Syphon Filter 3 911 Flag Version: A Flag Makes It 120x More Valuable

Syphon Filter 3 is worth about $3-4 disc only and $12-15 brand new.

If Syphon Filter 3 has an American Flag on it, it recently sold for $2,400 brand new. 120x more for the cover art.

Why the cover art variant so valuable and why does it exist in the first place?

Answer: 9/11

Sony was set to release Syphon Filter 3 on Sept 21, 2001. The original cover art included the US Flag and images of US Government buildings exploding. Sony had started shipping the game to retailers for the upcoming release.

After 9/11, Sony decided to delay the game and recall all shipments. Sony felt the flag cover art was inappropriate after terrorists actually targeted government buildings. Sony would change the cover art and release the game in November 2011 instead.

Most of the original shipments were returned to Sony and never made it out in the public, but some of them got out in the wild.

The 9/11 Flag variant is now extremely rare and there is an interesting story behind it. That means supply is low and demand is high (people like games with fun stories behind them), so the price for the 9/11 American Flag Syphon Filter 3 is worth 120 times as much as the regular version.

If you ever see Syphon Filter 3 in the wild, be sure to see which version it is....the flag could be worth thousands of dollars.

Thanks to an interview from Syphon Filter 3 lead designer for information on the backstory.

Go to Hilton Garden and Get a PSP Game

One of the rarest PSP games ever made might be available at your local Hilton Garden hotel.

Rerez, the person who made the video above, did some great research on a game called Hilton Ultimate Team Play. The game was made for the Hilton Garden hotel chain as a way to train employees.

You can play as a house keeper, front desk, cook, or maintenance and your tasks in the game mimic some of the tasks you would face in the real job. As a housekeeper you need to remember all the items on the cleaning list for each room. Did you forget to fold the toilet paper into a nice triangle? They game will let you know.

The scoring system in the game is similar to a real scoring system Hilton uses called SALT, which measures customer satisfaction.

Rerez emailed the developers of the game and found out that 500 discs were made. BUT the Hilton UTP doesn't work without a special memory stick that came with the PSP and game.

Rerez visited his local Hilton Garden and asked them about the PSP and game. They had one in storage and gave it to him. For free.

With a little bit of leg work you can get one of the rarest PSP games ever and might not have to pay a cent.

I've never seen a sale for this game so I don't know the market value. When a sale does occur we will be sure to update our site.

Hilton Ultimate Team Play might be the Pepsi Invaders of PSP.

If your successful finding one of these at your Hilton Gardens, post in the comments below.

Gold Duck Tales NES Cartridge

Capcom made a new, rare Nintendo NES game - more than 25 years after the Nintendo was made. A gold cartridge of Duck Tales.

Capcom sent this to various media outlets to get some PR for the digital Duck Tales Remastered being released August 20th. It includes a metal lunchbox, certificate of authenticity, marketing materials, and a gold Duck Tales cartridge.

Unlike the Mega Man 9 press kit, which included a non-working Mega Man 9 NES game, this Duck Tales actually works.

Capcom made 150 of these cartridges so it is definitely a rare game.

None of these have shown up on eBay yet, but you can be sure one will soon.

It should be worth a lot more than the original Duck Tales, which sells for $14. Will it be more be than Duck Tales 2 which sells for $105? The Mega Man 9 press kit sells for about $200-300, but that game doesn't work. Will this be worth more because it works?

What do you think it will sell for when the first copy sells?

Which Video Games Are Increasing in Price the Most

During the 12 months video game prices have increased sharply for many consoles. The average SNES game has increased 35%. NES is up 23%. And the average N64 game is up 40%!

Games for non-Nintendo consoles have increased too, with Genesis up 14% and Saturn up 10%.

The average vintage video game has increased in price 9.5% during the last 12 months.

Are the increased prices evenly spread across games or are certain types of games increasing more than others?

For this article we looked at the price of the game to see which is increasing more expensive games or cheap games.

Before reading further, stop for a minute and ask yourself which games you think are increasing in price the most. Did you take a guess? Alright, continue reading.

Price Change of SNES Games Based upon Price in 2012

We compared the prices for every Super Nintendo game at the beginning April 2012 and the beginning of April 2013. Every game was grouped into ten categories based upon the 2012 price.

