Xbox 360, Wii, PS3 Prices Are Rising - Let's Discuss Why - Adam Koralik

[@cax1175]

Thanks for the decade plus of quality content!

[@AdamKoralik]

Thanks!

[@CarsandCats]

I keep going back to my 360 and PS3 even though I have a Series X and a PS5. Why? Because the graphics are good enough. And many times, the games are BETTER.

[@andyscoming4919]

OG Xbox and 360 games paired with Series X Quick resume = true bliss!

[@CarsandCats]

@@andyscoming4919 Oh yes! I hope they add more backwards compatibility in the future. I LOVE playing 360 games on the Series X.

[@gummislayer1969]

@@CarsandCats Unfortunately...prolly NOT gonna happen, Bruv. The way Spencer talks out the side of his neck speaks volumes as to what projects MS invests in to diminishing returns. 💔💔💔 I actually wish the OG MvC2 would be back-compat!!! THAT would be dope upcoverted to 4k UHD!!! 🤩🤩🤩

[@arnox4554]

@@gummislayer1969 Modded Xbox 360 console master race reporting in. :D If one had to choose between the three consoles to get modded, 360 just offers the best value proposition of them all in my arrogant opinion. You miss out on the PS2 back compat with the PS3 and you miss out on a ton of the Nintendo library from the Wii to the N64, plus no Project Plus, but what you get in return is absolutely staggering. Also, splitscreen Halo.

[@gummislayer1969]

@@arnox4554 I don't doubt you enjoy your modded 360. I get the value of 360 ecosystem & such. I do have an S & QUITE enjoy it. Buuuuuut, AGAIN - Spencer ain't talkin right. AND I can't see how burning through a bunch of cash (long-term?!?!?) is a winning strategy for MS. Don't think they are going to get out of the hardware business just yet. For now...🤔🤔🤔 (Sigh...) A LOT of weird 💩💩💩 going on in the land of the Win 95 flag...

[@thatssomegoodpie]

I'm 27 now. Sitting on a giant pile of games I'm not getting rid of any time soon. Probably never.

[@waterup380]

why get rid of stuff hick i have stuff i will never get rid off also why should we

[@thatssomegoodpie]

@@waterup380 Like he said in the video some people just get in need of money and sell their games.

[@waterup380]

Yes and they gf wife or bf or husband tell them to get rid of stuff ​@@thatssomegoodpie

[@RabbidTheNabbit]

@@waterup380 I couldn't imagine losing all my save data, all those hours gone

[@christiaanbasson2787]

Well I'm 27 and I'm a game collector, sitting with 351 PS3 games, 86 Xbox 360 games, 55 PS4, games, and consoles from 4 X PS1 Classic Mini's, 4 PS2s modded with OPL and an external hdd full of all my old games, 2 X PS3s, busy getting another Xbox 360 E and a PS4...going for Xbox One soon too...I'll never sell my stuff, I enjoy playing and collecting games too much

[@DmitriyDarkJoney]

Because this is the last real game console generation with the great library. After this we got weak PCs with DRM.

[@mistabrown830]

The 7th gen consoles have so many good games to play that will never come to modern platforms

[@AWISECROW]

We'll see how wrong you are years from now.

[@AlphaladZXA]

​@mistabrown830 at least we got xbox back compat for some of them

[@Mike-t5r9q]

Xbox 360 was great but was the first console with update patches & dlc. The PS2, Gamecube and original xbox is the last true classic generation where you got the full game on disk with no bugs or dlc. Xbox 360 & PS3 was just the beginning but got worse with Xbox One, PS4 and the current gen PS5 & Xbox Series X

[@javierortiz82]

@@AWISECROW the only real console nowadays is the switch, and if I had to buy one console it would be that. PS5 with it's incommensurable library of a dozen exclusive games that include two remakes and a tech demo would be the worst value offer ever if the xbox series didn't exist or if PC didn't make it redundant. Let's face it, the current one is a horrible generation and people are being scammed.

[@RabbidTheNabbit]

I'm 20 now, taking a year out after college (equivalent to the final two years of high school) and been replaying my old 360/wii games (and just playing more games in general, old and new). I'll NEVER get rid of my games and consoles - they're priceless to me.

[@patrickmcdonnell8835]

I got rid of my DS Lite in high school and totally regret it know. But I may consider shifting towards another handheld like a Atari Lynx games luckily I collected all SNES and N64 games when they were cheap another thing I am a only child also my mother has had a eBay since 1999 and still goes to thrift shop to flip stuff during the 2000s and early 10s you could find N64 and SNES games under 5 dollars. Sometime cents especially in the 2000s I paid a 1.50 for Majoras Mask in 2014 at a Goodwill

[@Laz3rCat95]

@@patrickmcdonnell8835 You should consider getting a 3DS if you still have your DS games. It's backwards compatible.

[@shazmanbound1496]

Well thing is not only nostalgia but today's modern gaming leaves much to be desired. From broken games with massive day one patches, microtransactions to repetitive boring open world games and ideologies been forced into gaming. Those things are enough to keep most gamers away from modern gaming and into retro machines and games. I personally prefer to play more on my PS2 and PS3 than my PS4 and I don't even own a PS5.

[@zebare726]

I have read that 50% of all females will not have a partner by 2030 while 30% of all men do not want a relationship. From this, many are looking for other things to fill it, which for many is doing things that brought/gives them happiness.. such as playing video games and as today's consoles do not live up to the standard, so many are looking to older consoles. Just look on Japan n

[@spanishginger]

The late millennials and early zoomers are nostalgic now. Brace yourselves

[@retronova_official]

Well, let’s just hope that means they’ll stay away from the 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit stuff. (I doubt it..)

[@Extreme2SwaggerHD]

Ure actually spot on Im 20 and im going through a nostalgia phase right now 😅😂.

