The Business of Videogame Reprints

An anonymous reader writes "Recently certain 'rare' videogames like Rez, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Gitaroo-Man have circulated in the market starting at internet retailer Game Quest Direct. How did a seemingly unknown retailer end up getting these games? By acting as a financing publisher. Is this a possible future for other online retailers?"

Not just those who didn't get them the first time.

[hackwrench]

I was robbed. There are other ways of getting your collection wiped out, or even just a bit of your collection getting damaged. I'm glad they're reprinting Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, as it means it'll be easier for me to buy it again to replace the copy that got stolen.

Mmmm

[Strell]

I'm going to copy and paste my response over from CAG, where users have talked directly with GQD employees in the forums, and has caused a lot of debate/discussion regarding their practices:

I just want to make one quick comment, as I know this is going to be a hot topic of the thread.

I don't quite understand the idea of pride getting in the way, because chances are these rare games are going to remain at least somewhat under-the-table, so to speak. If I were to go find typical gamers at a college or something, chances are high you won't find a lot of people talking about Disgaea, Rez, or anything along those lines. They still remain obscure. I can't imagine tracking someone down who knows what Culdcept is, and I've never met anyone who has played Gitaroo Man. I honestly think our interactions with each other directly in the CAG community skews our idea of the gaming public. In other words, you're still going to be "in the know" and somewhat exclusive. None of my friends know shit about half the games I have in my collection. Dood, want to play Daigasso Band Brothers? "Wtf." And so on.

I mean, my god, we still have people who don't know Link's name is LINK, and not ZELDA. Hell, Samus is still incognito for the most part. You think people know who Ramza is? Or Laharl?

What does the gaming public buy the most? Madden, GTA, Halo, Mario Party, etc. Outside of that, the gaming population composed of people importing Electroplankton and Ouende is still relatively small. Just like people collecting various obscure Criterion DVDs when Spiderman 2 is going to outsell them all by a factor of 100.

I think owning a super rare game is cool, especially when you show it someone and they really enjoy it. There's a certain satisfaction in that. But I'd much rather them be able to purchase it later on when a reprint appears. It bolsters the community and gaming industry altogether, and I think it paves the way for sequels to get made, especially for games that didn't sell well.

In fact, it's fairly close to Family Guy getting picked up again. Think about it like that. I'm not the biggest FG fan but I realize a lot of people enjoy it, and prior to Adult Swim picking it up, it wasn't obscure so to speak, but it was definitely below the public eye moreso than, say, Friends or Seinfield.

If you've got a copy of PDS (Panzer Dragoon Saga), your collection kick ass. And if you own one and it gets reprinted, your collection still kicks ass because it was original. It doesn't lose value all of a sudden. Why would monetary value matter in the first place, unless you were going to sell them at some point anyway? Which won't happen because you are a collector to begin with, so why does it matter? That's what I never understood.

Anyway, not trying to start a flame ware. Maybe a small change could be made to reprints so collectors would be happy. At least then GQD meets them halfway.

Also, and this is just me talking, but the thought of certain reprints gets me wet. Yes, you heard me. Here's hoping that includes Japanese only games. I'm looking at YOU, Radiant Silvergun.

Re:Another good game to re-release

[joystickgenie]

This is still really good news for the people who shop on Ebay for copies of these more rare games. I know when I was shopping for a copy of Gitaroo man it was always going for around $70. The prices have dropped now I'm guessing that this is one of the reasons.

In the end this should be really good for the cult games. There are a lot of games that don't make it as a hit out the gate because they are under advertised but later gain fans from word of mouth. Doing this type of thing will help those titles out greatly. This could help good games made by small companies that can't afford big advertising budgets get some recognition.

Re:Reprints vs. originals

[Fred Or Alive]

It's mostly that it's an extremly good game, and presumably had a limited run in the US. The combination of good vibes from hardcore gamers + limited number on the shelf = expensive on eBay.

I'm not a reviewer, but I think the thing about Rez is the experience. Gameplay wise it's a stripped down rail shooter (Panzer Dragoon / Starfox etc.), which on it's own would be rather plain, but it's just the intergration of the music into the gameplay, the stylized graphics, merging into a really good experience as a whole. It's definatley one of my favourite games ever.

The Trance Vibrator was only released in Japan, like most of these weird accessories. The game does make good use of the rumble pack though.