Decile 1 is the 10% of games with the lowest prices. Decile 2 is the next 10%. Onwards until Decile 10 which is the 10% of SNES games with the highest prices.

The table below shows the average price per decile in 2012. The average change in price from 2012 to 2013 and the % change.

	Avg. Price 2012	Avg. $ Change	Avg. % Change
Decile 1	$0.87	$1.01	116%
Decile 2	$1.24	$1.97	159%
Decile 3	$2.11	$1.61	76%
Decile 4	$3.13	$1.50	48%
Decile 5	$4.36	$2.30	53%
Decile 6	$5.64	$1.71	30%
Decile 7	$8.13	$2.01	25%
Decile 8	$11.46	$2.66	23%
Decile 9	$19.30	$6.37	33%
Decile 10	$92.74	$19.34	21%

As you can see the lowest priced games jumped in price by the largest percentage. The most expensive games actually increased the least, up only 21%.

Games like Populous, FIFA 96, and even Shaq Fu have increased substantially from their prices last year.

Expensive games like Harvest Moon and Lufia have increased in price quite a bit, but on a percentage basis it has not be as large a jump.

The $1,125 Instruction Manual | ClayFighter Sculptor's Cut for N64

Any game worth more than $1,100 would be very close to making our list of the most expensive video games of all time. But that much for just the instruction manual? That would be a record as far as I know.

An instruction manual for ClayFighter Sculptor's Cut recently sold for $1,125!

Why would someone pay so much for this particular instruction manual?

First of all the game is one of the more rare titles for Nintendo 64. ClayFighter Sculptor's Cut was a Blockbuster exclusive.

Anyone who rented games at Blockbuster remembers you usually received just the game in your rental box. The store would usually throw away the box and instructions. Or instructions that were included quickly got destroyed by customers. Instruction manuals for all Blockbuster exclusives are much more rare than manuals for regular games.

Interested to know how much the ClayFighter Sculptor's Cut box sells for? There is an auction for one on eBay right now with a current price of $720.

Rare BioShock Audio Diary: Only 4 Ever Made

An owner of one of the four BioShock Audio Diaries is selling it on eBay.

Ubisoft made four of these real Audio Diaries as part of a BioShock 2 viral marketing campaign. The devices are used in the game to advance the plot or expand the narrative and this real life version is an accurate reproduction with actual audio recorded on it.

This is a very rare piece of gaming memorablia. It will be interesting to see the final price. Right now it is $830 with four days remaining.

Here is what the audio diary looks like in the game:

The marketing campaign started with a website showing some puzzles. People who solved the puzzles and mailed letters to the address contained in them would receive packages with masks or pages ripped from a book. Sometimes people would be told to meet an actor nearby who would give more clues and pieces. It was a very involved marketing campaign.

The owner of this BioShock Audio Diary solved a puzzle and sent it to Ubisoft. A month later he received a page torn from a book and then an actor dressed as a boyscout from BioShock presented him with a telegraph telling him to meet at a storage location with the code below deciphered.

At the storage location the owner and three other people received the Audio Diaries. Each one has this recorded on it:

My pawns, you have played masterfully. We have confounded(?) the Red Pawn in our tangled moves. Lynch is lost... but I at last am found. My hope restored. Now my pawns, if you are game, the game is on. The treasure that I stole from the kingdom shall be restored. Fallen Rapture may yet rise, and are we not worthy enough to raise it? If you dare to join me in Rapture, then I challenge you to meet me at the designated square. In the Golden State, in the city by the bay, when the month is 2, when the day is 6, when the hour is 5:45. At that precise moment in the evening, you will find me on Mary Street, between Minna Street and Natoma. Share this recording with the other pawns by any means you find.. and know that time is of the essence. Noble pawns, this is Orrin Oscar Lutwidge, one overjoyed leader, bound once again... for Rapture.

You can read more about the puzzle and the process from another winner at Nukezilla.

Most Expensive Cartridge Game Ever Sells for $23,100

Nintendo PowerFest 94 for Super Nintendo is the most expensive cartridge video game ever sold with a sales price of $23,100.

The game sold on eBay for $23,100, which surpasses the previous cartridge only record of $20,100 paid for Nintendo Campus Challenge in 2010.

Other complete in box and brand new games have sold for more, including Stadium Events and Air Raid, but this price far surpasses those game's cartridge only prices.