[@eggzaki]

Yeah but we don’t have much disposable income, it might stagnate

[@theshadowman1398]

@@retronova_official Home console wise I will go as low as 32bit when it comes to handhelds I collect Game gear, Gameboy and advance

[@cdragon88]

Ironically, I just dusted the old ps3 a couple weeks ago to replay old games and run ps1 games. Oh, and also bought a Ps2.

[@vinniecorleone62]

At 61 years of age, my passion for collecting is part of my late mid-life crisis. Fortunately I obtained the bulk of my collection over the last decade or so. I have probably 95% of what I want but the last couple of dozen games are becoming somewhat more challenging to obtain, which is fine too.

[@jeremypoani6840]

I have been buying PS3 games on ebay recently and have not noticed prices going up. They seem to still be pretty cheap.

[@dstreet3818]

PS3 had an early spike when we thought Sony was going to shut down its online store. It caused a lot of us to pay more attention to the system and realized a lot of games that haven't been re-released started going up. I thankfully got most of what I wanted before that happened.

[@Bird-Birdy-Love]

Most of the common and well played games are still dirt cheap but some of the more uncommon and rarer titles have been slowly rising in value. As the other guy said. when the psn network shuts down for good all of these games will start having a spike in prices that is unavoidable. currently i am buying all the games i could find that are still cheap and even managed to score a few rarer games cheap cause people dont know better but once they do just like the ps1 and ps2 they will become practically impossible to find cheap anymore.

[@benlogicfactsshapiro]

Also I feel the 360/wii/ps3 era is growing because it’s the last generation to truly have physical copies complete on the disc.

[@thechosenone2123]

Basically any console reaching close to 20 years in age has had its games go up significantly in price. Its par for the course at this point and doesnt surprise me at all.

[@FlyingV555]

Doesn’t for me either. Happened a few years ago with GameCube/PS2 stuff. That’s stuff has since dipped in price a bit. The same will probably happen with PS3/360 stuff eventually

[@suiton20]

I haven’t seen the n64 or ps2 change very much in price. They seem pretty static depending on location. Does the amount in circulation affect prices considering the n64 doesn’t break or there’s just so many ps2 slims? I been trying to hunt for an og Xbox and can’t find working ones at non inflated prices. Then we have the snes which still is pretty expensive. nes is more like “good luck finding one that works”

[@Bird-Birdy-Love]

the ps3 will reach 20 in less than 2 years so that is how much of a window we have left before practically everything will start to spike.

[@sandman8920]

Also a big issue at the moment I don’t think you mentioned is that most new games suck so people are looking to older games instead.

[@CarlC9898]

yeah I've been playing a lot of great old games from 6th gen/7th gen and even games I skipped in the 8th gen from xb1/ps4 I am going back to play those too. The only new games I still get excited for are the Switch exclusive games.

[@sandman8920]

@@CarlC9898 I’m doing the same

[@poopn69]

Yeah opposite for me on the switch i started to down size that collection ​@CarlC9898

[@CarlC9898]

@@poopn69 good idea tbh, a lot of the games for me were play once and sell after so my Switch collection doesn't become a big size. It's rare for me to go back to a game (some exceptions like Mario Kart or Mario Party).

[@CarlC9898]

@@sandman8920 wise man

[@DoctorMinjinx]

Many people, including Adam were calling this years in advance. I distinctly remember Adam predicting the rise of 6th gen prices, which was very accurate. As a very, VERY early Gen Z kid, the first Generation I was physically able to watch unfold was the 7th Gen. I remember 7th gen being the relevant thing in stores, with 6th gen being nearly worthless. Places like GameStop had to basically pay *you* to take all their GameCube stuff, and I'm talking the first party Nintendo stuff. The rise of 6th Gen prices taught me this concept, and it's now occurring with 7th gen stuff. Thankfully, in my case, I still have most of my 7th gen stuff from the 360 and Wii. Am I cashing out? No. I am in my mid 20s and I really have grown passionate about collecting. I do plan to scratch off what I'm missing in fact ASAP. The only roadblock is the PS3. Notice how I omitted it? I actually never owned one back then.

[@TrevorHamberger]

I have all three

[@TomAHawk-py6vj]

I think the last wave is the most devastating to me. There will be a time we will get into an retirement home where is no space, and/or finally die. Then there will be no one left who has a desire for these and all these gems that were hard to aquire will find their way into the dumpster, sooner or later. I saw it when my father died last christmas. The only things interesting were some tools, pictures and that's it. Everything else was thrown into the dumpster. Nobody wanted it, not even for free on our craigslist equivivalent. That hard truth really makes me sad looking into the future.

[@roblikestoskate]

estate sales exist

[@davidmuldowney]

So just enjoy your collection while you can, you won’t care what happens to it when you’re gone

[@bondovwvw]

Or have kids so they can throw it in the dumpster for you

[@iic529]

I'm 41 this year. Most people buy a Porsche when they hit that mid-life panic range. I figured it'd be cheaper and more enjoyable to back-catalog my childhood consoles instead. I'm not looking for complete libraries, just fun stuff I missed out on due to region locks / lack of modding communities at the time. I'm acquiring spare consoles for emulation purposes so I don't have to mess up my originals / physical media. As for what I'll do with them, who knows? Haven't thought that far ahead. I don't know if, like comics, certain rare vintage titles will hold their value, but it'd be nice.

[@AdilAli-ur8mz]

been watching since 2014, i was 12, im almost 22 now

[@AdamKoralik]

Appreciated!

