Rising physical game prices are more than close to PlayStation Store, but it doesn’t help
PlayStation 3 games have become more expensive lately – like many other old games, which are either rare, really desirable, because something an adult would play and enjoy in 2021, or heaven forbid, both.
I’m not about to sell anything, but I got to the point where I found myself re-checking all my collections, amazed, after seeing the prices that the games get right now. In some cases, especially my DS library, these are titles that I haven’t touched (much less thought of touching) for years. I know myself well enough to know that giving up on them would end in a possible regret, but it is tempting.
It’s a similar story on other consoles, including my beast, the GameCube, and while it’s not necessarily a new trend – the pandemic has made a number in terms of retro gaming prices – the PS3 is worth watching.
After Sony announced its plan to eliminate the ability to purchase PS3, Vita and PSP digital games later this year, I was in a crazy way to catalog my existing purchases, to realize my old shortcomings and start buying digital copies (so far mainly PS1 Classics) before the store closes in July. I was so fixated on this initial goal that I didn’t look so hard to stock up on physical copies of PS3 games. In retrospect, it was a mistake. It’s probably too late for me.
As ResetEra pointed out, some PS3 games have become expensive – even some that are readily available on other platforms and can be purchased digitally at a reasonable price from the PlayStation Store. This is not an exhaustive list or anything else, but here are some recent prices that have stood out to me:
Times like this remind me, “Oh, shit! PS3 comes at 15 years old. I’m just dust. “
Personally speaking, my YouTube feed has become full of lists of hidden gems that deserve to be downloaded from the PlayStation Store, as well as popular games that are shockingly expensive on disk, but are cheap digitally. With all this information on the move, I’ve been thinking more about the PlayStation 3 in recent weeks than I’ve been since buying the system late in its life cycle – no joke. I finally got a second DualShock 3.
I’m not the only one with a renewed focus on the PS3 at the moment and this is reflected in the rising prices on the second-hand market. The recent drama that certain games can’t download patches is definitely an added fuel to the fire. Many of us are looking to locate our libraries, and in this generation of consoles, that means more than just buying a game, putting it on a shelf, and naming it a day.
If you are a motivated shopper, start researching and doing what you need to do before you feel even more pressure as we head to close the store. If you’re open to parting ways with some of your less-loved games at the right price (bloated-like-hell), it might be time to take another look at your library.
This is double for full copies of PS1-like games Suikoden II, Tron Okay, and Clone.
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