See a list of the most expensive video games of all time.

Nintendo PowerFest 94 For Sale at Auction

We are selling our PowerFest 94 cartridge. The auction has started on eBay with a $0.01 opening bid and no reserve. I really hope more than one person bids :)

The opening bid is so low because we like to see the market determine the price for a rare game like this. Nintendo PowerFest 94 has never been sold in public auction, only through private transactions. This auction will finally answer the question "what is it really worth?"

We decided to sell because we had started receiving some offers to purchase the cartridge and we have already achieved our goals with owning the cartridge. As stated above, we prefer to sell via public auction instead of private transaction. We have notified the interested parties that the auction has started and hope they will bid along with other people who have not contacted us.

Even if you don't have a bunch of money to spend on a rare Super Nintendo game, place an opening bid so you can tell people "I almost won PowerFest 94., if only those other 50 people hadn't placed a bid!"

Tracking Prices for Turok Rages Wars Gray

There is a new rare Nintendo 64 game in town - Turok Rage Wars Gray cartridge. It sells for about $120 but has been increasing in price very quickly.

This gray version of Turok Rage Wars gained notoriety in February 2012 when a seller on eBay listed 120 of them at $12.99 each. Turok Rage Wars Black cartridges have a flaw in the game that doesn't allow you to beat one of the levels on 2 player mode. To fix this bug Acclaim made a limited number of gray cartridges. People could mail back their black cartridge and receive the gray one as a replacement.

This was not a well known program so only a small number of people took part. In fact, so few took advantage that the game was pretty much unknown in the collecting community until this past February.

This master case of games was probably purchased from Acclaim after their bankruptcy. The exact number of copies in existence is hard to know for sure, but because it was only made for a replacement and never sold in stores this is probably the rarest of the color variants for Nintendo 64.

At current prices, this Turok Rage Wars Gray would be near the top of our list of the most expensive Nintendo 64 games.

120 Turok Rage Wars Gray in Master Case

Master Case for Turok

Black Turok Rage Wars for Comparison

SNES Campus Challenge 92 For Sale

GameGavel has been on a roll lately with auctions for rare games like Red Sea Crossing and Air Raid CIB in the last month. Now the Super Nintendo Campus Challenge we wrote about several months ago is for sale on the site as well.

Bidding is up to $5,200.

The seller explained how this game was only found recently:

"In the early -90's a Swedish company approached both Nintendo and Sega about creating a game system for TV broadcasting. The TV viewers would call in and then play games on live TV broadcast shows using their telephone dial key (DTMF) tones. The company where I worked was in turn approached by this company and we were asked to build this interface system from scratch.

We designed a system that interfaced two phone lines and two consoles. Two consoles for each system, either for two callers and two consoles simultaneously seen in the TV broadcast in a split screen fashion. Or just having the second console for "lining up" and pausing the next game in the place you wanted the next player to start inside a game. In addition to making the dial tones "press" keys in the game we had to make up separate "key maps" where one single phone key could translate to different console key presses depending on what was best in each game. For some games one single phone key would translate to jump+forward and in another game it could be something else.

The project rolled on nicely, they had game shows running regularly on both small and larger TV satellite channels in Sweden and also on Swedish national TV for a while on some big Saturday night show. We also went to Philly in the US where I helped set up a system for what I think was some morning show. We built a handful of these systems but after a while we were not in the loop anymore on what countries they were used in. I remember talks about Italy and... hmmm.. memory eludes me. Some other countries anyway. After a while I totally lost contact with the company who had the initial idea and who managed the project

During the development we had a large number of games to test different phone-to-console key maps. We also had a bunch of consoles both for testing, development and delivery to TV stations. When work on the project trickled down we were left with some games and some consoles to be able to service any system we had built. The few items that were left in the end were eventually packed up and stored in my attic for twenty years."

That's two really rare games found in attics during the last month. I need to stop writing this article and go check my attic......

Air Raid Sells for Record Breaking $33,433.30

The first ever complete in box Air Raid for Atari 2600 we wrote about previously closed at a record breaking $33,433.30!

This makes it the most expensive Atari 2600 sale of all time.

First Complete CIB Air Raid Found and Up For Sale

Back in 2010, an Air Raid for Atari 2600 sold for $31,600. It was so expensive because it was the only known copy to include the box. Until that auction, nobody was quite sure the box even existed.