[@JesusHaveMercy]

Same

[@Heavymetalrille]

I will be 45 this year, not to long left and i have no intention of giving up collecting, enjoying and loving videogames, however i will never give in to this digital future garbage or the idea of not owning your games and such nonsense, also modern day gaming is plagued with so many issues, the list is long, not finished or complete games, the games not delivering on the promises or quality, the prices getting to high, no real leap in experience or presentation, not delivering physical copies to retailers and online stores, not enough stock, not listening or reading their buyers and fans right, the rift and divide between reality growing to strong and vast between the corporations and gamers, no real strong reasons for buying one of the later consoles, not yet anyway. I think they are cannibalizing their own sales and putting people off because of their prices, policy, viewpoints and constant push and focus on digital, it pushes people away and makes them not wanna commit and invest in a machine that is halfhearted at best and not even supported and at the same time they are telling us what the future is, and it is digital, so why invest in something like that, something that does not have the library or support or future. They have displayed many bad patterns these last year or so, that makes people go in a certain direction and make certain choices and that does not only go for older generations, younger too, so they should really take another look at how they do things and what things are for certain groups of consumers and gamers, because i think there is a clash and divide going on, and it will ruin them if they do not correct their ways things are gonna change for the worse if they continue to go down this path. I will find comfort and strength in my library of titles from days gone by when these current trends and bad decisison make things worse, they will get worse, i see it and i have already seen some of the stuff i saw coming happen, so hold on to those games. When everything get´s expensive and new games become ruined by politics and bad decisions i still have all the old games i can play, there are so many games i wanna play again and so many i have not gotten to yet, so i think i will be fine regardless of how things goes. I will collect and enjoy games till the day i die or i am forced to give up stuff because of circumstances out of my control.

[@andyscoming4919]

Hope you live for another 45 man!

[@Heavymetalrille]

@@andyscoming4919 Thanks man! Live long and prosper and keep on gaming!

[@lofi-guy]

I'm older than you, does this mean I'm actually dead? lol

[@Heavymetalrille]

​@@lofi-guy Haha, i think you misunderstood part of my comment, i ment i will be 45 this year and that it is not that long until i turn.. haha but i can easily see that it could be read as i do not have long left, that is not what i ment :D Let us enjoy and make the best out of whatever is left!

[@Heavymetalrille]

@@lofi-guy However it is true that these last years i have wondered and felt that it is not that long to go especially with all the health issues and such, but still probably have some years to go with gaming, art and culture.

[@cax1175]

"Damn Zoomers" - Someone probably

[@ep3578]

I think the idea that the 7th gen is now becoming “classic” or “retro” I own 4 ps3’s for absolutely no reason, and when they go up even more, i’ll dump them off for stuff i genuinely want. Also, the prior gen is just insanely expensive. Dreamcast is untouchable. GC is expensive, and ps2/xbox are rising as well

[@segads]

Dame boat here, with 9 n64 2 ps3 and 6 gamecubes 😊

[@KevinFought]

Atleast OG xbox and ps2 games are pretty easy to find for cheap

[@davidk713]

That era of games was extremely underrated! Now we look at the current state of gaming. We now can appreciate how amazing that generation was at the time especially sports games! I’ve been playing the PS3 more than the PS5 and SX!

[@ELEKTROSKANSEN]

Underrated? Back in 2007 we all knew we lived in peak gaming era.

[@pikachu896]

Underrated? What?

[@davidk713]

@@ELEKTROSKANSEN yes underrated! I didn’t say we didn’t know how great the games were but we didn’t appreciate them more! The games and consoles.

[@MatticusFinch1820]

I'm actually in the process of selling my PS3, 360 and video game collection in general. Most of it just sits on my shelves un played. I've been slowly converting my consoles into ODEs, modded hard drives, and Everdrives and it's just so much more convenient. At the end of the day all I ever really wanted was to play the games on real hardware on a CRT and that's what I can do now. Plus I can play translations and hacked versions of the games and modded versions of the games it's just so much cooler. I have no reason to put a Super Nintendo cartridge of donkey Kong country in my SNES when I can play the MSU-1 version on my FXPAK Pro.... and best of all I don't have to worry about the rat race of collecting and ridiculous prices, I'm done paying high prices for games that frankly ain't worth the price.. Instead I have been taking the money that I've been making from selling my video game collection and paying off my debt instead and collecting consoles and VHS now. Much cheaper and fun. The kids can fight over the physical games and the ridiculous prices. Have fun!

[@mrcaboosevg6089]

Must be a US thing, nothing like this is happening in the UK. The only thing that is expensive are the backwards comparable PS3's

[@AdamKoralik]

Demographics do change from country to country, yes, but the core concept remains the same.

[@System_Sega]

I got to agree with you there. 360, PS3 and most PS2 games are still very cheap over here. I've noticed slightly older systems like the N64, Gamecube, Saturn, Dreamcast have gone up more in recent years.

[@TheCosmicFool]

I’m in the UK too. It’s a really mixed bag: 360 games are sometimes really cheap (many are a couple of pounds in places like CEX). PS2 is largely cheap, DS is reasonable and 3DS is starting to rise (Pokemon games are always £30+). GameCube has been pricy since about 2011 (when I went back to collecting GCN games just before prices got silly. For example I got Twilight Princess for £17 then. I haven’t seen it for less than £50 since). Wii is cheap as chips, aside from the bigger titles, mainly first party. Older cartridges are a real mixed bag: some Mega Drive games run from a couple of pounds to silly money, SNES is strange (Star Fox, despite only being available on the SNES mini, is dirt cheap, but Zelda and Super Metroid are £20+ even though they have been available multiple times since). One that is annoying, but purely from a hardware point, is Game Gear, which was my first system. The games are dirt cheap, but good luck finding a working Game Gear to play them on. Thankfully a lot are the same or very similar on SMS, which is a great cheap retro system to collect here (as it was very popular back in the day). A SMS 2 is next to nothing (as long as you are happy with RF) and the big titles like Sonic are a couple of pounds. For a bit more you can get a model 1 with RGB SCART output. On a crt these old consoles through RGB look fantastic.

