Why do gamers hate greatest hits editions of games?

Is it because the cover art may be cropped or changed when they slap on 'Greatest Hits' on the cover of the case, sometimes the disc and maybe manual, but the game remains essentially the same, so why so much hate and aversion towards these editions of games?

Because an anniversary sale on that game would be much better.

I use a game trading site, Gametz, and many people HATE greatest hits, platinum editions, etc. I guess I could have phrased it Why do "Collector's" hate them so much?

Never heard about anyone hating a "greatest hits" like label Often they are quite nice, they may lack the manual, and flashy cover art, but they often contain the game +addons.

Never heard about anyone hating a "greatest hits" like label Often they are quite nice, they may lack the manual, and flashy cover art, but they often contain the game +addons.

Maddie_Larkin

Most gamers don't mind them. Collectors, though, dislike them because they're not originals. Worse is that their MSRP in retail is often $20 or less and they're mass produced, and those two things together mean that the game will never be worth very much. Among collecting circles owning a "greatest hits" edition of a game is considered akin to half-owning it. It's like, yes, you have an official version of the game, but you don't have the real version of the game.

I've never understood it. It's just a little banner.

FOr the original Platinum Hits on the 360, I can almost understand it. Those cases were ugly as hell. But still, it's really not a big deal

[QUOTE="Maddie_Larkin"]

Never heard about anyone hating a "greatest hits" like label Often they are quite nice, they may lack the manual, and flashy cover art, but they often contain the game +addons.

gameguy6700

Most gamers don't mind them. Collectors, though, dislike them because they're not originals. Worse is that their MSRP in retail is often $20 or less and they're mass produced, and those two things together mean that the game will never be worth very much. Among collecting circles owning a "greatest hits" edition of a game is considered akin to half-owning it. It's like, yes, you have an official version of the game, but you don't have the real version of the game.

Yeah it is pretty stupid, lol, I found myself trying to avoid greatest hits even though they are cheaper, more easily available in some cases, just because it's not the 'original' style on the outside. I guess if I'm buying the game to play it and not admire it on my shelf then there's no reason to avoid them.

Collectors hate them because the boxarts look even more awful than most game boxes.

I wouldn't say that I "hate" them but I'd much rather get the game with it's original boxart and colour if possible. I'll buy them but only after I've looked around locally to see if I can still find an original copy first.

I don't hate them, I just don't think a lot of them deserve to be called anything close to a "greatest hit"

because the cover art may be cropped or changed when they slap on 'Greatest Hits' on the cover of the case, sometimes the disc and maybe manualTJamesA

with the PS3 they made the entire box red...

wouldn't red plastic cost more than the clear one?

[QUOTE="Maddie_Larkin"]

Never heard about anyone hating a "greatest hits" like label Often they are quite nice, they may lack the manual, and flashy cover art, but they often contain the game +addons.

gameguy6700

Most gamers don't mind them. Collectors, though, dislike them because they're not originals. Worse is that their MSRP in retail is often $20 or less and they're mass produced, and those two things together mean that the game will never be worth very much. Among collecting circles owning a "greatest hits" edition of a game is considered akin to half-owning it. It's like, yes, you have an official version of the game, but you don't have the real version of the game.

Wow, this brings up flashbacks to around the time when I stopped buying comic books.

Not so much the notion of a "greatest hits" type of thing going on then, but more like this sad kind of "collector mentality" that ended up driving a lot of people from comics altogether.

Anyway, I've never even been aware of this kind of "collecter's market" going on in the videogame industry. I mean, not to say that I didn't love the game, but take God Of War as an Example. Are there actually collector's out there expectingthe original edition of GOW to be worth mad bucks someday? My understanding was that games don't even make it to "greatest hits" status until the original edition already sold a crap-ton of copies. So...if the game actually sold enough copies to warrant there being a "greatest hits" edition, then doesn't that sort of indicate that a whole ****ton of people already have the game? And if that's the case, thwn HOW is it ever going to be worth anything?

Case in point, Superman #75. Superman died. It was highly publicized, mainstream media was talking about it, it was a big event. The PROBLEM was that it was a big enough event that a LOT of people bought Superman#75. As a result, it WAS NOT RARE, since everyone who potentially WANTED a copy already probably had at least THREE copies that they bought because they thought that the comic would end up being worth money. That ended up being just a sad little footnote in what would lead into the sorry state of the comics industry in the 90s.

My question is this...if there's a collector's market in games, wouldn't those people be LEAST interested in games that were popular? Because, like...if they were popular, that means that a lot of people have them. If a game gets a "greatest hits" edition, doesn't that usually mean that a LOT of people already bought the game? So...if that particular game is THAT popular and sold THAT well, doesn't that sort of drive down the market value of EVERY version of that game? WHO is actually paying more for the original editions (vs the greatest hits edition) when the fact that there actually IS a greatest hits edition means that the original edition is already not very rare?

