Dragon Age II Depreciation Thread

[theundeadhero]

When Dragon Age II was first out, a new copy would cost around $60. Now a new copy will cost you $20 while you can grab a used copy for $10. Overall, I would say that's an average depreciation for games of its type. Some of the best games of that era can go for new around $30, while some of the weaker ones can be found as low as $5. Where do you think the depreciation of this game is going? Do you think as it becomes older and more rare it will reach back up to the $60 range? Will it become on of the greats that can sell for over $100? Or do you maybe think that it's price has hits it's plateau and it will stay around the same range?

[Shauna]

I don't think many big name games these days will ever get to the point that they'll be selling for $100.

[Pike]

Collector's Editions of World of Warcraft expansions always go way up in value

[Shauna]

Hmm, maybe a collector's edn with all the bells and whistles! I just meant a regular copy of the game.

[theundeadhero]

You don't see it at gamestop since they only sell more recent generations of games, but at stores that sell older systems you'll sometimes find games over the $60 line. Certain playstation and SNES games mostly.

[Shauna]

Yes, older games I can imagine having a higher price tag, because of the lack of availability. But I don't imagine that a regular copy of DAII will ever become so unavailable.

But then who knows, maybe it will. Maybe when digital only becomes massive, the rare boxed copy of DAII will sell for tons.

[Del Murder]

AAA games with a wide distribution will only go down in price, unless it is for rare collectors editions. Other games with limited runs will increase in price if they become popular (Xenoblade Chronicles). This market is actually a pretty textbook example of basic economic supply/demand theory.

As more things go digital and less discs are created, you may see the actual discs increase in value because there will always be a percentage of the population who appreciates the physical copy of the game. It will just depend on what goes down faster: supply of discs or demand for them.

[Vyk]

It already bothers me that Mass Effect 2 & 3 are $5 games when they're so good

[Del Murder]

The Trilogy collection made the individual games basically worthless. Think of them as great deals!

It is actually quite amazing how quickly AAA games drop in price these days. I think I bought ME3 six months after release and it was already $30.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah it pretty much depends on print run. If it's a smaller company, then the value will actually get higher such as Atlus, though they're going digital which will help that problem.

I'm usually more amazed when a game price stays consistently high when you feel like it shouldn't. Such as mainline Nintendo games, those games rarely drop in value and when they do, you might as well hunt up a new copy since the price difference is slim. I remember how Mario Galaxy, Skyward Sword, and Brawl almost never decreased in value on the Wii.

[FFNut]

I am not surprised at Dragon Age II dropping in price. A lot of newer gamers hated this title and think t is the weakest of the trilogy at the moment. Everyone's biggest grip about it was the mapping I think. In it if you go through one dungeon you've been through them all. However it opened up the series a lot with a great story where you can have Hawke get totally devastated. Also it incorporated your Origins choices to show up as you went through Kirkwall and the Free Marshes. Not to mention it gave us an improved battle system over origins that was fun and fast.

It it is my personal favorite of the three out at the moment and don't think it gets credit fr what it brought to the series. Plus who doesn't love Varric.

I think ink growing up with the NES, followed by the SNES gave me a great love for story and gameplay over graphics. Really if you take away the repeated maps you get a great game. It's not like repeated maps are anything new either, as I am playing FFVII at the moment I've noticed a few repeats there too. It has never hurt that game's money though so who knows.

[theundeadhero]

In normal economics I would agree with these situations, but video games seem to be the exception. A quick ebay search of FFVII or Mario RPG will show that the game can go for over $100, even though they were massively produced and have digital editions.

[Del Murder]

The FFVII's that go for $100 are factory sealed. Obviously those are in much shorter supply since most copies of the game have been opened. Plus, FFVII was one of the most influential games of all time, which gives it a higher demand than normal.

Mario RPG was not as massively produced as one would think. According to vgchartz, less than 700,000 copies were sold in North America, compared to 3 million of FFVII. Also, cartridges wear out faster than discs and are no longer used, which makes them more rare and collectible.

I guess if you had a factory sealed copy of DA2 or ME2 and kept it for 20 years, you could probably sell it for higher than retail, especially if disc games go away completely by that time.