[@chimrichalds81]

I am 42, and I have 3 kids

[@NIB1306]

Not only the prices of the 7th gen consoles, the prices of the N64, Dreamcast and Saturn are out of control, it's ridiculous to see how they have risen in recent years, that seems like total abuse to me.

[@AdamKoralik]

You should probably watch the video. :P

[@thatssomegoodpie]

@@AdamKoralik What demographic would you say that is? The current 40 year olds?

[@AdamKoralik]

@@thatssomegoodpie Around that, yeah. Millennials.

[@dstreet3818]

Saturn is unique imo because after the phase where no cared about it the prices have always went up and never down for non-Japanese regions.

[@AlphaladZXA]

The same is true of the handhelds GBA games used to be so cheap

[@HamzaRafique777]

24 years old here, struggling medical student (so unfortunately that meant I had sell a bunch of imports sadly, but I however, replaced them with ODEs/Everdrives) though you may argue that it doesn’t feel the same. More so, I didn’t get into collecting or looking back into retro content until mid 2021 and it’s been very fun in the past few years!

[@spanishginger]

Hey Adam, literally just turned 25 today. Been watching ya for over 10 years now so this isn't new to me. I've been collecting since I was 10, have always been a nostalgic/collector before whatever age crisis was supposed to hit, I just bought up whatever was cheap at time like 5th, 6th and 7th Gen as the 8th Gen rolled on. The current state of retro and modern gaming has pushed me away now that people my age are getting into collecting that I've slowly been selling off some games/consoles and just feeling content with what I have and pretty much collecting whatever physical Nintendo games come out for now on. I currently have everything from PS1 to series x, tho my series x is a glorified back compat machine. Collecting isn't the same anymore like it used to be when most people didn't care and while I was still a kid learning.

[@JZekis]

The thing I've been curious about with Xbox360 and PS3 as far as these nostalgia bubbles is if they would see as big a bubble as previous generations. If you look at the best sellers on those systems there are a lot of games that are either still available or have been remade for new platforms. Wii I figured might get a decent bubble because it's so unique even though it was so overproduced. The other two I've been skeptical on.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

I blame the scalpers, although at this point probably more then a 1/3 of the "fat" ps3's are dead...

[@AdamKoralik]

Scalpers aren't the problem, but they do contribute to it.

[@arnox4554]

A repair technique was semi-recently discovered where people found they could basically replace the OG PS3 GPU with a slim PS3 version of the GPU. This effectively allows once broken fat PS3s to be fixed completely. They're called Frankenstein PS3s or FrankenPS3s. Just a warning though. They aren't cheap.

[@timterrell8678]

Back in 2014, I was buying Wiis for as cheap as $5. People were tossing them out. Bought a NES for $20 and a N64 for $30.

[@MichaelODonoghueMOD]

Hard to say how pronounced the increase will be. Obviously the Dreamcast and GameCube had big jumps in value, but 7th gen is different. There were a lot of remasters. Digital sales were a lot bigger, and you can get a lot of Xbox games through BC on the store. Also, a lot of 360 and PS3 games were multiplats on pc as well, as opposed to earlier when they made different games. majority of Wii games were shovelware that noone will be nostalgic about. PS3 exclusives that were never remastered like Resistance or Infamous, Motorstorm would go up I would have thought, but they did sell millions

[@andrewstokes6623]

9:46-10:07 Thanks Adam, you really know how to age someone by a decade in one sentence, I didn't wanna think about the fact that 2005 babies are uni students

[@unicorntomboy9736]

You mean high school students (in senior year)

[@sandman8920]

I’m 35 and exactly like you Adam. I never get rid of anything and just keep on collecting 😆

[@ShinSynZero]

Cool vid, Gen Xer here, and I started collecting back when I was in college. Thankfully, that allowed me to build a solid collection from the 5th gen to current. I don't plan on stopping though lol. I've built up my Genesis collection and started working on the SMS as well. As far as the 7th gen goes, I've just been rounding out my 360 library.

[@bland9876]

Weird thing about 360 games is that the Japanese versions are actually the more expensive ones whereas with other consoles it's usually the other way around for some reason.

[@CoolSharpH]

Im 16 right now and i started collecting 7th gen games since i was very young but i really started about 2 years ago when i resold games to make money to buy more. Now 2 years later i have have about 600 total games and around 300 7th gen games and the prices have been going up for all the games.

[@djc604]

You filled in a (knowledge) gap that I didn't yet understand. The psychology behind it makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the in depth explanation!

[@HedgehogY2K]

Actually, this is the best time to buy all your games from the soon to be removed Microsoft Store on the Xbox 360. It's gonna end this summer.

[@undertoner385]

I'm a couple years younger than you. You could never catch me selling a retro console or prized accessories unless things are beyond dire. So the cycles of interest thing wouldn't apply to me, at least insofar as letting hardware go during troughs. I intend to continue to collect, mod, hack, customize, etc. I don't have any kids, but if I eventually do, my gaming stuff would be a plus for them, so I see no reason for that to be at odds with this. Having less free time for the hobby because of kids could result in me putting pause on it, but it would never result in my pushing it away or getting rid of my stuff.

[@gummislayer1969]

THIS!!! 🤩💙🎮

[@Laz3rCat95]

I think it's more so the strain on finances that makes people sell the stuff. And kids do add a lot of expenses even just for necessary things like food, clothing, diapers, etc. Not to mention childcare if you/your partner can't always be at home caring for them, and stuff they need for school once they reach school age...