Now a copy has surfaced that is Complete in Box WITH THE MANUAL and it is up for sale on GameGavel. Bidding is already up to $11,600 as of this article.

There is a good chance this will sell for more than the boxed version. It is not guaranteed because bidding on these rare games is quite volatile and prices can swing dramatically based upon who is bidding. If it does sell for more than the boxed version there is a chance it will be the most expensive video game of all time.

Backstory for CIB Air Raid

The story behind how this Complete Air Raid was found is pretty interesting. You can read the whole account on the auction, but the owner was a manager at a a drug store in the 80's.

A game rep for Men-A-Vision came in and asked if the store would carry a game called Air Raid. The manager asked if he could take it home and try it first, common practice with these sales reps according to the owner.

The sales rep gave the owner his last copy to try out. The owner said it wasn't anything they would want to carry and told the rep he could pick it back up. The rep said the manager could keep it.

The manager bought the game from the drug store and kept it in his closet. A week ago he saw an article about Atari history and the article mentioned Air Raid and how it sold for $31K. I remembered he owned the game and found it again after some searching.

While he was preparing some high resolution photos to send to AtariAge, his daughter found the instructions behind the plastic display case.

More Air Raid Complete CIB Photos

A 2nd Campus Challenge 92 Cartridge Is Found In Attic

Yesterday afternoon a second copy of Nintendo Campus Challenge 1992 was found and verified to exist. Up until now there was only one known copy, which was found at a now legendary garage sale in New York.

This second copy is owned by someone who is not a collector but was given the cartridge by Nintendo back in 1992 and forgot all about it until now. Here is how the owner describes it:

I was involved in a project where we received a range of games, a few consoles and this one [Campus Challenge 92]. We actually ran the project both in the US and in Europe. It was not the campus challenge itself. We built gear around it and was offered to keep a few consoles, games and the Campus Challenge which at the time was seen as more or less worthless.

I just found it in the attic when looking for other stuff and thought I'd google it to find info about it and... well it was a nice surprise :-)

Even though he felt Campus Challenge was "more or less worthless", I'm sure he's glad he kept it around. The only known sale for this game was back in 2006 for $4,000. Game prices have increased substantially since then (just look at our Vintage Game Index for evidence of this). I am sure the game is worth upwards of $10,000 today.

UPDATE: An owner of another Campus Challenge 92 cartridge contacted me and posted in the comments below stating that this game is more rare and less rare than previously thought. How is that possible? There are four copies of this game in existence now so it is less rare than my initial research led me to believe. But one of those copies is a Super Famicom version and the other two are NTSC versions. This new one is a PAL version for Europe.

So it is one of a kind, but also one of four. Thank you snesmaster for your update.
Below are some more videos of the owner starting up his Campus Challenge 92 cartridge and playing it for a while:

At Least Two-of-a-Kind Now

The Red Sea Crossing that we wrote about two weeks ago has sold for $10,400, but it turns out there is a second copy for sale and maybe more.

A second copy of the game has shown up on eBay with bidding already up to $9,000. What was considered one-of-a-kind two weeks ago is now twice as easy to find.

The developer of the game also said at one point that there were boxes of the game, but he doesn't know where they are. It should be no surprise that a commercially released game had more than one copy made or it would be very hard to make any money on development. But it is a very real possibility that the remaining copies were destroyed or lost forever. Or boxes of them could be found inside someone's backyard shed in brand new condition.

That is the risk with rare game collecting, you aren't guaranteed the item will stay rare. Collectors are confident there were only 26 Gold Nintendo World Championship cartridges but Nintendo never officially said this. They might have made boxes of them and never released them for some reason.

Red Sea Crossing is a good reminder that a game might lose its rarity over time.

One-of-a-Kind Red Sea Crossing Atari 2600 Game For Sale

In 2007 a collector found Music Machine and Red Sea Crossing at a garage sale. Music Machine is a rare Christian video game that sells for a couple hundred dollars, but nobody had ever heard of Red Sea Crossing.

After much research and argument in the Atari community the game was verified to be a real Atari 2600 game made in 1983. The programmer of the game was contacted and it was verified that this was a game he made.

The game was never sold in stores but and ad placed in Christianity Today showed how to order the game via phone.

