The New Face of Retro Gaming?

[retro junkie]

I think that retro gaming is generational. Meaning that the ones who partake of the passion grew up during those consoles that they love to go back to. At some point that generation of gamers will pass on, get to a point where their passion grows cold, or grow into something else, etc. I don't think things like this will be passed on to another generation. I know there is virtual console, but that will only last as long as that certain age group is still around to make it profitable. Sometime within the next few years things will change.
I think there is a corner out there that we will go around and what is considered retro now will fall to the wayside and be lost. Prices will plummet. What is NES now to some, with the next generation it will possibly be PS1 or PS2, etc. NES and other cart based consoles will go the way of the Atari 2600. I still see some of the 2600 carts in one local game store, but they are a dime a dozen. Sort-of like the old gray original gameboy carts. And brick & mortar game stores are drowning right now trying to stay afloat. They are selling everything but the kitchen sink. I feel like I am in Hot Topics every time I walk into one. I have to hunt for the games.

Anyone else seeing the writing on the wall? What say you?

[BLUEVOODU]

I started seeing a lot of this back in the mid 2000s...
Especially before the financial crash.  Buyers tastes changed... they started wanting just "games to play" and didn't care about the conditions, completeness, collector status. Etc. Around this same time, steam was starting to take off in the way of gaming sales...Etc.  For the 1st time   I started to hear people say they welcomed virtual console games (on the Wii, steam. Etc).  They didn't want the clutter anymore.

I guess I understand that a bit more now. Games don't have manuals or much inside the case anymore.  It sort of defeats the purpose of buying physical copies in some ways.  With digital, You don't have to have the disc or cart in to play the game... you can just switch between the games.  It's convenient though you don't technically own it and cannot sell it if you need to recoup some of your money.

So I guess the writing has been on the wall for a long time.  I watched tons of shops go out of business since 2007.  Most of our local game stores closed by 2012.  No other shops took their place. I think there will always be collectors. But the question is, will there be anything to collect later on?    I do think ... as much as I hate to say it... retro will be dropped more and more.  I don't see anyone playing the Magnavox Oddysee , Atari 2600 and many other systems anymore.  Many Gamers seem to just want to play and not have the clutter... which seems to be the majority these days.

[targetrasp]

IDK, i think there's been a renaissance in retro collecting brought about by the youtube mega collectors. Ebay prices have been flying up, and anything pre ps2 is hard to find out in the wild. some of my rarer games have doubled and tripled in value in the last year.

I will admit I'm running thin on space and do enjoy the portability digital allows for but I'm all about physical media. My digital collection is fairly limited to steam. I do have some downloads here and there one a few of the consoles but once that generation of console is out it's almost like I've lost the game.

I do think the generation does have something to do with what items are hot. Gamecube's recent explosion seems to support that thesis but i don't think the SNES and NES stuff has dipped much if any. It's funny, my kids will be going after wii, ps3 and 360 (if they even care about it later). I've already started picking up those for cheap, and really grabbing any ps4 i can thats under 5 bucks.