[@gummislayer1969]

@@Laz3rCat95 (double time) THIS!!! 😔💔🎮 Listen...I REALLY hated it when old heads start talkin bout "I'm older than you".😳 😳 😳. Uhh, sooooooo!?!??? The fact of the matter remains: when you got small children - that REQUIRES a lot of finances, prolly that you don't currently have. I was fortunate enough to get back in the game (literally) before it cost me an arm & a leg. 🤑🤑🤑 I think the older we get, we should be remembering what it was like when we "didn't have", instead of criticizing the younger crowd for (REALLY!?!?) "not having it"... I said it before, I'll say it again: gaming (retro, in particular) is NOT a poor man's sport. Just my 2 "sense"...🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️

[@kennykelvin3980]

With the current housing market and economy i wonder if a large amount of zoomers wont just look at the price of a house and then the price of an old xbox 360 game and think, you know what its 2006 forever now.

[@justaadhdgamerwesley6244]

I saw an house that was 200k 4 years ago and now it doubled

[@izzymaedavidson1974]

Interesting video as usual.Always love your passion and something about how you tell and word things

[@MrJcoupe96]

I'll be 39 in a few months and I was lucky enough to begin collecting all my childhood cartridge based games before the big explosion in popularity. Although I never got rid of my childhood games, I was able to purchase games I WISH I had when I was younger at reasonable prices, years ago. Early PS2 era, I got into a serious relationship and pretty much pushed video games to the side. If it weren't for my GF at the time buying me a PS2, I never would have even owned one to begin with, I barely even played it. The 360, Wii, PS3 era came and went without me even caring at all about it. It camat a point in my life where I was focused on other things and video games weren't even a blip on my radar. It wasn't until the Xbox One, PS4 era that I began getting back into video games. My now wife (different girl, lol) Bought me an Xbox One (VCR edition) when we first got married that I played a bunch on and we got a Wii-U together as well that we definitely got our use out of. Fast forward, I've been collecting older games and such since that time and decided "I'm gonna get myself a PS3 since they're so cheap, along with the games. Boy am I glad I did because it's such a great console and the games (so far) are still reasonably priced. With all the attention that generation has been getting lately, I don't doubt prices are gonna start getting nuts real quick and I better hurry up to get the leftover games I want before they're out of reach.

[@RohanSpartin]

I have almost every game I would ever want or care for on the PS3, 360, and Wii. And if I don't have it, I'll eventually emulate it, or use a homebrew storefront like PKGJ to download a digital version. Same with the 3DS.

[@P1Gman]

Offline gaming with physical media that can't be deleted will always be a market. The rise in prices means that the offline gaming market is still alive and well. I hate online only gaming, it's dogs***. The drop in prices is indicative of a surplus supply in the market, there's a ton on eBay and a ton at second hand gaming shops. Prices go up when supply goes down, when more break and get thrown away instead of being fixed, you won't see any in second hand game shops, and there will be less than a dozen on eBay.

[@DavidAddis]

Will kids who grew up with the Switch as their childhood console want physical copies of their games again, given they could easily have been digital downloads at the time? Or will they just download the roms and play them in emulators on their phones/AI pins/smart glasses?

[@TheUballe]

Elder Millenial, here (42yrold): I grew up with Atari, NES, and the 16-bit systems, but I bever felt compelled to go back and collect games from Generation 1-6. Generation 7, however -- the X360 and PS3 -- was when we had finally started to see what gaming could really become, with the right advancements. That said, I'm glad I collected the 250 or so 360/PS3 games worth owning when they were $5 a piece! For me, seeing the rise of digital distribution and decline if physical media motivated me to get what I wanted for me and a few years back.

[@inutted4594]

In my opinion, I think it's because people are starting to realize you don't actually own digital media, so they're trying to buy up as much as they can and I have a lot of friends that are now thinking like that

[@koolaid33]

I'll be honest, I haven't noticed this much at all. Maybe for the Wii, but I think the Wii is rising because it's a Nintendo console. With Nintendo hardware, prices always jump because people all play the same games on the consoles, leading to the most amount of nostalgia for the same 10 or so games. PS3 and Xbox 360 I haven't found are going up at all, neither are the PSP or DS systems. Literally a week ago I scored a copy of Red Dead Redemption CIB for $10 on eBay, and just today I bought RDR: Undead Nightmare CIB for $13 on eBay. I also bought Mass Effect today for $8 (not CIB, but still). I haven't found that prices are ramping up at all, could just be an American thing since I live in Canada. If they were to start going up, it would be when nostalgia for those consoles peak in general, not just for the Wii. Typically it hits like a wave: right now I'd say we're still in the 5th generation nostalgia boom, where the PS1, Saturn, N64, and GBC continue to rise in value, though it's near it's end and scalpers are moving to the 6th generation, along with people becoming nostalgic for the PS2, GameCube, Xbox and Dreamcast, along with the GBA. 7th Generation consoles aren't really there yet, I'd give them another 4-5 years before nostalgia sets in and prices really go up. The retro game collecting scene is also dying down right now, the people who got into it for something to do during COVID are mostly moving on now and prices in general I've noticed are starting to slip.

[@JessiGutierrez-zi8tu]

You hit the nail right on the head!!

[@angrynorway]

Nostalgia. Maybe also the the fact that the games are still good and sometimes unavailable elsewhere. Also, some titles are graphically punhching.

[@martinaee]

Adam, keep the interesting console discussions coming! Love em! - I love videos of some kind!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@sailaway30]

It also doesn’t help that a lot of the main stream gaming nowadays is just straight up garbage so a lot of people are going back to the older generations and hence that’s why they’re getting more expensive. I’m just glad I’m getting back my library a PS3 games before that goes up same with The. Wii

[@JAGO_Tech]

Also, buying things they missed out on. Such as, I had a 360 ... but missed out on PS3 GoW, Resistance, Ratchet & Clank, etc. Drives up $s additionally

[@d.g.8790]

Great video. Enjoyed your analysis and can relate. I'm a Gen X'er (48 years old). The times I bought I got sucked into the nostalgia. About the time I got the classics I wanted I had the sudden realization the nostalgia I was chasing felt empty. I was remembering everything through rose colored glasses. I then sold. Then years pass and I see myself looking at Facebook marketplace and eBay for old systems, hardware, full size arcades. I know it's inevitable going down the same path and know ahead of time how it will end. Insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result. The excitement of collecting and reminiscing is too tempting. Nostalgia is powerful.

