The State of Retro Gaming in Japan: 2024 in Review – Other Systems

I’ve been wanting to write an article about this topic for a while now. Ever since retro gaming got big in western countries and prices got out of control, I’ve liked to compare the prices and inventory to those in Japan. For a while it didn’t seem like the retro boom was going to have any if much impact at all here in Japan, however slowly but surely foreigners visiting Japan have had an impact. People that grew tired of paying exorbitant prices for retro games and gaming things came to Japan and picked up many things for pennies on the dollar thanks to the Yen exchange rate. This is why inventory in Akihabara in Tokyo in 2024 was a shadow of what once was. The majority of tourists go there and due to the lower inventories, prices have either doubled or tripled and the quality of other things has become much worse as the stores will buy anything traded in just to have stock in their stores. But is this true of all Japan or is it just a Tokyo thing?

In this article I hope to give my readers some insight on retro gaming as a whole in Japan. Having been part of the retro gaming scene in Japan since 2021 and having visited close to 100 stores in more than 5 prefectures, I’d like to comment on my experiences. People coming to buy retro games in Japan, or those living in Japan that want to get into the hobby would be better served if there was some information out there to help them with their choices. I’ll be covering a number of topics that I hope will be helpful:

• Quantity = How much is available as a whole for each game system
• Quality = What level of quality buyers can expect of goods
• Price = How much buyers can expect to pay for goods

I will then be going into more depth on each of these topics by covering the quantity, quality, and price (QQP) of hardware (consoles), software (games), and accessories. After that I’ll comment on the health for each category with high, moderate, or low. For example, Something could be in High Quantity (large number) but Low Quality (many loose games, not many with boxes) and moderate price (affordable but not a deal). For a full description of each meaning please check below.

• High Quantity = Large number of products, very easy to find
• Moderate Quantity = Medium number of products, popular products harder to find
• Low Quantity = small number of products, popular products very hard to find

• High Quality = Most products will have boxes and be complete, not damaged
• Moderate Quality = Half of the products might be without box/manuals, some scratches or damage on things
• Low Quality = very few products have manuals/boxes, bad batteries, many products with damage

• High Price = You can expect to pay close to the western price for these products
• Moderate Price = Some good deals if you look around, very affordable compared to outside of Japan
• Low Price = Very cheap, easy to buy, amazing deals

I can’t honestly say I’ve been following all of the inventory, the prices, and the quality of products for EVERY platform but I will do my best to comment on how I’ve seen these products change from the start of 2024 to the end.

Other Products

Before I start with the final article in this series, I want to say with full disclosure that non Sony and Nintendo products aren’t something I know much about at all. I haven’t been checking prices as much or inventory, and most of what I talk about will be from limited selections I’ve seen and from the pictures I’ve taken of retro game shops over the course of a few years. I won’t be able to comment on trends but can give you a general image of what collecting for that platform is like.

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive

• Hardware (Console): low quantity, low/moderate quality, moderate price
• Software (Games): low/moderate quantity, moderate quality, moderate/high price
• Accessories: ?

I’ve really only seen Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games and hardware at large game store chains like Surugaya, Mandarake, and Super Potato. I’m sure some other well stocked stores have them too, but the nationwide Hard Off and Book Off chains? Forget about it. It would be very hard to find them outside of the large specialist game/hobby shops unless the store’s game selection is VERY big. You don’t see Master Drive systems that often, but I do believe clone systems have been released so you can play old games on them like you can for Famicom and Super Famicom games as well.

As for quality, you won’t find boxed Genesis/Mega Drive consoles, but most of the MD games are boxed. It almost seems like these are prized collector’s items in Japan, and they are priced accordingly. I saw some very high prices on the really rare games, but also saw some more common games that were affordable. Other than controllers, I haven’t really seen much for accessories but then again I wasn’t really looking for them actively. I couldn’t really comment on the price.

Sega Game Gear

• Hardware (Console): low quantity, low quality, moderate/price
• Software (Games): moderate quantity, moderate quality, moderate price
• Accessories: ?

I almost didn’t include the Sega Game Gear because the only place you find the games and systems these days are at specialty shops like Super Potato and Surugaya. Finding an original Game Gear system is pretty hard, as they don’t show up that often in the wild, but I do believe there are some clone systems that can play the games (which are also kind of expensive in their own right). You won’t find any of the games at Hard Offs or Book Offs usually, but large stores might have a few and the specialty shops have a lot. From what I’ve seen in my travels about half of the games have boxes and half don’t, and prices can go anywhere from 1000 yen a game to 10,000+ in box. As for accessories, I’ve seen cartridges in the plastic cases but I haven’t seen them individually for sale (but at the same time if you don’t know what you’re looking for you might pass them over).

Sega Saturn

• Hardware (Console): low/moderate quantity, low/moderate quality, moderate/high price
• Software (Games): moderate quantity, high quality, moderate/high price
• Accessories: low/moderate quantity, low/moderate quality, moderate price

I’ve seen Sega Saturn consoles from time to time in the hardware section of the big recycle chain shops like Book off and Hard Off, but your best bet for these is going to be at a specialist shop like Surugaya. They are a little easier to find than Genesis/Master systems, but they are also a bit pricier. The game selection for Sega Saturn is great at the specialty shops, but from time to time you’ll find them Book Offs and Hard Offs too. Price-wise you can expect to pay between 1500-2500 yen for a lot of games, but I’ve seen some prohibitively expensive ones too. Some rare games will set you back hundreds of dollars, not unlike in the USA. I haven’t really seen any “disc only” Saturn games for sale, so you can expect that most will be complete with box and manual. You can still find controllers for the system without much effort, event the circular one, but it does seem like more and more are showing up in junk areas these days. Make sure you get a working one when you buy them.

Sega Dreamcast

• Hardware (Console): moderate quantity, moderate quality, moderate/high price
• Software (Games): moderate quantity, high quality, moderate/high price
• Accessories: moderate quantity, low/moderate quality, moderate price

The Sega Dreamcast runs into a lot of the problems the other Sega products do. They were made in smaller numbers and are rarer which makes getting into the platform a little more difficult than with Sony or Nintendo products. Being the newest of the Sega products means that the Dreamcast probably has the healthiest selection of games, accessories, and hardware. Most shops will have some Dreamcast games, even smaller stores, and the prices aren’t that bad unless it’s a really rare title. Console wise, you can still find boxed systems and even limited edition ones (like the Hello Kitty Dreamcast) but they are a little more expensive. They aren’t in as great of numbers as the Sony Playstation, but there are definitely more consoles out there than the Saturn and Mega Drive. The most common Dreamcast accessories you’re going to find at stores are the controllers and VMUs (Virtual Memory Units). They seem to be in pretty good condition still at most shops, but they are much more uncommon than Sony and Nintendo accessories and the prices of them reflect that.

PC

• Software (Games): low quantity, high quality, moderate price
• Accessories: ?

Some of the big stores like Surugaya and even some of the larger Hard Offs stock old school PC games in their game areas. I remember seeing games like Typing of the Dead on PC a few months back and being pleasantly surprised to see it. Most games seem to be from the late 90s and early 2000’s, but if you’re looking into get into retro PC stuff you definitely can. I would think places like BEEP in Akihabara would also have access to older PC titles. Some of the games were a little expensive but the majority I saw weren’t that bad. But you won’t be getting many deals either. You’re paying for games in their boxes for the most part, since most of these older games can probably be gotten online by other means.

Xbox/Xbox 360/Xbox One:

• Hardware (Console): low quantity, low/moderate quality, moderate price
• Software (Games): low/moderate quantity, moderate/high quality, moderate price
• Accessories: low quantity, low/moderate quality, moderate price

Xbox products are another platform I don’t have much experience with in Japan. Microsoft hasn’t had much success here so the number of products is a lot less than what you’d find in North America or Europe. This means that while less popular, the prices of the games, accessories, and consoles tend to hold their value. I would say that it’s about as easy to get the older X-box systems as it is to get a Dreamcast. It’s a bit harder to find the accessories like adapters and controllers though. There just isn’t a lot of market for them and I think lots of places just don’t want to stock them and use the space for Nintendo and Sony products instead. For games, I very rarely see original X-box games for sale outside of large specialty shops, but most places will have at least a handful of games for the newer Microsoft systems. Price wise it seems like due to the rarity of these games some are very expensive. I would almost recommend just getting all your Xbox stuff overseas due to how much more common they are there than in Japan. You’d probably save some money and it would be easier to find than in Japan.

Others (NEO GEO, Wonderswan, etc)

• Hardware (Console): low quantity, low/moderate quality, moderate/high price
• Software (Games): low quantity, moderate/high quality/ moderate/high price
• Accessories: ?

If you’re looking for rare retro stuff that only came out in Japan or never made it out of the 80’s or 90’s console wars intact, then you’re in luck. The big specialty shops like Super Potato, Surugaya, and Mandarake have you covered, but at a price. Most of these non-Sega/Nintendo/Sony platforms are available but are exorbitantly expensive (especially at Super Potato). I saw a great selection of Neo Geo games last year in Shizuoka but the average prices ranged from 7000 to 20,000 yen a game. These games and systems are incredibly rare, making their accessories even rarer. So rare I don’t think I’ve ever seen any for these other retro systems (but then again, I wasn’t looking for them either). I wish I could comment more on these other platforms but at the moment I can’t.

That’s a Wrap

I apologize again for not being more knowledgeable about non-Sony/Nintendo products but hopefully I’ll be able to keep an eye out for them over the next year as I visit more shops so that I can write a more in depth series about 2025 at the beginning of next year. Putting all of this information down in an article has been a worthwhile experience for me. There is only so much information you can share through a social media post or a video and I would much prefer that this knowledge be searchable and available to anyone looking for retro gaming stuff in Japan.

To summarize all 3 of the articles I wrote about, I would say that Nintendo products are popular with tourists and have a healthy amount of games, accessories, and hardware available. Handhelds and Pokemon games are especially popular. Sony is more popular with locals and collectors and the number of games, accessories, and hardware are pretty healthy as well (though tourists are picking up more accessories these days in big cities like Tokyo). Sega has it’s fans and collectors but isn’t as popular as Sony and Nintendo, and for Microsoft you’re probably better offer collecting stuff from the USA due to the low number of products being released in Japan.

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