The number of copies known to exist is unknown but it must have sold really poorly because no collectors had even heard about it until 2007.

The one copy known to exist is up for sale on GameGavel.com with a current bid of $200. This will be a popular game in the Atari collecting community so it should be interesting to see where it ends up when it closes.

Game Collection Listed for Sale at $1.2 Million

A collector/store owner in France is selling their collection of Japanese video games for the asking price of $1.2 million. What do you get for that much money? Complete collections of games with boxes, manuals for every Japanese system ever made from Famicom to Gamecube, including:

Famicom
Famicom Disks
Super Famicom
Virtual Boy
Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64DD
Gamecube (all factory sealed)
Sega Master System (Japanese and European collections)
GameGear
Mega Drive
Mega CD
Sega 32X
Sega Saturn
Dreamcast (all factory sealed)
PC Engine Card (all factory sealed)
PC Engine Cartridge (Turbo Grafx 16)
Pioneer Laseractive

Each collection includes all the rare games including games from contests, mail ins, and limited editions.

The listing should win awards for the most thorough listing of all time. They have roughly 250 pictures in the listing of every single item. And each and every item is listed individually as well. Close to 7,000 games!

Below are some sample images including in the auction.

Limited Edition Guide & Values for Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning

In February 2012 EA released Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. With the standard edition of the game they also released four special editions. Two are very rare and one is among the rarest games ever commercially sold.

Each limited edition is the exact same for each platform except for the game included inside. Each customer could choose which game was included inside so the number made for each platform was based upon customer demand. I have spoken with 38studios, the developer of the game, and they will not divulge the number of limited editions actually made per platform.

Assuming customer demand by platform is similar to Skyrim (another RPG released on the same platforms) 360 would be 50% of sales, PS3 32%, and PC 18%. The units available per platform listed below are based upon this assumption.

Use this Amalur Reckonging Limited Edition version guide to learn which version you have or verify you are buying everything included in a potential purchase.

The four limited editions listed below are in order of rarity:

Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning Limited Editions

• Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning: Special Edition - Quantity: 2,000
• Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning: Collector's Edition - Quantity: 700
• Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning: Signature Edition - Quantity: 300
• Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning: Exclusive Signature Edition - Quantity: 12

Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning: Special Edition

See Prices & Historic Sales by Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

QUANTITY: 2,000 (360: 1,000 | PS3: 640 | PC: 360)
PRICE RANGE: $90-130
INCLUDES:

• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckonging Game
• Parchment map of Amalur's Faelands
• Amalur themed 7-piece dice set and dice bag (D20, D12, 2x D10s, D8, D6 & D4)
• Set of 40 Destiny Cards
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckonging Soundtrack
• Bonus Downloadable Content - Fate Touched Weapons Pack

Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning: Collector's Edition

See Prices & Historic Sales by Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

QUANTITY: 700 (360: 350 | PS3: 224 | PC: 126)
PRICE RANGE: $250-375
INCLUDES:

• All items in Special Edition
• Limited Edition McFarlane Toys Prismere Troll figure
• Original lithograph signed by Ken Rolston

Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning: Signature Edition

See Prices & Historic Sales by Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

QUANTITY: 300 (360: 150 | PS3: 96 | PC: 54)
PRICE RANGE: $450-750
INCLUDES:

• All items in Collector's Edition
• Troll Figure is Signed
• 1 of 300 individually numbered Todd McFarlane sketch screen-prints (looks like image above)

Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning: Exclusive Signature Edition

See Prices & Historic Sales by Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

QUANTITY: 12 (360: 6 | PS3: 4 | PC: 2)
PRICE RANGE: $1,000-2,900
INCLUDES:

• All items in Special Edition
• Troll Figure is Signed
• 1 of 12 individually numbered Todd McFarlane sketch screen-prints (looks like image above)

MORE INFO: 38 Studios sold these limited editions exclusively on their website. The Signature Edition sold out, but they mistakenly sold 312 instead of 300. Instead of canceling 12 orders or making more of the Signature they created an Exclusive edition with a different sketch print. This edition was given to the first 12 people to respond to this email from 38 Studios:

"Earlier this month, we announced the Reckoning Limited Editions, and the response from our fans was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and supportive. The Reckoning Signature Editions were so immensely popular that all 300 sold out in less than five days. In the process, due to an unexpected issue with our store system, we accidentally oversold our stock for the Reckoning Signature Edition by 12 units. It’s extremely important to us that none of our loyal fans—you—miss out on the items you ordered as a result of our mistake, so we want to assure you that will not be the case."

