With the Wii hysteria starting to settle down and a lack of new releases, curious Wii owners are starting to focus their attention on discovering the delights that the Gamecube backwards compatibility can offer them. The problem is, as we all know, the Gamecube in the UK never faired too well towards the end of its life. In the end, most high street shops removed the machine and software from their catalogue.
This meant that prior to the Wii, the gamecube developed a hefty second hand market, you could pick up the machine for £35 and quite a few games for next to nothing, with only a trickle of new releases to purchase from Internet retailers. The Gamecube lost its spotlight and lay dormant in the minds of only the true fans of the little cube of joy.
That was until the Wii came out, with it’s promises of backwards compatibility, there’s been no better time for gamers to delve back into the world they might of missed. Picking up classics such as Super Mario Sunshine, Pikmin 2 and Metroid Prime was (and is) a tantalising thought, but this is where the problem lies.
High street stores, as stated above, stopped selling Gamecube games due to slow sales, the only trickle of light coming from Internet retailers or the release of Twighlight Princess. This means new Wii owners rush to the pre owned market which is and always has been saturated with Gamecube goodies. What happens when demand outstrips supply? I’m no economist, but I’m pretty sure prices go up and that’s exactly what we’re seeing on places like eBay and Amazon Marketplace.
Triple A awarded Gamecube games are like golddust, selling above the £10 mark and beyond. For example, I saw Super Mario Sunshine go for £25 yesterday. This might not sound much for a game, but back in the day when I owned a Gamecube, it wasn’t that hard to pick it up brand new from the shops for as little as £9.99. Obviously lesser known titles are going at the more reasonable prices but there’s a reason for that, they’re rubbish.
Even Zelda: Twighlight Princess is raking in the cash, buyers of the easily available Wii-classic-but-also-on-the-Gamecube game are reaping the rewards and doubling their money without much effort. It’s making me very frustrated and something I should of seen in hindsight, it would of been a supreme investment to stock up on GC classics months before the Wii-lease.
So it’s made me think that Nintendo could be doing more to stop this, it’s a wide open opportunity for them to re-release games under a ‘classics’ range or something. They could price each title at £9.99 or lower, depending on the popularity of the game, it would be a good chance to make some money off the back off the Wii’s popularity instead of forcing gamers underground into an overpriced market.
If you’ve got any Gamecube games lieing around and you’re need some cash, perhaps you should consider what rewards can be reaped off the back off the Wii revolution.
