An unopened copy of Super Mario 64 recently got sold for an insane $1.5 million, and an even older game, The Legend of Zelda, for $870,000. There are probably some earnings in selling intact games, at least the old ones, the only problem is that they are rare. But all games will one day be old games, so if you buy an unopened copy of a 10 year old game now, in about two decades MAYBE that copy will be worth millions of dollars.
A buyer of an unopened copy of Skyrim for the Xbox 360, which he paid 600 dollars for at an auction, is probably betting on that. It was the first unopened copy of that 10 year old game at an auction so far.
Will the investment of the currently insane $600 for Skyrim pay off? Nobody knows. No one buys things like this for gaming – that much is clear – but it remains to be seen whether the physical editions of 21st century games will one day have the same million dollar value as 20th century games that have not been digitally distributed for most of their lives.
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is a legendary game, no one can argue with that, but it is also legendary in the number of versions in which it has been produced. While, for example, the original Super Mario 64 and the first Legend of Zelda in the physical edition came out as separate games for only one platform, Skyrim appeared on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PS VR platforms. Does that mean that in ten years it will be worth less at auctions than Nintendo’s games? Only time will tell, but what we do know is that even after 20 years, people are still gonna play Skyrim and mod it to oblivion (get it?) and we also know that whatever new console comes out, Skyrim is probably going to be on it.
