Retro Games in Retail Drying up?

[McBacon]

I had a horrible day in town today. I went to GameStation (a shop with a huge retro section), and there are no old games left, a stall of PS1, but the dreamcast, N64, SNES, Game and Watches etc etc, are all gone.

Then I went into ePlay, there is normally a cabinet of retro carts and a stall of DC games, two of the shevles in the cabinet have been replaced with pre-owned DS and PSP, and the DC games are gone.

Finally I go into cash convertors, I get tonnes of games from here, and I nearlly bought a NGPC game (Capcom Card Fighters) from one in London, (but it was the wrong cart) but today there were 2 SNES carts, 4 sport Megadrive games and well over 100 PS2 games, one Dreamcast game.

Normally, on a trip to (this) town I'd get aobut 3 games, all I got was a Donkey kong Video from a Charity Shop.

Is it just my GameStation, is it just my town? Anyone ever get the feeling that old games have jsut evaporated?

[boatofcar]

The age old question. I think that retro games are drying up in retail because many places offer next to no trade in value for them anymore, so the there is no incentive for people to bring their older games in. Add to that the 3 for $15 sale at GameCrazy in the US, for example, and retro games (especially good retro games) sell out quickly, not to be restocked from trade-ins because of the reason above. After the PS3 and Xbox 360 launch, I predict ebay and thrifts will be the only places you can get pre-PS1 games.

[Xizer]

The question is: What do they do with all these old games? One day a rack full of 'em is sitting there...the next day, it's...not.

[Flack]

I went to a thrift store yesterday and found probably 50 old games. 30 or so Atari, 10 NES and 10 SNES. Just depends on the luck of the draw.

[swlovinist]

Retro is entering a new generation. Soon people will be downloading their classic Nes games on a NEW Nintendo console. Xbox arcade is retrogaming heaven. Retro consoles are popping up that have multiple games built in. Compliation discs now are offering many of the games that made those classic games great. Sadly, many great games will be forgotten by retail, but I do give then points for trying. Take is from someone who has almost completely stocked his room in the wild...leave the Pawn, thrift, and flea marts for the retrogaming. Game stores are for scoring current and semi-current gems.

[ianoid]

There will always be a market for old games.

The names may change, but the games remain the same. That is, even if your game store stops selling old games, another store will start.

As Gamecrazy and Game Stop/EB divest their old games holdings, those games have to go somewhere else, like the fleas, other old games stores, yard sales, whereever. I'll get them.

[GarryDH]

There does seem to be a general slowdown in retro game availability here in Edinburgh. I think places like GameStation are realising that the market for retro games is more complex than they give it credit for (for one thing many of their "rare" prices are set at the levels of a few years ago when eBay prices were higher than today). Also as GameStation prepares for the next gen consoles it's obvious that retro is going to be the first thing to get squeezed into a corner (it's already happening here).

I'm not even sure that brick and mortar shops are the best way to sell retro games but that could be because I've not been to some of the really good ones I've heard about yet.

The car boot sales and charity shops seem to be slowing down as well (but with the occasional great finds that they have always provided) but this is natural, I mean you can only go so many years until the majority of people have sold off their old consoles. Retro gaming now in car boot sales and charity shops mostly means PS1, since that's what most people are getting rid of.

But the market for retro gaming is still there and fairly healthy. And IMHO eBay has been giving my "in the wild" prices a run for their money recently. In some cases I've even been disappointed to buy somethin in the wild for what turns out to be less than I could have got it on eBay.

[KingCobra]

It's extremely slim pickn's in my area(Eugene,OR) for any Pre-32bit stuff outside of Playstation stuff. Sega Saturn? Sega CD? HAHAHA... Fat chance! Nothing left but big seller sports and tore up 8/16bit Super mario world or Sonic 1/2 stuff.

Once in a while you might get lucky at thrift store, but otherwise it's ebay now days :/

[Enixis]

I agree with you McBacon. Gamestation seems to have shrunk their retro section. My local outlet used to have a fairly decent dreamcast, megadrive and sms section. Just two weeks ago they reorganised and combined everything to one section of the store. However, i think this is due to the upcoming release of the xbox360 and they're making way for the next generation of games.
Point to note: Alot of the game stores are reorganising their shelves. It would be a good idea to ask them about the retro section before assuming that they totally got rid of it.

[Slate]

Point to note: Alot of the game stores are reorganising their shelves. It would be a good idea to ask them about the retro section before assuming that they totally got rid of it.

Exactly. When i go to EBGames, i still see NES games in the back room, and previously traded N64 games behind the counter. All you have to do is ask, and they should be happy to sell them.