[@korg789]

It depends how you approach it. Yes, nostalgia is powerful, but if you really get into it from the beginning, and you are able to realize that it's not just a phase, then you are a "real gamer" for life. Games you like stay forever with you and you don't feel empty about them. They are just another thing that is part of you regardless of how old you get. It feels different, they are somehow part of your life in a deeper way. That's my case. In your case it seems that they were a hobby in your childhood, or teen years, and you feel now that you've "outgrown" them. You were just a casual gamer due to your age back then, nothing wrong with that, different strokes for different folks.

[@TheodoroDML]

The PS4 being at it's peak low price is absolutely true, I recently bought Bloodborne for 50 Reais in Brazil, which is less than 10 USD. The guy selling it to me also in fact just had a kid, his wife was selling his games on facebook market place hahahaha.

[@borrellipatrick]

KZbin been reccomending videos lately of younger people "discovering" that generation. Being happy that majority of ps3 games they collect have a version 1.0 of the game that's playable. I kept all my wii stuff that generation. Still have new controllers and things in box that i picked up when this were cheap and the wiiU started to become a sinking ship 😵‍💫

[@AdamKoralik]

Thanks for the donation dude!

[@robbieburns3564]

Nostalgia factors in for collecting and perception of value. That "growing up" era raises feelings of comfort - when things weren't so chaotic now that you're older. I see videos where comments say "PS3 / PS2 / PS1/ N64/ SNES (etc) was the best era of gaming". For each generation its different. The feeling of reliving that childhood again through those games is so comforting that people collect them, as it reminds them of a simpler life - making them feel the nostalgia of that long ago time.

[@llfallen0nell884]

I’m about to be 18 so I am gen z and I collect for ps4 and ps5 but, also have recently been collecting more for my Xbox 360 and ps3.

[@Nathan-mu1pz]

Money is tight but space is tighter. I cant easily justify keeping my collection in a small apartment when I officially move out of the house soon. Especially when that will be shared by am eventual spouse and children.

[@spindle2323]

Im 52 from the Atari 2600 and Commodore 64 generation. I love collecting for PS1 , PS2 and PS3 , currently in Australia PS3 games are dirt cheap , thus the PS3 has become my favorite machine .

[@erickc2806]

I'm 39, I have a 2 year old, a house, wife, car, but I just pick up the games I loved or owned as a kid instead of just trying to build full collections. So it's a lot more manageable. Actually before the house and kid I lived in a condo, so that limited me to what I could buy. So I've started buying things up more now, but I still make sure to budget for everything. If I can't afford a Neo Geo cart for example, I'll just keep my eye open for auctions, or marketplace, or just save up until I can pick it up for the average cost.

[@Parisiancollector]

Hi, Adam! I'm probably just like you. Born 1986, just turned 38. Although I'm buying my first home this year (in Paris, France, it's crazy expensive), I have never been that much into collecting. 2010 is when I started buying old games. I was 24 at the time and wanted to replay the Dreamcast. About 2,000 complete physical games later across all systems from SNES to PS5, I don't feel like ever stopping. I noticed the same trends as you, which allowed me to acquire very collectible games at low/fair prices for the last 15 years.

[@Crusader1984]

What you say is absolutely true however, in this economy, I don’t think people are going to be buying their wants when they have to live off their needs

[@lukaskidd4621]

It's only getting worse.

[@pelgervampireduck]

Is it me or it happened faster than expected to PS3 and x360 generation?. I mean the price cycle, the whole thing you explained. I think it took more years for previous generations to go from "it's cheap because it's old" to "it's expensive because it's retro vintage". PS3 and X360 are "too new" to be at that stage of the cycle. I was lucky I got lots of stuff from 8 bits up to N64 when you could still get a shoe box full of cartridges for $20. For your demographics and statistics, I'm 42, single and if I ever get married it will be a deal breaker if she says "you have to get rid of that stuff". I like to keep my stuff, I like phisical media and actually having games, movies and music.

[@songsan807]

Wow guess I am in this "quarter-life crisis" 🤣. I am an 80s kids who unfortunately didn't grew up rich so only had like 5 NES games and 5 SNES growing up. Only way to play the other games was to either swap with friends or borrow from the game stores. Once I started having kids I would pick up a system here and a system there from garage sales. Then I would start to buy full xbox or playstation 1 or 2 collections from folks that you say are starting a young family. The Wii, PS3, XBox360 are all great systems. Unfortunately because so busy making money to pay bills I did not have the chance to play them that I started to play them and discover the magic of these games.

[@frantheman0819]

I’m 17 and I grew up on Original Xbox and PSP which probably seems older for me but I was very young when I started playing. I got a Wii late 2012 and went from there, none of my friends childhood games were on original Xbox

[@_longgaming]

35 now and for sure went through the post college phase of asking my mom to give me all my boxes of games, consoles, and accessories (never got rid of them always kept them). And because I got money, I started collected games I never had as a kid but always wanted. Currently married with 2 kids, I’d rather wait for a house down payment than to sell my games to help with the down payment, haha. Also, my wife knows how much I enjoy my games and my daughter enjoy them too.

[@samuraijaydee]

Thanks Adam. Appreciate you.