Because the original cases look better. Who wants their case to be yellow? Red is all right, but yellow is horrible in my opinion.

Not very good looking.

The original case looks a lot better.

Not as bad as the yellow platinum case, but the original case would still look better.

In this case the EU boxart is a little bit better than the American one though.

I try to avoid these also, they tend to look ugly and out of place on the shelf next to the other games. I'd much prefer to spend the same amount on the pre-owned original.

I try to avoid these also, they tend to look ugly and out of place on the shelf next to the other games. I'd much prefer to spend the same amount on the pre-owned original.

-Jonce-

whats a greatest hit anyway ??gubrushadow

My question is this...if there's a collector's market in games, wouldn't those people be LEAST interested in games that were popular? Because, like...if they were popular, that means that a lot of people have them. If a game gets a "greatest hits" edition, doesn't that usually mean that a LOT of people already bought the game? So...if that particular game is THAT popular and sold THAT well, doesn't that sort of drive down the market value of EVERY version of that game? WHO is actually paying more for the original editions (vs the greatest hits edition) when the fact that there actually IS a greatest hits edition means that the original edition is already not very rare?MrGeezer

I would interpret it like this: If a game makes it to Greatest/Platinum Hits status, yes, there are a lot of the original copies around. However, as the games have been out fora long time to the general populace, there is more chance that many of the original copies have met adverse treatment, thus reducing the overall amount of original copies in decent/resellable condition. For games that don't sell as well, there are still copies of the game as new that were not sold, thus making a game that sold less less rare for the original box than the games that sold well. A lot of people don't take care of their cases as well as collectors, as can be seen when looking at the preowned games in a GameStop. A lot of the games that they have possess neither the original box nor the original manual. Therefore, the games that sold many copies are subject to a greater degree of degregation through users than the games that sold few copies, leaving several copies in the store, or in a collector's collection.

Because the cases look stupid. Not a big deal though. I have greatest hits games.

Because 10 years down the tracks a original copy of the game will sell for much more

I just fail to see why a game selling well warrants making it's box and cover ugly. I mean, why? Maybe if they were, you know, NOT ugly it would be ok. But they always are.thunderf00t

Is it because the cover art may be cropped or changed when they slap on 'Greatest Hits' on the cover of the case, sometimes the disc and maybe manual? TJamesA

Yes. It is exactly because of that.

I use a game trading site, Gametz, and many people HATE greatest hits, platinum editions, etc. I guess I could have phrased it Why do "Collector's" hate them so much?

TJamesA

[QUOTE="gameguy6700"]

[QUOTE="Maddie_Larkin"]

Never heard about anyone hating a "greatest hits" like label Often they are quite nice, they may lack the manual, and flashy cover art, but they often contain the game +addons.

MrGeezer

Most gamers don't mind them. Collectors, though, dislike them because they're not originals. Worse is that their MSRP in retail is often $20 or less and they're mass produced, and those two things together mean that the game will never be worth very much. Among collecting circles owning a "greatest hits" edition of a game is considered akin to half-owning it. It's like, yes, you have an official version of the game, but you don't have the real version of the game.

Wow, this brings up flashbacks to around the time when I stopped buying comic books.

Not so much the notion of a "greatest hits" type of thing going on then, but more like this sad kind of "collector mentality" that ended up driving a lot of people from comics altogether.

Anyway, I've never even been aware of this kind of "collecter's market" going on in the videogame industry. I mean, not to say that I didn't love the game, but take God Of War as an Example. Are there actually collector's out there expectingthe original edition of GOW to be worth mad bucks someday? My understanding was that games don't even make it to "greatest hits" status until the original edition already sold a crap-ton of copies. So...if the game actually sold enough copies to warrant there being a "greatest hits" edition, then doesn't that sort of indicate that a whole ****ton of people already have the game? And if that's the case, thwn HOW is it ever going to be worth anything?

Case in point, Superman #75. Superman died. It was highly publicized, mainstream media was talking about it, it was a big event. The PROBLEM was that it was a big enough event that a LOT of people bought Superman#75. As a result, it WAS NOT RARE, since everyone who potentially WANTED a copy already probably had at least THREE copies that they bought because they thought that the comic would end up being worth money. That ended up being just a sad little footnote in what would lead into the sorry state of the comics industry in the 90s.

My question is this...if there's a collector's market in games, wouldn't those people be LEAST interested in games that were popular? Because, like...if they were popular, that means that a lot of people have them. If a game gets a "greatest hits" edition, doesn't that usually mean that a LOT of people already bought the game? So...if that particular game is THAT popular and sold THAT well, doesn't that sort of drive down the market value of EVERY version of that game? WHO is actually paying more for the original editions (vs the greatest hits edition) when the fact that there actually IS a greatest hits edition means that the original edition is already not very rare?

