Older Retro Gaming Hardware: Has It Become Irrelevant?
60A funny thing happened to me on the way to three recent video game conventions. Well, not exactly on the way but at the shows. See, I set up booths at the Illinois GameCon, Video Game Summit in Chicago, and Southeast Game Exchange all within the last month. While at those shows I sold a ton of stuff. More stuff than I've ever sold before at any shows. But I was surprised at a few items that nobody seemed to have any interest in. That being original NES hardware, N64 hardware, and a clone Famicom with HDMI. It got me thinking, do people care about this hardware anymore? Has Older Retro Gaming Hardware Become Irrelevant?
I talked to a couple other vendors at each of the shows to see what they were seeing for trends. I mentioned my observation to them and pondered whether or not we had reached a tipping point where hardware for these older, cartridge base systems mattered anymore. A few people here and there mention that they were doing okay sales-wise, but most people had the same reaction, they weren't selling older hardware, just software.
I was still seeing software sales to people for multiple systems, from the NES and Famicom, Super Nintendo, Super Famicom, Nintendo 64, and on. At the IllinoisGameCon I had one person kind of interested in one of my N64s, but he didn't want to buy the boxed version. Nobody asked me about any of my hardware at Video Game Summit. And at SEGE, only one person asked about any of my hardware, and that was someone who actually bought an N64 from me.
It was bound to happen but I'm kind of surprised it is happening now. Have the days of hardware for the NES, Super Nintendo, Master System, Genesis, and N64 left us in the dust? Are we now to where the Intellivision, ColecoVision, and Atari 2600 have been for quite some time? People still collect the software, but it didn't seem like anybody was interested in hardware.
Let me know what you are seeing, do you still have interest in these products yourself, or have you also moved on to other systems. I will admit, I have these systems so I'm not really looking to buy any for myself. I'm just really surprised that we may already be to this point.
#Nintendo #RetroGames #SuperNintendo #Nintendo64 #fypシ