[@benjamincady5597]

I'm looking forward to Dreamcast games coming a bit down in price. There were a few that I only rented or borrowed in high school that I would love to play again, but not for the outrageous prices they've been lately. Very fittingly, I missed out on that low point in the cycle because I was buying SNES and N64 games in the mid-late 2000s because I only owed Sega stuff (and an NES) growing up, but I always enjoyed stuff my friends and family had. (It's safe to say I fit the curve you described.)

[@lukaskidd4621]

Adam covers everything better than anyone else. Smart dude.

[@SeanNoonan]

So I agree with pretty much everything you've said here, but it's also worth noting that the PS3/360/Wii (and to some extent the WiiU) are the final consoles that have libraries that are mostly physical and on the digital side not using x86 architecture (and therefore only selectively backwards compatible). So a lot of those games are locked to those platforms and support is ending imminently. This is likely a cause of inflating prices and causing a rush from panic buying that we're unlikely to see from the plaftforms that follow (outside of delisting and special editions, etc.). (Also hi, you seem like a good chap - subbed!)

[@JolliAllGenGamer]

Good thing I bought ps3, Wii, and 360 games in 2014-2017 when they were cheap and no one wanted them at half price books, on online, and disc replay.

[@mikebittick6481]

I own a PS3 and just recently bought another PS4 with psvr I found at a pawn shop , the ps4 and psvr ran me 240.00 bought 5 psvr games with prices varying between 5 to 8 dollars apiece, I'm 61 years old and have been gaming since pong came out for home use ..so I guess you can say I've been in it since the beginning.....

[@Supersayainpikmin]

I remember back during your sixth gen console retrospective, and how you said the games for all four consoles began going up because people that played them are adults wanting to play the games they played as a kid. Can't beleive we're already back at that lol. That said, some of the prices are looney for certain games. Need for Speed Most Wanted on Xbox 360 for 90 dollars?

[@AdamKoralik]

Demographics never lie!

[@Supersayainpikmin]

@@jDavinxi The more and more I'm in this scene, I learn rarity doesn't matter.

[@marioloaiza4335]

Adam! Great video and it was great to have met you at the Game On Expo in Phoenix! I'm Gen X and have had 2 cycles of "rebuying my childhood". I bought 500 NES titles in 2005ish and then sold it all. Then I fell in love with PS3 and ended up completing a full North American set recently. I plan on keeping everything going forward. I have a few hundred PS4 titles and I am going to grab a bunch more while they are cheap.

[@sylentknyte]

I think we're going to reach an interesting divergence once the current generation of kids go through their quarter-life crisis because they're not nearly as obsessed with physical media as we were. Even for me, as a millennial who loved this stuff and used to collect games, I'm totally done with the market. All I care about is if I can play the game be any means necessary.

[@MikeHarrisHazchem77]

Consoles peaked at that gen. They didn't really get better.All the online only and download content only ruined consoles.😊

[@YourFunkLord]

Preach on. Another wise sermon on the economics of Games/Console pricing. 👏👏

[@midnightstrike3625]

I don't have a plan, i just like collecting and playing games, mostly for PS2 but also PS4. I don't buy current gen anymore and only recently have i been selling parts of my collection to get money for bills, but only things I never play. My paperweight Series X was the first to go.

[@erneststackhouse1133]

Never thought of a timeline for spikes on prices. Good to know for retro collectors. Now i know why when i wait for a game why it goes down to the amount that i can purchase. Thanks for this video i will be using this knowledge for future purchases on my retro games! Now i can just use a little bit of math to Figure It Out. Ha-Ha!!

[@TheCosmicFool]

I’m 41 and like yourself Adam I am lucky in the sense that I held onto a lot of my stuff from childhood. I still have my original Mega Drive and about half of my original cartridges (others were traded and sold as that was the only way I could afford new games). I have managed to reacquire copies of my other carts for very little (only missing one). Once I no longer needed to trade in games from my early 20s I have hung on to the vast majority of games, from the PS2/ GameCube era. Interestingly I never went through the quarter life crisis and when I did start to get nostalgic around my late 20s/early 30s the Wii came along and virtual console made it very cheap to revisit older games or finally play those I couldn’t afford back in the 90s., though I went through a GameCube revival period at about the same time as I only had about 10 games for it when it was relevant as it played second fiddle to my PS2. Now with a modded Wii I have a beast of a retro machine, so I tend to just get original games that are not on there if they go for a good price. I have all my 360 and Wii games too and it’s great to share them with my kids. At the moment I’m picking up Xbox One games for very cheap, as it honestly feels like this will be one of the last physical games machines to do so for, though with the fact that most games require updates or have little to nothing in the discs this feels a bit redundant.

[@gametourny4ever627]

Greetings Adam! I have been a subscriber since your 7th Generation retrospective you did way back in the day now. Love the content! I am 39 years old currently and collect everything from Nes up to Switch. I don’t have any plans to start letting things go until my 12 year old hits college and I need money for tuition or books for him. So about another 7 years or so. My Mom passed away at 58 two years ago and my dad is 60 now and finally started doing fun things in his life instead of continually saving and being frugal. After seeing this, I also plan to get with my son when I am 55 and ask him which systems and games he would like to have or for me to keep that are special for him and then I plan to sell off everything else to enjoy some retirement travel and living the second half of my life. If I do make it to a really old age and outlive my wife somehow, I would probably go back and pick up some sentimental games that I could relive in my old age or with the Grandkids if my son has them. Edit: I know you don’t mess with Handhelds too much, but I would love to see generational retrospectives on Handhelds someday from you. You would have me hooked in big time. Perhaps: 1. Game and Watch 2. Gameboy, Game Gear, Lynx, 3. Virtual Boy, Game Boy Color, Nomad, Neo Geo Pocket/Color 4. Gba, PSP, DS 5. 3DS and Vita Idk. You could throw in Gizmondo and Gamecon, and some of those other weird ones in there too but I love hearing you talk about the history of the generations of systems and your experiences with them or first time you saw them etc.

