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With time running out and Concord servers set to switch off tomorrow, September 6th, scalpers seem to be attempting to make some quick money off of PlayStation's soon-to-be-unplayable multiplayer shooter.
Spotted by IGN, while physical copies of Concord were quickly swept off retail shelves and the digital version is no longer available for purchase, it looks like some enterprising individuals are interested in a little more than just a refund. Sealed copies of the game, which reportedly only managed a dismal 25k copies sold, are being flogged for up to and over four times the retail price of $40. Surprisingly, the listings mention that servers are going down imminently, even advertising the fact:
"Ships overnight on September 4; get on September 5 so you can play for a day before the servers shut down. On September 6, the game will be a rare, unplayable collector's item." Sound good? That one's going for $119.88. Another, listed at $179.99, warns potential customers to "buy at your own discretion. This rare and highly sought-after game is being recalled and is available now in a USA sealed package".
What do you think? Is a copy of Concord indeed a collector's item? Is it a false advertisement to describe the game as being "rare and highly sought-after"? Place your initial bid in the comments section below.
[source ign.com]
Comments 60
We'll see the boxes at local swap meets going three for $5.
I respect the hustle
Pretty unlikely Concord will be worth much in the future. If somehow Concord is reinvented and becomes a hit later on, then maybe. But as of now, it has no IP attached to it or anything of note, really. It’s just an expensive flop.
Doesn’t help that the game will be literally unplayable. The only people who will shell out cash for a useless disc of a failed game are the people buying it off the shelves right now lol
Well… I… mean… yeah… be a POS…. While you can….
@Waluigi451 - There's zero chance Sony will try to reinvent this game. They can't risk it tanking twice. Luckily for them with it being mainly digital they won't need to buy a landfill plot. Hermen Hulst can just bury the surplus hard copies in his garden.
I don't have a single physical PS5 game, but I even considered buying a physical copy of Concord after the news yesterday.
The discs for this game will never have any worth, you just have to look at the physical copies of Anthem which you can find for a $1 or sometimes free!
I gotta say that concord had some nice looking cover art, so it least it had one good thing going for it.
I sure as hell can't see the value but if someone wants it? Go ahead. It's your money. It is the biggest flop in Playstation history after all so I guess there's that.
They can take all the inventory. Nobody is going to buy em
It's like the Atari 2600 E.T. for 2024!
If you buy from scalpers, you are the reason scalpers exist.
@Tecinthebrain the difference is Anthem sold 5 million copies so its common and readily available. scarcity is what can drive value of alot of games and a physical copy of concord will be rare.
now if you cant actually play it me personally i cant see the value in that
I assume you can still boot the game from a physical copy after shutdown? Sure, no matches or anything, but you could still theoretically do the time trials and read the cringe lore dumps?
Will they bury the copies ala E.T?
The controller is sold out and going for a lot on eBay, too.
@Khayl Why are you classing these people as scalpers? They are not buying highly sought after products that are in short supply, to sell at hugely inflated prices.
You should apologise for the insult and the inference that what they are doing is immoral. It's borderline libellous.
Hah great, I hope they lose an incredible amount of money, and give the sales a little boost for the hard work developers put into the game.
Scalpers are modern day con artists, absolute soggy plums
@riceNpea They are scalpers because they are scalping you of your money, for limited product they buyout, or (in this case) product that will soon became limited. In other words: Scalpers are those ****erfu***ers who parasite on special items/events they didn't made only because they have money and ordering bots.
@djlard who are they scalping? How is this scalping? This game is NOT in demand. The game disks are being pulled from sale. They are showing initiative and entrepreneurship by trying to drum up business for a product that is NOT wanted by appealing to it becoming a collector's item in the future due to its infamy and impending scarcity now the publisher is discontinuing it.
Who exactly are they scalping when the product is not in demand in the first place? This isn't a PS5 during its launch when demand far outweighed supply and SCALPERS bought multiple PS5, denying regular customers the opportinity because a significant proportion of the stock was captured, and then put back on sale at a hugely inflated price to take advantage of the massive DEMAND that existed before, during and after the scalpers got involved.
In fact, they are taking a risk that they will lose money. They are buying up games, a game that is one of the most unwanted failures of all time and trying to create a demand for it. This is entrepreneurship in a nutshell. AND they are doing Sony a favour buying the game when no one else is! And they won't be asking for a refund!!
Please explain to me why I am wrong. I am willing to change my mind if you can convince me they are scalping, and I will acknowledge I'm wrong.
"Highly sought-after" gave me a good chuckle.
@riceNpea They are scalpers. Scalpers buy something at a normal price and sell it for more when it's in demand. Hell, even one of the sellers includes that it's in demand in his description. Personally I don't think it's in demand, but these sellers clearly think it is and they are taking advantage of it.
