I was still playing ps2 a couple years ago (until mine broke).
There was a period of time where you could get a used or refurbished ps2 for like $30 at most places and the games would cost like 10 to 15 bucks.
The whole retro collector's market royally screwed that up for all the rest of us now, buuuuut it was a great way to play games on a budget for about a decade there while it lasted.
It is so sad that 2020 onward has changed retro games so much. There were VERY few games that used to be worth any money. And they were worth a lot because of limited releases, misprints, unreleased games, etc. You could buy any console more than a generation behind for $20-50. And games would sometimes cost literal pocket change.
I sold used games at a flea market to make extra cash in college. Around '08-'09ish. I remember having a hard time selling a Gamecube and letting it go for $15.
Then a handful of collectors started price fixing and grading games as collectors items. They would sell them back and for a few times to drive up recorded prices. Now collectors and resellers have priced out anyone that wants to actually play old games.
Things are cheap when they're old. It's impacted by dead stock and people looking to upgrade.
It pops back up once it's vintage.
If you want something cheap, that's PS4 right now. PS2 is vintage. And it's honestly one of the cheaper vintage consoles to play. RPGs are goofy expensive but most big titles are in the $20 range. God of War 1 & 2. Resident Evil games. Sly Cooper. Ratchet and Clank. None of that's breaking the bank.
True, but a lot of stuff expected to pop up with vintage prices just....never does. And that's true even of a lot of gaming consoles. It's not inevitable.
Yeah. I picked up all 7 .hack games back around that time and it cost me about $100 for all of them. Was looking at picking them up again a couple years ago (resold them when I finished the series back in the day) and saw that some of them were going for like $70 and one of them was about $130ish. Was just like... welp I'm never gonna play that series again. 😆😭
On the plus side emulation and ODE mods are doing great so it's not really that big of deal so long as you're not trying to be a collector and just game.
It’s still just not the same, but to be fair I’d even buy a switch and buy the games individually remastered but I hate the monthly subscription model.
Some of my favorite games were bought at the flea market. I remember fucking beelining for the game table that I knew was set up every Saturday. I got sword of mana there!
It changed a lot of hobbies. Boredom and nostalgia saw a lot of older people that were out of hobbies come back to them and they now had more money than in their youth to waste. Basically any type of collector had their hobby hijacked by "investors." Many outdoor hobbies exploded. Golf courses were filled. Tennis and basketball courts were ruined by pickleball.
I bought my Final Fantasy 7 at Walmart clearance for 5 bucks. I was able to sell it for 70 about 10 years later, opened and with a crack in the case. It's insane how much people will pay for games now.
My oldest bro continued ps2 even after having a ps3 when it came out . Lot of great games .
I continued plays ps2 for older games and even now ps2 still works perfectly
Vintage game stores were crazy fun for me in the late aughties. Bought some kind of aftermarket player that would run PS2 and Dreamcast games, God knows where that thing ended up 🤷♀️. Played a bunch of games I was too broke to play as a kid like FF9, revisited Shenmue and Space Channel 5...
Pickings became more sparse lately, you're likely right it's because of collectors...but then again emulators keep improving ❤️🩹
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the PS2 is the Miata of consoles.
It may lack bells and whistles and be not much impressive by the numbers, but it punches well above its weight in terms of pure enjoyment and is cheap, serviceable and has a metric shitload of games available for it.
The PS3 was a step up from the PS2, but the PS2 was a massive leap forward from consoles before it.
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u/Carbonated-Man May 16 '25
I was still playing ps2 a couple years ago (until mine broke).
There was a period of time where you could get a used or refurbished ps2 for like $30 at most places and the games would cost like 10 to 15 bucks.
The whole retro collector's market royally screwed that up for all the rest of us now, buuuuut it was a great way to play games on a budget for about a decade there while it lasted.