[@AdamKoralik]

Thanks for sticking around!

[@Laz3rCat95]

Category 4 is definitely my favorite. Loved the GBA and DS. I didn't play PSP but always thought they looked cool.

[@FixerUK]

The 360 was probably part of the last generation where at least you probably had the game on the disc and not having to download to play. Hate the modern way where the disc etc doesn't even contain the game. Luckily I had the foresight to retain most of my collection from even the Spectrum/ Commodore days. I just worry about capacitors and leaky batteries now lol. Edit: And the dreaded disc rot. I suppose I'll just have to "get over it!".

[@markbeach8996]

Hope people soon realize the new games sealed wise … older people have storage units full of unopened retail boxes for years waiting to unload them on eBay when prices get hiked … there’s plenty to go around but they’re hoarded by a small few

[@0n1ine]

Bro I'm 23 and the "quarter-life crisis" hits really close to home lol. For the past 6 years or so I've been collecting a bunch of Wii, Wii U, 360 and some PS3 games. Mostly Wii and Wii U though lol. I also have like 5 Wii consoles so I might be one of those weird collectors. I have no plans to get rid of any of this stuff anytime soon and hopefully never will.

[@vio2112]

I pawned my Gamecube many many years ago when it's value was very low. I so regret that now. I even had a Wavebird I pawned with it ugh.. I also stupidly gave away my NES, SNES, Genesis and Turbografx-16 to family and friends. Stupid stupid decisions I really regret now. I do however still have my N64(no box), Wii(with box) and Wii U(with box). Trust me, I am holding onto them with an iron grip! LOL. 43 year old me will not make the same idiotic mistakes 25 year old me did.

[@pedromartins4847]

I play at 4k60 on PC and still have my PS3 plugged in for blu-rays. That was a fun gen.

[@djm9937]

Gaming seemed to have died after 7th Gen.. Digital anyone?

[@thesugarybear]

Do you see GameCube prices still going down from this point on?

[@AdamKoralik]

It'll dip a bit, but it won't get like cheap exactly.

[@Themanngaming]

I’m 27 I only buy physical and I’ve never sold a game. I have consoles as far back as n64 / PS1. I grew up on GameCube but for that console only have the games I had as a kid due to the cost. I bought a n64 in my high school years when they were cheap, but I didn’t get many games before they skyrocketed. I would love to see them become reasonable again

[@lukaskidd4621]

N64 games as just the carts are still pretty affordable...

[@Shadybiglpac]

Good convo

[@Plamindandbodywurks]

These guys sell their games and consoles everytime something new comes out. I kept my ps3, Xbox 360, ps2 ect along with all the games because I knew modern gaming would start to suck eventually. Now that we're here, I have a huge pile of older games to dive into. Physical collections are undefeated...

[@camrongraziano1254]

I'm 37 and an oddity. I've been collecting since I was a kid. I still have a lot of my OG games. But I've also purged collection once. It was I purged my 6th and 7th gen stuff to get SEGA Saturn and N64 things 😅 even purged some NES. My plan is just to keep collecting slowly. I've seen the waves and I just ride them. I never sell for a profit usually just get my money back 🤷🏼‍♂️ So it's not really worth it fot me to buy low sell high. Just get what I want in the best condition I can afford. So my current plan would be (based on this video) Buy some PS4 games that I kinda want. Keep my eye out for Dreamcast and PS2 deals. Also continue buying Saturn and N64.

[@lukaskidd4621]

I hope PS2 and Dreamcast don't go down too much. I already have what I need for the most part, lol.

[@Saibot79]

I am like you Adam. I am a 44 year old Gen Xer that keeps everything back to the 2600. Great lesson. It is fun to watch the prices change. I already have all the 7th generation games I want since they came out. And your right. I remember purchase a ton of NES games in the early 90's dirty cheep that I still have.

[@bland9876]

It's about time those prices are rising The Wii has been expensive for a while and I'm surprised that Halo a game that's as famous as Smash Brothers isn't super expensive.

[@BRYANLEE-vf2eo]

because there were an ungodly amount of them made and still out there. Scarcity is the number one factor to price, not how popular it was. It's usually the reverse

[@DptOfSanitation]

22 right here i grew up on the ps2,psp and ps3 which i still own along with my original games but had a limited selection of games because I grew up in Mexico. I always saw other game consoles and games and it was my dream to own them I am collecting n64, ps2, ps3, gamecube and some psp

[@winlover37]

I can't tell if I picked the perfect or worst time to pickup 7th gen games I haven't gotten around to.

[@ThatAKguy74]

As a very late millenial I'm sitting on more games than I care to admit but honestly collecting anything after 7th gen seems pointless to me and makes me wonder if 8th gen will have the same boom or not considering all the online only nonsense that will axe games entirely and pc ports really becoming decent by that time with only a few exceptions.

[@PaperBanjo64]

I'm thinking the same thing, Wii U might have a collector's boom but I'm not sure why with most of its best games on Switch.

[@Ghostcoast1]

Damn and I just saw a 360 on Facebook marketplace for $50. I should have bought it...

[@dreadnaught2448]

I can confirm some Gamecube stuff has, in fact, started to go down in price. A perfect example would be the Hori digital controller. Not too long ago, that thing was well over $200; nearly $300 in some cases. Now, it's around $110. It's still expensive, but not crazy expensive.

[@Gam3r4Fun]

I’m 32 and my generation was the sixth gen (wanted n64 but never got it). Gotten my game collection(of various systems) up to 550 games in the last years, and unless something really unforeseen happens I’m keeping it for myself and my potential next gens to play.