Has the videogame market become flooded? Sign o' the times.

[cloudrat7]

Back in the 80's during the videogame crash i was able to purchase intellivision and atari games for a mere dollar each. It was clearly over for those consoles. Fast forward to 2012 and i'm buying playstation 2 and gamecube games for a dollar at Gamestop. Why are we paying 40 to 50 dollars on games that will end up in the dollar bin eventually. I literally bought about 50 ps2 games recently and i couldnt have paid no more than $150.. It's crazy..

[BoringSupreez]

There's a key difference between buying 2600 and Intelivision games for $1 during the crash of the early '80s, and buying PS2 and GCN games today for $1: 2600 and Intelivision were still current back then. PS2 and GCN are dead. It's normal for the games of dead systems to be super cheap before they're old enough to become "retro." If you were buying PS3 games for $1, that'd be a totally different thing.

[pankakes123]

I personally buy games for full price because they just came out and I'm so excited I can not wait for a price drop. Most games however I do wait to reduce in price, because I definitely agree with you. Games like Shadow of the Colossus, massive and beautiful late PS2 games are now less than five dollars.

[Menegrothx]

Where do you find Gamecube games for 1 dollar? I sure would like to visit a place like that so I could finally start building up my GC collection

[ZenErik]

Depends what games you are buying. A lot of the PS2 games that interest me are at least $80. I don't just buy games for the sake of having more cheap games.

[isiolia]

Depends what games you are buying. A lot of the PS2 games that interest me are at least $80. I don't just buy games for the sake of having more cheap games.

At this point, there are plenty of very solid, if not system-defining games for the PS2 that are dirt cheap. But, as mentioned, that's got a lot to do with the system being end-of-life in the retail space (systems are often on clearance too, Best Buy has Slims for $59.99 last I saw).

Really, outside of the handheld sector, everything is fairly well along in its product cycle. That PS2 games are even still in stores twelve years after launch, and six years after the PS3 launched is more a testament to just how well it has done.

Game sales are down (well, console anyway), but that may have a lot more to do with not having new consoles out yet. It takes a little while to ramp up, since the games need to be there too and often aren't at launch, but if you look at the sales numbers as presented here, the peak sales correspond with new systems getting anticipated titles and price drops. Basically, mainstream adoption of the generation.

[cloudrat7]

I have many systems and the ps2 is the only nex gen console that i've seen a steady decline in game prices. I know its a dead system and its been about 11 or so years since its been out, I'm just surprised at the prices, i havent witnessed that since the 80s. I've gotten quite a few good games on the cheap. I mean c'mon, i bought Silpheed for a buck and that game is made by Treasure. lol.

[isiolia]

I have many systems and the ps2 is the only nex gen console that i've seen a steady decline in game prices. I know its a dead system and its been about 11 or so years since its been out, I'm just surprised at the prices, i havent witnessed that since the 80s. I've gotten quite a few good games on the cheap. I mean c'mon, i bought Silpheed for a buck and that game is made by Treasure. lol.

The PS2 is also the best selling home console, by a wide margin, which probably encouraged larger print runs in general.

Not to slam Silpheed, but the Sega CD title doesn't exactly rank up there with the rare and valuable either. Neither is the pedigree. Gungriffon Blaze is typically even cheaper (used starting at 1 cent on Amazon!) and is also a Game Arts game with a Working Designs localization, metallic cover, all that.

Price out some of the more obscure RPGs like the Shadow Hearts series and they're not all bargain priced. Though it's probably a prime time to buy PS2 stuff in general. Always the best deals when people still see it just as "the old stuff" and not collectible.

[Gunstar Green]

There's a key difference between buying 2600 and Intelivision games for $1 during the crash of the early '80s, and buying PS2 and GCN games today for $1: 2600 and Intelivision were still current back then. PS2 and GCN are dead. It's normal for the games of dead systems to be super cheap before they're old enough to become "retro." If you were buying PS3 games for $1, that'd be a totally different thing.

This. Last generation games fall into the "old but not yet classic and still readily available" category.

That's starting to change a little bit though, with Gamecube titles at least. I've noticed prices of certain titles creeping up since Gamestop has started pulling the games off their shelves.

It'll probably be another five or ten years until PS2 and X-Box games start getting more expensive. Even then I don't know since the PS2 was alive for so long and there are so many of the games just laying around.

And yeah, Silpheed on the PS2 is neither rare nor terribly in demand like some Treasure games.

[cloudrat7]

The truth is i never owned or played a ps2 until recently, I bought some good games like Shadow of the colossus and Final fantasy and so forth, but then i turn around and see the vast majority of titles all of a sudden drop in price. Oh yeah and its crazy how many sports titles are out there, its crazy that so much is put into those games as far as programming and advertisement. imagine every type of sport coming out yearly for 11 years..lol. It reminds me of the sega genesis sports titles, no one wants them..