Report: Bethesda, Nintendo Games Have Best Resale Value

A new survey of 2008 secondhand game resale trends reveals that Nintendo and Bethesda-published titles have the biggest resale value, whereas Sega, Brash, and the Sierra label resell for the least, on average. Pricing data site Video Game Price Charts tracks "gray market" sales, or games and consoles re-sold through unofficial, largely North American channels such as Amazon, Half.com, eBay, and JJGames. It shared the following chart listing the top game publishers by resale value (listed companies must have published six or more game SKUs in 2008): A number of other statistics were revealed alongside the publisher list. In the individual chart, Bethesda's PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Fallout 3 (Survival Edition) were listed in VGPC's top 10 games by resale value, helping explain the company's appearance. However, Wii titles such as Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, Rapala Fishing Frenzy, and the Rock Band 2 bundle lead the chart, with resale prices significantly above their MSRPs, from 16 percent to as high as 55 percent. At the bottom of the "Publishers By Resale Value" tally are Capcom, Rockstar Games, Sega of America, Brash Entertainment, and Sierra, with resale values of their games dropping by an average of 43 to 59 percent. Individual games with the worst resale value include Sega Superstars Tennis, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and The Club, dropping in price by 73 to 83 percent since their release. Ranking consoles by their games' average resale value, VGPC puts Wii, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation 2 at the top, with their titles dropping by about 25 to 30 percent in value over. PSP, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 make up the bottom half of the list, losing 31 to 37 percent of value on resold games. The full set of resale charts are now available on the Video Game Price Charts weblog.