll be rare that most games released this gen have a high resale price, and especially future gens where everything is digital plus retail. If you were to ask me, I think there are some games that hold a moderate value on Ebay as buy it now, but for bids, these same games have a lot of Ebay sellers bidding on their own items to push the cost up(speculation on some items I was watching on and their bidding history.)

I think at most, good games that were overlooked by the fanbase might be moderately priced at $30-$40 used while kept sealed, but even if you paid $20, you're going to be stock piling these games for a long time before they get there. There's no reason to spend money in hopes that resale value will increase because you might end up losing money, or wasting a lot of time to barely make anything.

The only people who make money on resale items for current gen are those that watch places like slickdeals and CAG from 8am-5pm for sale items, and then purchase every available copy that they can, then resell them. Sales like $10 for Injustice Gods Among Us a month or two at release while everywhere else was $60 MSRP, 32GB Vita memory card for $40 prior to the release of the 64GB card, etc. That's where the real money is at, but there's a lot of people doing the exact same thing, so whether it's worth your time or not is up to you.

[Nionel]

This generation could really go either way, as mentioned already in this thread, due to the boom of collecting during this gen there was a lot more hoarding going on with people assuming certain titles would go up in value like similar titles had in previous generations. Looking over your list, some of this titles certainly could be ones that could go up in the future, but as kupomogli pointed out, I doubt we'll ever see titles reach the prices they have in the past, unless the market forces the prices up. Here's my thoughts on a few titles...

Ni No Kuni - I highly doubt this will ever go up, unless the price is forced up similarly to how Final Fantasy VII became pricey a few years back despite being a relatively common game. My reasoning for this? NNK became a "Greastest Hit" in less than a year and is widely available for less than $20 at many big box stores. I could see the "black label" version being a little more desirable due to the box art being changed on the GH release, but I can't see it effecting alue all that much, this game is also available on PSN and will likely be made available in the future on Playstation Now.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - This one was pretty much ignored when it came out on the Wii, due to a large portion of the Wii's audience at the time not being interested in a game like this one. I think you'll see demand for this one go up as more collectors get into the Wii, which is bound to happen now that its at the end of its life cycle and many games can be acquired very cheaply at retailers like GameStop. This game already seems to be selling on eBay for $50-$75, and that price will likely only go up as more gamers begin collecting for the Wii and demand exceeds the number of copies that are available.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance: Gold Edition - This is another one that's already climbing and will continue to do so. This rerelease of the game started going up in value a couple of years ago due to the DLC for this title being delisted on the online services. This version of the game is now the only way to use the games DLC and I feel its demand will continue to increase, especially among achievement hunters. This version of the game is exclusive to the Xbox 360 and many copies of the game sell on eBay for $60+, and with the recent license pulls for Acitvision and Capcom, it's possible other Marvel titles may see an increase as well, but its doubtful any of them will get as high as this game.

[Drclaw411]

Here are some that I think will be the Crown Jewels of this generation in terms of collecting:

Diamond Trust of London (DS): 100% fan funded through Kickstarter and not sold in stores. Sold exclusively through the Kickstarter campaign and the developer's website. Even rarer is the limited edition which was exclusive through the Kickstarter, was signed and numbered, and was limited to 1000.

NBA Elite 11 (ps3): By far the rarest game of this generation. It was cancelled before it was released, and EA destroyed the copies that were already produced, with the exception of a very small few that got out. It is generally accepted that there are between 8-15 copies in existence.

Class of Heroes 2 (psp): GaijinWorks attempted to localize this via Kickstarter, but the Kickstarter failed. Later on, they decided to localize a much smaller number of copies. They literally used a poll to essentially count heads and see how many people were interested. Then, they opened pre-orders of it and made enough to cover those preorders and no more. Even rarer is the Kickstarter variant, which features different cover and UMD art. This was sent only to people who preordered the game, requested the Kickstarter version, and preordered with the same email they used to support the Kickstarter campaign.

Xenoblade (wii): When GameStop reprinted this, the rarity hit the floor. That being said, it is still an absolutely fantastic game, one of the best of its generation. I expect it to eventually become "earthbound rare" and be a pricey buy.

Metroid Prime Trilogy steelbook edition (wii): When GS reprinted this, they reprinted it in a normal wii case. The first print run is as rare as it ever was.

Destroy All Humans: The Path of Furon (Xbox 360): This game was the third in the Destroy All Humans series, a series which has a small but very loyal following. It was printed in very low numbers, and went out of print quickly. It wasn't sold in most stores, mainly online and GS. It's already getting hard to find a copy of the game and because many didn't even know it existed, some are willing to pay a few extra bucks to play this installment.

Farming Simulator (ps3/360): Released late last year, and went up against the likes of the PS4, Xbox One, and Super Mario 3D World. It was virtually ignored, and very few stores carry it outside of online. It's still readily available but it screams of ignored, discounted, then noticed 3 years later.

[Gregger]

While I doubt there will be much that is mega-rare, or even surpasses it's intro price of $60. I have seen an upward trend on ebay for certain ps3 games. Alice Madness Returns, 3D Dot Heros, Cursed Crusade, Cathrine, Dragon Ball z Budokai HD collection, and all the HD collections really, and several others. Not a massive increase. Those are all going for around $15-$30 now, but that's up from about $5 previously so the general trend is upwards.

[xelement5x]

I think the rarity will be in limited LEs as time goes forward.

Those things limited to the publisher's online store only are definite, much smaller run in many cases.

Ni no Kuni Wizard Edition
A lot of NISA games:
-Hyperdimension Neptunia/Mk2/Victory
-Atelier Rorona (not as much since it had GS distribution), Totori and Meruru
-Guided Fate Paradox
-Time and Eternity LE (especially since this game was WAAAAAY overlooked)
There are now some SquareEnix limited editions that are only being sold through their store like Lightening Returns and Drakengard 3