"So, what are we doing to resolve this? We’re making sure you get what you ordered, and for a handful of fans, a little something more. We’ve put together an extra special Reckoning Limited Edition package for 12 lucky Reckoning: Signature Edition customers. The first 12 customers to respond to this email will be upgraded to the Reckoning: Exclusive Edition bundle."

Elemental Gearbolt Assassin Case Price History

Up until yesterday we were missing a rare game from the Playstation (PS1) price list - Elemental Gearbolt Assassin's Case.

When Working Designs published Elemental Gearbolt for PS1 they also made 50 Assassin's cases which were given out at 1998's E3 expo. Some were given away to journalists and others were given away to attendees in two separate contests.

The Assassin's Case includes the Elemental Gearbolts game, a Silver briefcase with locks, a gold plated GunCon, a PS1 memory card, and a congratulatory letter from Working Designs.

The most recent verified sale was for $3,000 on eBay which makes this far and away the most expensive game for the Playstation 1.

Sonic the Hedgehog Master System (US Version) Sells for Almost $1,000

What makes this version of Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Master system worth almost $1,000? A sticker.

A Sonic game for Master System recently sold for $981.33. When other copies of Sonic regularly sell for $30-40. The games are identical except for a small UPC sticker on the back of the box, as seen below:

Usually a sticker on a game would lower the value, but Sonic the Hedgehog (Master System) is unique.

The Master System was much more successful in Europe than the USA. In the early 90's Sega released the Sega Genesis in the USA as the successor to the Sega Master System and very quickly cast aside any Master System support.

Sega published Sonic the Hedgehog in Europe because the Master System was still selling well there, but instead of producing the game for the USA they decided to import some of the European versions and put a UPC label on it so it could sell at retailers in the states.

The USA and the European Sonic games for Master System are literally the exact same game. The only difference is the small UPC sticker placed on the US version.

The game has become notorious with game collectors because the value is so different but the "rare" version can easily be faked with a UPC printer and labels.

Xenoblade Will Be Rare & Collectible Game

This past week it was announced that Xenoblade, the Japanese RPG for the Wii, will be released in the USA. It will be coming out April 2nd, 2012 and will be a GameStop exclusive. I'm predicting the game will become a future collector's item and probably be near the top of the Wii expensive titles list.

Below are the reasons why:

1. Xenoblade is an RPG

All else being equal Role Playing Games hold their value better then any other genre. RPG's also have the best chance of increasing in price during the first year of release.

2. Xenoblade is Releasing at the end of the Wii's Life Cycle

Rare games are five times more likely to release during the last 2 years of the console's life than any other time.

The Wii's successor, the Wii U, will be releasing in 2012 and Nintendo has already slowed support for the Wii. Until Xenoblade was announced there wasn't a single high profile Nintendo game on the Wii release schedule for 2012. The Wii is definitely at the end of its life-cycle.

3. Xenoblade Has a Very Loyal Following in the US Already

Fans of the game organized a website (Operation Rainfall), email campaign, letter writing campaign, and Amazon pre-order campaign to get Nintendo America to release the game in the USA. The pre-order campaign was so successful the game was #1 on Amazon's best seller list for several weeks even though the game was never announced.

The loyal fans will purchase the game and probably avoid selling it which will keep resale prices high.

4. Xenoblade Will Have a Small Print Run

Nintendo held off on releasing the game for the longest time because they didn't think it would be profitable for them. Even though the game has a loyal following, it is only being sold at one nation wide retailer and it is a niche genre. Nintendo will be very conservative with their production of Xenoblade to make sure they don't lose money on it.

If the first print run sells really well Xenoblade might have second printings like Nintendo did with Super Mario Allstars Wii, but the game will never sell millions of copies.

Xenoblade Will Be More Rare & Expensive

All of these factors lead me to believe Xenoblade will keep its value very well over time and most likely end up on the list of most expensive and rare Wii games.

That doesn't mean you should buy the game as an investment by any means. Resale prices might still end up below retail price, but there is a much better chance Xenoblade will be worth more than other Wii games in a few years time.

To tide you over until the game does release, here is the European trailer: