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A closed copy earlier this month Super Mario 64 sold $ 1,560,000 at an amazing price at auction, which almost doubled the record just two days before the corresponding intact copy Legend of Zelda. Auctions could mark just the beginning of an even more striking large video game sale. It seems very likely that Mario’s first 3D adventure will not be the last game on the million dollar command.
“I think we’ll see more million-dollar games, probably sooner rather than later,” says Chris Kohler, editor of Digital Eclipse, a developer working on re-releases of classic video games. Limit.
Collecting and selling physical and virtual goods at high prices has become a popular trend. Pokémon the cards are massively popular. Some NFTs, a kind of digitally collectible, are sold for millions of dollars. And people have poured huge amounts of money into property, for example cryptocurrencies and In stock at GameStop.
Video games are still very popular – more than half of Americans turned to video games during the pandemic – and retro games have recently become collectibles. A copy more than a year ago sealed Super Mario Bros. claimed the record to be the most expensive video game ever by selling $ 114,000, a figure that was huge at the time, but less than a tenth of it Super Mario 64 just auctioned.
Kohler expects the next game to break the $ 1 million threshold could be an early issue of The magazine Legend of Zelda, like what was sold this month, or something else Super Mario Bros. Danielle Smith, owner of Nerdy Girl Comics, agrees. “I think the market has kind of spoken for itself and that Mario is the king of video games and Zelda the queen,” he said. Smith also said Sonic the Hedgehog Sega Genesis could have a valuable name. It’s not just because of him cultural cache right now: “Sonic the Hedgehog it is really hard to get sealed, ”he said.
It’s not just Sonic. People who collect high-end games may find that the supply is much smaller than in other collectibles markets. “I think we will continue to record sales [in games]”Said Deniz Kahn, president and founder of Wata Games, which evaluated both Legend of Zelda and Super Mario 64 before their auction. “At the end of the day, the supply of these high-end, high-quality, sealed, vintage video games is simply not enough to meet demand.”
It is slightly different from other collection categories. “In recent years, there have been a lot of people who have started collecting other areas like cartoons, coins or cards, and their markets are very mature,” he said. In the comics “at this point everyone Action Comics # 1 has been rinsed from the attic into the hands of collectors. People [gaming] hobby – collectors, investors – we all understand that the population of these sealed games is so incredibly small when compared to things like sports cards or a comic book, “he added.” There aren’t hundreds of these with a high, perfect rating. In some cases, there is one, 10 or 5. “
Another thing that might raise prices is that games are sold at a public auction, which means everyone can see the price of a potential sale. Before that, according to Kahn, “when there was a five-figure video game sale, which was a big deal four or five years ago, I knew about it and maybe 10 other guys knew about it. It all happened behind closed doors.”
All the latest record holders have been sold on Heritage Auctions, and Wata Games has rated the quality of the games sold. On a 10-point scale similar to what is used for comics. According to Kohler, the partnership between Wata and Heritage makes it safer for people to trust that the game they offer is of advertised quality. “You don’t just buy it from shadyguy123 on eBay,” he said. “You know you buy from Heritage Auctions.”
“The sale is happening [on Heritage] are now almost a sign of health, ”Kahn said. “It’s a pulse in the market.”
The person who bought a million dollars Super Mario 64 has not come out in public, so it is unclear why they dropped so much money in one game. Valarie McLeckie, director of video games at Heritage Auctions, said those who bought very rare games are driven by nostalgia. “People who buy these games are looking for mint examples of the games they played as a child,” he said in an email.
Kahn speculates that for some, Nintendo 64 games may hit nostalgia that encourages buying. “I think [for] a generation that is really heavily involved in alternative assets, such as the Nintendo 64 season resonates much more with this demographic, “he said.” I think this may also be the reason we are all very surprised that the first million dollar video game was Nintendo 64 games. I don’t think anyone could have predicted it. But it shows the power of emotions and nostalgia and how big a role it plays, despite all the other factors driving demand. “
This record sale can have a positive impact on the preservation of video games, which is already a challenging way technological changes and disintegrations. If more people try to sell their video games to get to market, buried treasures could see the light of day.
“I don’t think people understand that so much stuff, even to this day, is thrown in the trash,” Kohler said. “If any of this has a really big benefit – especially when it surpasses the magical million-dollar figure where everyone, mainstream news, pays attention to it – the positive effect of this is [that] fewer people throw away their video games. “