Pirated Games

[BlackDS]

Generally speaking, are pirated copies of games more valuable, or less valuable than the original release?

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

That's honestly a question of who you're asking, but most of the time people will say no.

[BigTinz]

What?

[t0yrobo]

I can't think of any, but in a very rare occasion a bootleg could be more valuable to certain people. Like misprints on collectibles can add value, but the almost never do.

[elvis]

It depends on a lot of things.

Straight up bootlegs generally are worthless. If it's a custom hack then it may have some value. Even more so for games that use an existing engine to make a completely new game (the series "Retro Core" covered a few Chinese-made pirate Megadrive games based on engines like the Lion King and others).

There's no "general" answer, as the specific circumstances will dictate the value, just like any game really.

[bacteria]

A pirated game of an original game, in itself, is worthless. A stack of pirated games on the same cart can be worth money, a game cart containing a game that was never released (eg Starfox 2 (!)) would certainly have value, although of course none of these circumstances is worth trying to sell as they could all get you in serious trouble if caught selling for profit.