@Bentleyma it's not in demand. You even say you don't think it's in demand. Sony is DISCONTINUING(!) the game in its entirety after a week of sales such is the lack of DEMAND! Sony is issuing REFUNDS. The game sold so poorly that Sony has made history pulling it from the shelves.
By your and my definition scalpers take advantage of existing demand. THERE IS NO DEMAND. The people buying a game to resell that has NO demand is trying to CREATE a demand for a product no one wants by appealing to it become infamous due to it being the most expensive failure in the history of gaming. That is entrepreneurial and risk-taking.
If they can CREATE DEMAND where there is none then that is them taking a risk and they stand to lose their investment.
How is this so hard to understand for people? I genuinely can't get my head around how people can't see the difference. It's so basic.
@riceNpea They are taking advantage of the fact that it's not going to be sold anymore to try and make more money. If it doesn't sell they can just take it back to the store they bought it from and get a full refund, so they are risking nothing. They are scalpers and you trying to argue that fact is baffling.
I bought a copy from Asda yesterday, mostly for comedy value and just in case it is indeed valuable in future.
It all depends what happens to the multiple thousands of unsold copies. If they are destroyed at Sony's behest then the sold copies might be valuable purely as a collectible. If an "enterprising" person somehow gets hold of boxes of them from the warehouse and floods the market then it'll be pretty worthless.
There are several sold listings for £50-100 on eBay at the moment as well, which is a bit mad.
I can't see them ever going back on retail sale, most likely digital FTP or forever shut down.
@Bentleyma honestly, I can't facepalm myself enough over how you can't grasp simple economics.
"Hey everyone!! I own a game you didn't want! A game that's so unpopular it's made history! A game that's lost the publisher hundreds of millions of dollars.
I could get money back but I'm selling it to.......ummm I don't know, nobody wants it. I'm not denying anyone access to the product to bottleneck the market in my favour, because nobody want it.
So I'm going to take a risk. What I'll do is create a subjective reason why you may want it that has nothing to do with the original objective reason for its existence, in an attempt to encourage you into buying it from me for profit."
Sounds like a smart move. Appealing to a new market. Wish I thought of it. The game is going to be immortalised just like ET from Atari.
Go and look at how much a sealed copy of ET from ATARI is on eBay and tell me what these 'scalpers' are doing isn't a brilliant risk to take. In fact, they are mad to sell their copies! They should make sure its as scarse as possible!! Don't sell them. Keep them for 30 years and sell one of them alone for a fortune!!!!!!!!!
@riceNpea
There is a perceived demand as people are of the thought that this will be worth something in the future. Whether it is worth anything in the future is up for debate. This has happened with physical copies before on games like Too Human and X-men Destiny they had to be recalled and selaed copies did for a time go for a lot of money. I think what you don't seem to be grasping is people think a sealed copy of Concord could be worth a lot of money in the future. I am not saying I agree with these people but that is there thinking and thats why there is a demand.
@riceNpea there is scarcity and demand now, simply because it was such a failure and it's now nearly impossible to buy one at retail.
It's a really unusual case and while maybe it doesn't meet the textbook definition of scalping, it's pretty close.
@riceNpea You're basing the fact that no one wants it on when it's was available to buy and not now that it's been taken down. These sellers are trying to use Concord's failure as a way to get more money out of it than it's worth.
@bindiana that's exactly what I am saying. And that's why it's not scalping. The game has not been denied to gamers by scalpers because gamers don't want to buy the game in the first place.
The 'scalpers' are selling the game now in a completely different market which was not the intended market for the product, and that is entrepreneurial.
They've seen a way that the product can be seen to have value, as a functionless collector's item, and are CREATING a new demand for it. 101 economic enterprise. Very smart.
@Bentleyma exactly!! Now you get it. The game HAD NO DEMAND as a game. The entrepreneurs are changing the dynamic by creating a new reason to want the product, its potential future value. In fact they are appealing to people's greed by persuading them that in years to come the game will increase in value due to its scarcity and infamy!!! And they're probably right! Go and buy one now!! 😆😆
I have a rare copy of the crew if anyone's interested 😁
I'd get the reselling at stupids prices if you couldn't buy the game any longer but Asda, Very, Argos, Shopto and a dozen more are still selling the physical version for £32 as of writing this 🤷🏼♂️
@Barryburton97 it's the kind of entrepreneurship that used to be lauded as savvy. Take a product nobody wants and make it appealing to a new market.
Scalping does the opposite. Scalping take a product in high demand and holds it to ransom to take advantage of people's desperation to own it.
