Game Collectors Living in A Digital Age

You Can't Collect Codes

Above is the Guinness world record holder for the largest video game collection. Michael Thomasson, who has accumulated more than 11,000 video games and over 100 game consoles, has since sold his collection. But why would someone who worked so hard to piece together such a collection, over 20 years in the making, sell his collection? Is it that he needs the money, maybe a general loss of interest in his collection, the hope that buyer will help his collection live on, or maybe he sees the writing on the wall.

The digital age is upon us, and it has entered nearly every facet of our daily lives. Music, movies, and now video games are slowly fading into a purely digital consumer base. On paper this is a great achievement, it makes the purchase and access of our entertainment much more efficient and convenient. But what about the nostalgia and general need of ownership of a physical product. I mean, when you own a digital product do you truly own it? When you buy movies or music on the Apple store and then delete your account 5 years later, do you still own those movies? No, they are deleted along with your account, even though you paid the same price someone would pay for a physical copy.

Video games are still one of the more new entries to digital commercial space, as physical copies are still more meaningful to some. The very fact that brick and mortar stores such as Gamestop still exist and haven't suffered the same fate as Blockbuster or your local music store shows us that physical CDs still have a place in the market. But what happens when it no longer becomes feasible? What if you can fit more data on a download that any form of physical software? That's when the day or collectors may find themselves at a dead end, with nothing more to collect then collectors editions that come with a code rather then a disk. To some this may seem like something in the distant future, but we're already seeing similar instances today.

The most recent instance of this is the re-release of Pokemon Gold and Silver. These games are being released in shiny boxes to celebrate that game, but they're missing one vital part of the product, the game. That's right, it's simply a code in a box. The reaction to this seems to be split, as some see the box as enough for a collector to commemorate their purchase, while others argue that you can't collect a code.

Honestly, I agree, but not out of the need to start my own collection, but purely out of nostalgia. Looking back at my old games cartridges like my N64 and Gameboy Color give me a feeling of nostalgia. Remembering the 'good old days' of the days I spent playing these game, which is something that gets lost when you're looking at a non-tangible image on a screen. But this is the direction the industry is going, and like a train, there's not much we can do to stop it.

What do you think? Are digital games enough?