Will digital games make the older physical games more collectible?

[wartoy]

I was wondering once physical games are gone will that drive the price and collectability of physical games up or will most people be content playing only new games? For me I would only be interested in a select few I absolutely new I was going to like and play. The way I buy games now I'm more likely to buy a physical game with the intention of playing it eventually. Then if I don't it gets put into my backlog of games I want to play.
With digital only games I won't have to buy it now worried I won't be able to find it later or that it went up in value. It would always be there as digital when and if I decided to play it and Mabey even on the cheap. Sound like I would save a lot of money unless I was buying physical retro games What is your opinion?

[redblaze57]

This is basically the third generation of Virtual Consoles and those style of services. I don't really see it changing in anyway as long as people get a taste from those.

I would more predict a vinyl style resurgence then a physical going the way of tbe dodo if anything though.

[snyderec3]

With the trend of rereleasing or remaking older games for digital release, I think it might actually drive down the price for collecting, since those only interested in playing the game, but without an interest in game collecting, will buy the digital version, rather than looking for a physical copy on an outdated console.

[telekill]

Depends on the audience. Younger generations don't seem to care as much about owning what they purchase. I believe the physical games will age and fluctuate in price as they always have. Once physical games are phased out (next gen or the next - assuming humanity hasn't destroyed itself) and we older gamers start to die off, I expect physical games to mostly be worthless. If there's no connection to the object, it holds little value. Those of us collecting either do so because we enjoyed these games when we were young or are going for preservation. How many copies of a given game out of the millions sold are needed to preserve? I'd say a hundred of each game, max,  across the world.

[emporerdragon]

I think in general, it's still got a few years of going up before it peaks. A good amount of casual retro collecting (not just games, but in general) is from people in their 30s who have disposable income and want to get a chunk of their childhood back or to get what they weren't able to as a kid. However, when we get to the point in a few years where that audience's childhood is the PS3/360 era, there's going to be much less of a desire and a need to go hunting for the old consoles and games thanks to backwards compatibility and rereleases. After all, why go through all that effort to buy the old physical hardware, when you you can just load up the marketplace, pay a few bucks, and be scratching that nostalgia itch in minutes?

[randomstranger]

It won't, scalpers and speculators might, but they already doing it for years.

As for games, it will depend on supply and demand. There are older games without a digital release that can cost a lot regardless how common they are, there are games with digital release which can cost a lot regardless how common the physical copy is and there are rare physical only games no one cares about regardless of their rarity.

So no. More or less physical games are already "as collectible as they can get".

[pzeke]

[...] Then if I don't it gets put into my backlog of games I want to play. [...]

Nah dude, that backlog of yours, even taking out the repeated games, easily doubles, even triples mine; we'll both be pushing up daisies before we make any kind of dent.

[...] With digital only games I won't have to buy it now worried I won't be able to find it later or that it went up in value. It would always be there as digital when and if I decided to play it [...]

That's the gist of it, yeah, but the problem is that the digital era is quite fickle, where digital stuff can just vanish without as much of a peep, not to mention that gaming consoles won't last forever, so your digital games won't last forever either. Sure, you can re-download them, but years from now, those servers won't be available anymore—Nintendo has made that very clear. I know you didn't ask for it, but in my honest opinion, consider modding your console somewhere down the line so that you can have your games for as long as possible.

Anyway, I concur with Steve McQueen.

You know, this discussion reminded me of Will Smith's character in "I, Robot", a movie that takes place in the future where his character essentially lives in the past, and still uses a CD player.