As a parent (and partner) to a habitual collector, I do feel like an unwelcome portion of my life is occupied by an endless war against stuff. Surfaces in my home ceaselessly accumulate piles of random objects: a JoyCon wrist strap, a sticker sheet, an unidentifiable plastic piece of a toy or gizmo, an Xbox 360 controller with no batteries, cases for Switch cartridges lost down the side of the sofa … Stuff encroaches everywhere, especially in a gaming household. Much as I regret the imminent disappearance of physical games, I do not regret the extra space I have in my attic as a result of switching almost entirely to downloaded games over the last decade or so.
Speaking of the imminent disappearance of physical games: Rockstar recently announced a £350 ($400) “collector’s box” of Grand Theft Auto 6 goodies … that doesn’t include the game itself. Not even a download code. The Grand Theft Auto VI: The Goodtime State – Vice City Collection, to give it its full and unwieldy name, contains a hat, a bag, a pair of sunglasses, a figurine, a poster and more, including a mirror and a “swizzle spoon” that looks, unambigiously, like a cocaine spoon.
The game retails at £70, so if you want something to play alongside all your stuff, you’re looking at an outlay of £420. I’m not about to rag on this box of merch. People love this kind of stuff, and as a lifelong collector of Japanese gatcha and blind-box toys, I am in no position to judge how people spend their money.
I have a few video game special editions that I cherish – the statue that came with my copy of The Last Guardian is still on my shelf – though I also have many more that are relegated to various cupboards. But it is unusual, however, for them to be this expensive. Usually with gaming special editions, we’re talking an extra £20-50 for a statue, or a steelbook, maybe a booklet and a keyring. 2009’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s “prestige edition” came with night vision goggles for $150.
In 2015, Fallout 4’s $120 collector’s edition shipped with a plastic Pip Boy wrist unit (I had one; alas, it was flimsy and disappointing). There have been some infamously expensive gaming special editions down the years, some of which were PR stunts (see Saints Row IV’s million-dollar pack, which included a Lamborghini and cosmetic surgery – nobody bought it). But in the 2020s high-priced video game merchandise has become more common, from a Balenciaga PlayStation tie-in line to £580 for Pokémon Lego.
What’s behind this is a troubling sense that video games as we once conceived of them – console games, played at home, perhaps on a nice 4K TV – have become a luxury item. People who can afford to spend up to £790 for a console and games are perhaps now people who can afford an extra £350 for a box of merch. Continual price-rises from Xbox and PlayStation suggest that video game companies do not seem particularly worried about pricing people out.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
