Does anyone know why video games tend to go out of print so quickly, relative to CDs, DVDs, or books? Especially nowadays, when backwards compatibility means each generation of consoles has a longer lifespan than they otherwise would. PS3 plays PS2 games, and Wii plays GameCube games. I have to figure a lot of those new Wii owners would be interested in GameCube games they missed the first time around, like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, so why doesn’t Nintendo keep it in print? And practically any PS2 game more than a couple of years old is out of print, even though the PS2 itself is selling more than respectably, and new games are still coming out regularly.
I would assume it’s because there’s no market for them. If there was still money to be made on older games, they’d still be in print.
Edited to say, it’s easy to pick several books that stay in print for a long time; however if you look at the number, I’d bet that the ratio of books that never get a second printing is equal to or greater than the number of video games that are never re-created after the first publishing.
Related note: try finding copies anymore of second-run PC game software which is more than 18 months or so old. With the consoles having stolen significant space from the PCs at places like Electronics Boutique, there’s simply no room available for such retailers to keep older titles on the shelves. T’wasn’t always so.
Are you sure these titles are out of print?
Perhaps they’re just not being carried in the retail stores you’re hitting?
Product must pay rent for its shelf space in stores… slow-moving titles can’t be allowed to hog shelf space for years upon end.
It’s quite possible that the distributors and the publishers ARE sitting on copies of the 2-year-old games you’re talking about, and thus the games are technically ‘in print’.
Try going to Amazon. If Amazon itself is advertising a “NEW” copy of the game not sold by a third party marketplace seller, that is your tip (98% accuracy) that the title is, in fact, in print.
That’s exactly what I’m talking about-- games that Amazon doesn’t offer, that are only available from third-party sellers or on eBay.
Just looked that title up.
You’re right, no Amazon-sold copies. Quite likely out of print.
Nonetheless, I checked the sales rank. The original issue is #322 out of 10s of thousands of video game titles Amazon sells. (Compare the re-released special player’s edition, with a rank of 6,000 something.)
That means it sells, and probably sells multiple times per day.
Also, note that the new copies cost MORE than they did when it was first released. That means it is relatively scarce in terms of global supply and demand.
Yes, but as you say, these are 3-year-old copies of the game, being passed around by individuals for $20-30 above the original MSRP. Presumably, if there’s a market, Nintendo could just reprint the game and take that money themselves. That’s what I don’t get. I think game manufacturers just haven’t realized how long games can continue to sell, even for consoles that are a generataion out of date.
That’s true, and I could point to any number of obscure, non-mainstream books or CDs that went out of print after a couple of years. But I’m talking about heavily advertised, top-selling titles like Zelda, or the Metal Gear Solid series on PS2 for another example.
Square Enix seems to be one of the only publishers who reliably keeps older titles in print-- Final Fantasy X and the first Kingdom Hearts are still easy to find.
Not even popular games get reprinted for long it seems. You can’t find a copy of Final Fantasy VII new for less then $100. I got the pc version when it came out and would like a Playstation copy. Final Fantasy Tactics has similar demand and it’s not being printed either.
The demand is there. Why aren’t the game companies taking advantage of it?
Tactics has been ported to the PSP at least. But yeah, FF7 is a weird one, especially since 8 and 9 are still easily available for around $20.
I’m going to suggest that the publishers are uninterested in doing a full print run, including the cost of packaging and duplication and arranging for distribution, for the market demand in question.
I deal somewhat in rare and scarce (mostly professional/academic) titles.
I know of a title related to Japanese-style supply chain and production management books that routinely trades between $100 and $150 depending on condition.
This book was published in the mid-80s with a list price of $45. The publisher is apparently still in business, but is not doing a reprint. They likely believe that while there is substantial demand, the number of buyers who want the book and do not already have one is less than 300, which is barely worth setting up for printing when your normal print runs are in the tens of thousands.
I suspect the situation is similar with the games you mentioned. There is SUBSTANTIAL demand, but the NUMBER of people who constitute that demand is likely not all that high.
Remember that different publishers have different ideas of sane print runs.
Final Fantasy Tactics was reprinted at one point. I know because I bought the reprint.
I think that you’re overvaluing “new” for video games. Console games on optical media stand up to being resold very well. If the disk is damaged, it’s likely damaged enough that it’s easy to see with the naked eye, so bad copies will be removed from the market quickly. If the used market is trading at or slightly below the price for a reprint, it’s not worth doing a reprint.