Well most game collectors are in it for entertainment just as much as collecting, so it's not that they're necessarily expecting a game like Halo to be rare or extremely valuable, but rather that since they're going to buy it it may as well be an original copy instead of the "psuedo-copy" that is a greatest hits version. That said, with really popular games the original version can still be somewhat of an investment. For example, the black label verison of FFVII sells for $70+ on ebay whereas the greatest hits version only goes for $30-50. Yes, both versions were mass produced in the millions of copies, but enough people are dumb enough to think that it's actually rare such that the price gets inflated.

I don't see how anyone could hate thems since they usually bring a price drop with them.

Well most game collectors are in it for entertainment just as much as collecting, so it's not that they're necessarily expecting a game like Halo to be rare or extremely valuable, but rather that since they're going to buy it it may as well be an original copy instead of the "psuedo-copy" that is a greatest hits version. That said, with really popular games the original version can still be somewhat of an investment. For example, the black label verison of FFVII sells for $70+ on ebay whereas the greatest hits version only goes for $30-50. Yes, both versions were mass produced in the millions of copies, but enough people are dumb enough to think that it's actually rare such that the price gets inflated.

gameguy6700

Even then, the FFVII originally sold for what, something like $50? So we're talking about less than a 50% increase in value. That's not that big. When you collect these kinds of things, doesn't the value have to increase substantially across the board in order for anyone to turn a profit?

Again, let me go back to comic books. I've had $2 comics that ended up being worth about $20. That's a NINE HUNDRED percent increase in value, but I'm still talking about an increase of less than about $20 (same with the FFVII example that you mentioned). Even then, comics are barely (if at all) a worthy investment, since most comics go DOWN in value. Sure, I might have made $18 on a $2 investment. But more than not, that's cancelled out by buying $2 comics new, and then having them become worth NOTHING since no one wants them.

Thing about collectibles is that "retail price" usually isn't the floor. Particularly when we're dealing with things like comics and videogames that come on such worthless media as paper and discs. If these were actually PHYSICALLY made out of gold or something, then their value might last. But we're talking about marginal increases in value for a few items, while most items actually go DOWN in value. In the long term, the majority of "collectors" are probably going to LOSE money, since the majority of their purchases that increase in value are going to be outweighed by the overwhelming number of items that become worth NOTHING.

As long as their close to the original price and they hold a sick add-on inside. I'm happy :roll:

[QUOTE="gameguy6700"]

Well most game collectors are in it for entertainment just as much as collecting, so it's not that they're necessarily expecting a game like Halo to be rare or extremely valuable, but rather that since they're going to buy it it may as well be an original copy instead of the "psuedo-copy" that is a greatest hits version. That said, with really popular games the original version can still be somewhat of an investment. For example, the black label verison of FFVII sells for $70+ on ebay whereas the greatest hits version only goes for $30-50. Yes, both versions were mass produced in the millions of copies, but enough people are dumb enough to think that it's actually rare such that the price gets inflated.

MrGeezer

Even then, the FFVII originally sold for what, something like $50? So we're talking about less than a 50% increase in value. That's not that big. When you collect these kinds of things, doesn't the value have to increase substantially across the board in order for anyone to turn a profit?

Again, let me go back to comic books. I've had $2 comics that ended up being worth about $20. That's a NINE HUNDRED percent increase in value, but I'm still talking about an increase of less than about $20 (same with the FFVII example that you mentioned). Even then, comics are barely (if at all) a worthy investment, since most comics go DOWN in value. Sure, I might have made $18 on a $2 investment. But more than not, that's cancelled out by buying $2 comics new, and then having them become worth NOTHING since no one wants them.

Thing about collectibles is that "retail price" usually isn't the floor. Particularly when we're dealing with things like comics and videogames that come on such worthless media as paper and discs. If these were actually PHYSICALLY made out of gold or something, then their value might last. But we're talking about marginal increases in value for a few items, while most items actually go DOWN in value. In the long term, the majority of "collectors" are probably going to LOSE money, since the majority of their purchases that increase in value are going to be outweighed by the overwhelming number of items that become worth NOTHING.

But again, most game collectors aren't in it for money. They just collect as a hobby. For them it's about having the biggest collection, or the most comprehensive collection (such as having all the games for a particular system), or to just sum it up the most impressive collection. This is in contrast to comic books back in the 90's where normal people were getting in on it because imbecilic "analysts" were claiming that comics were a great investment considering historic increases in value for comic books. Of course, what ended up happening is that instead of only comic nerds collecting because they loved the comics, you had everyday people buying up several issues of mass produced "collector's issue" comics. That eventually resulted in a market collapse because the supply completely overshadowed demand.

With games the only people seriously collecting are hardcore gamers who also happen to be somewhat OCD when it comes to owning games and gaming related merchandise.