@Dampsponge scalper!! I'll take it! 😆😆👍
@Zemo55 really? I'm buying one, no joke. In 30 years time it'll be worth much more. Trouble is I'll probably be dead 😪😊
Damn! Just checked all the sites. Not for sale anywhere
@riceNpea TBF, you don't know if he's a scalper until he offers you a price. Could be giving it away for all we know. 😉
@Bentleyma maybe he'll pay me to take it. It's a crap game 😆👍
@riceNpea Why are you crediting them as entrepenures? They didnt create the demand. Sony created the demand unless these people intentionally didnt sell there copies so the game would fail spectacularly.
@bindiana 🤦 please....I've explained it enough times. I can't do any more 👍
@riceNpea How many more people need to tell you they're scalpers before you realise you're wrong! If that's not enough for you just Google this whole situation and you'll see that basically every article from every website uses the word scalpers. Surely we can't all be wrong and you alone are right?
@riceNpea A product that is pulled from shelves begins to be special for collectors because it is piece of history. It's hugely rejected by people so it bears it's own story. It became historical proof of what humankind made wrong. These items will be relics and collectors know it.
Buying out high demand product (ps5 on release) and reselling it for higher price is pure robbing of stupid people not willing to wait. But buying out product that will never be available any more, due of it's limited produce, is parasiting because they are "robbing" chance for other people to get it normaly. These both examples are highly immoral and greedy ...and this is scalping. Buying out product, take chance from others to get it, product you'll never use personally, only for making money on reselling it for higher price.
Stupidity of people buying from scalpers is different story.
@riceNpea Please explain to me how these great business people created this demand. What did bob living in his mum basement do to create this demand. They are are taking advantage of this new demand but they didnt create it. I sold a disc copy of Deadpool a month or so a go for a nice bit of profit. I am definitely not calling myself an entrepenure or claiming i created the demand.
@djlard this game wasn't intended to be sold as a functionless collector's item only, with an eye to the potential future gaons in value. So it is not being scalped.
If people are now selling it above RRP of what it was worth WHEN IT WAS A GAME, that is a market driven price for a product that now has a different value in relation to it change in status from a game to a product of assumed future appreciation in subjective value. There is no set base value for this new status of the product.
I will leave it here.
Honestly, I've been happy to debate with you all and I appreciate you don't agree. But I've laboured it enough and gone into much detail, writing many paragraphs breaking down my thoughts. I wish you all a fantastic day ahead. I'm happy for us to agree to disagree 👍
@Zemo55 nah, not online, unless you can convince someone in the store to sell you one.
It will be very collectible. There will be very few copies out there and it's a 1st party game which playstation collectors like to have the complete set of. Not sure where the value will settle but I think it will always be one of the most expensive ps5 discs to collect.
It being unplayable won't matter; I imagine the kind of collectors who'd pay a lot of money for this don't unseal their games anyway.
@Andee exactly. I mean, I don't see it doing well, but the fact that it's unplayable isn't one of the reasons.
why cant they come out with an off line mode, all that glitter ain't gold but at least it would get some use.
A physical release that highlights the bizarre nature of game collecting and perceived value. A sealed game sold at auction would never be opened or played anyway, so the fact that a Concord disc has no information on it is irrelevant if it's a historic collectors piece. It makes a mockery of the whole collectors market, not that it makes any difference. Maybe Sony should store all the copies and auction them off in 20 years to recoup the game's budget.
It could end up holding value similar to Stadium Events one day. I doubt it, but there a quite a few similarities between the releases.
Cash Converters in Australia is currently trying to sell a copy for $200 as a rare "no longer listed" game.
@Henchdog Two hundred dollarydoos?
@Andee The very same!
Speculators will buy anything and send it to WATA games right away too. "enterprising individuals" Ha ha!
I don't even have a PS5 but i bought a physical copy as soon as I heard it was going offline. It'll be staying sealed and going away for a few years. I don't normally do this kind of thing but wish me luck!
@Barryburton97 Yes online. A physical copy as been delivered today after ordering off Asda. Non game shops and stores won't give a ***** about selling games that are no longer playable. Last year my wife bought the battle royale Worms game for switch from Amazon and it turned out their severs shut down years ago! Shop just wanna shift stock
@Zemo55 Asda was an anomaly then, I don't think anywhere else was selling it, outside of eBay and Facebook, since hours after the announcement day. Asda have taken it off sale now anyway.
I ordered it at Shopto and Hit on the 5th Sept as an experiment and they cancelled the orders.
Concord is a special case- Sony issued an order to remove all copies from sale. We're not talking normal dead servers here, with games that still kinda work offline, like with Worms and half of everything Ubisoft's ever sold.
@Barryburton97 the worms games was an online only game. We still laugh at my wife about it now 🤣
@Zemo55 haha ok that's taking liberties!
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