Cheaper... cheaper... not?

Games depreciate faster than cars. You drive a brand new car off the lot, and it loses half of its value. You open a game, and then it's just not worth much anymore. That's why you can get an open copy of Chrono Trigger on the SNES for $50-100, but a sealed one will net you over a grand, easy. I just got Far Cry 2 on 360 for $10 on a clearance at Target. I can go on Xbox Live and get N+ for $10. Both are quality games. But Far Cry 2 started at $60 then lost 83% of its retail value. N+ was released before Far Cry 2 and maintains its original $10 price tag, all whyile not offering the benefits of tangibility. You can't bring it over and show your friends. You can't read the instruction manual in the bathroom. You can't pass it down to your children someday like I hope to do with my NES and Atari 2600 games, proving to them just how far we've come and just how lucky they are to live in a world with more than 8 colors. Why are downloadable games able to maintain their value so much longer while not even being real? They are real in the fact that you pay for an experience, and you control it like a normal game, but you can't hold it. You don't get to rush home, break the seal, and take a huge whiff of that "new game smell" (you know the one). I've wanted to download Cloning Clyde since I first played the demo on my new 360 a few Christmases ago, but it was ten bucks. It's still ten bucks. Games that were available at retail at that time have prices that have completely plummeted. It's not fair. It makes it really hard to want to download games when full, expansive retail games are available for the same price.

Also, I seem to be blogging about game prices a lot. With the economy in shambles, it's easy to get hung up on how much things cost. I don't want to sacrifice quality, however. A $20 year-old 360 game is almost always better than $20 Wii shovelware. But downloadable titles... they're almost all the same price, regardless of quality or age. Money is harder to come by nowadays, and I could use that $10 on rent, or to eat, or to fix my car. Even in America, our expendable income isn't as expendable as it used to be.

What's this worth?

When new games are released, they are all basically the same price, give or take $10. Strangely, the prices for new games has hovered at around $50-60 since the days of the SNES. Back then, it was because cartridges were so expensive to produce; now, it's mostly because of high production values. Still, games don't really seem to be subject to inflation. When the original Nintendo came out, it was $200. That's over $400 when you take inflation into account. When the Wii was released, it was $250. Today, that's approximately $250. What a deal.

As games get older, their value to collectors decreases. Even big-budget SNES games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 3, which retailed for upwards of $80 back in the 90's when they were first released, can be found on eBay today for around $50. (Or sometimes you find "deals" like this.) Most 16-bit games can be found at pawn shops for about $5. If a game includes the box and instructions, it's value increases exponentially. Spider-Man on the Atari 2600 is worth about $3 if you just have the cartridge. The box is worth hundreds. Why? Collectors know that the condition and completeness of any item, not just video games, affects it value. Even if you have a Honus Wagner card (the most valuable baseball card in teh world), it's not going to sell for $2.5 million at an auction if it's torn in half. I guess the moral of the story is this: don't ever open your games, baseball cards, or action figures, and then when you hit 40 you can sell them all and retire from your job at Domino's. How's that for a five-year plan.