The State of Retro Gaming in Japan: 2025 in Review – Sony and Sega

After doing research for my article about the difference in pricing between Japanese and English retro games, I feel like I have a decent understanding of the disc based Sega systems and therefore I’d like to add them into this update. To be honest I always see them while I’m out retro game hunting, but I never had a reason to actually look at them until I wrote that article. I can’t say that this will become a regular part of the series, but for now I’d like to try it out.

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 tourists 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 is a shadow of what it once was in years past. The majority of tourists who game 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 on their shelves). 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 over 100 stores in more than 8 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 2025 to the end of the year.

Sony Products

Playstation

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

There have been a couple changes with the Sony Playstation since my last update half a year ago. In my 5 months living in the Kansai area of Japan (near Osaka), I believe that there are more consoles for sale at the moment than I saw in the Kanto area (near Tokyo). It might just be a few more consoles in stock at your average store, but they do seem to have more shelf space now than say a console like the Wii or Wii U (which seem notoriously hard to sell). Price wise the PS One is about the same as before and is still affordable.

In the games category, not much has changed there either aside from the prices. I stated in my previous article that those bargain bin prices had gone up at local stores, and now it seems like they’ve gone up again. While there are still a good number of PS One games being sold in Outlet areas of stores, the rarer games like Silent Hill and Persona are going up in price. Sony games are not immune from the “tourist tax” I mentioned in my Nintendo article either. At the moment it’s contained to titles like the Resident Evil series and Final Fantasy stuff, but that seems to have pushed up prices across the board in 2025. Those cheaper games that were 270 yen at the start of 2025 and went up to around 500 in Summer, are now closer to 800 or 900 yen starting in 2026 and are even higher at specialty shops like Surugaya and Super Potato. Still affordable at around 1500 yen or so, but quite the inflated price from a year ago. This probably isn’t noticeable to a lot of people because most people aren’t looking through foreign PS1 games.

As for accessories, it seems like memory cards have slowly been inching up in price as well. They used to be around 500 yen but I’ve seen more and more larger stores selling them for 800-1000 yen apiece these days, and even rare stuff like Pocket Station is more expensive than before. You don’t see many original PS1 controllers for sale at thrift shops anymore, but the Dual Shocks still seem to be in stock.

Playstation 2

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

I don’t know what it is about the Playstation 2, but it seems like it has been rather well insulated from all of the game price inflation I’ve seen in other systems. The rare games do seem to be getting pricier (Silent Hill 2 and 3, Gradius type stuff, etc), but overall the games are still very affordable. I believe the reasons for this are the size of the games/consoles as well as the language barrier. Not many tourists probably want to fill up their suitcases with Playstation stuff when handhelds travel much better. While the games and hardware haven’t changed too much in price, I did notice stuff like memory cards being sold at higher prices than before, just like the PS1. It makes sense, since they are small and can be used on any region PS2. If you want to get into retro gaming in Japan, PS2 is probably a good place to start (as long as you can read Japanese).

Playstation Portable

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

I’ve been following the PSP a lot more closely these last few weeks as I have fixed the UMD situation on my own handheld and don’t have to worry so much about it breaking. I’ve been looking forward to writing an update about it to be honest. To start off, it seems like there are slightly less PSPs for sale than last year. This could be because the Vita sells better and has a higher profit margin, or it could also be because of all the battery issues people have had with it (swelling and damaging the system itself). I can’t really say for sure but for every store that has huge stock of PSP handhelds (such as new store openings), another 5 have like 2 or 3 systems, if any at all. Who knows, heck, it could be that tourists are actually buying them as well since the PSP is kind of a favorite for home brewers and what not (I love the sound and screen on the system too!).

PSP software has been the bane of many retro game stores for years. While the system might be having something of a renaissance in English speaking countries, you’d be hard pressed to find any Japanese gamers that care about it. For the longest time you could find games for 100 yen in Outlet corners and a huge swath of games could be had from 300-800 yen and that is still true now. The prices remain incredibly low, however as stock goes out the door it isn’t being replaced with more stuff so once it’s gone at all those Hard Offs and Book Offs the only place you’ll find it is at those specialty shops I mentioned earlier. I also think that it’s getting really hard to find any kind of accessories for the PSP. Stuff like cases and cables just aren’t in accessory bins any more (which is mostly stuff for consoles). Even junk bins don’t have much in terms of PSP accessories. It’s the same as it is with other retro handhelds like the GBA and DS. Sure, you’ll find brand new USB charger cables and maybe replacement chargers for it, but not much else.

Playstation 3

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

Aside from a couple rare games getting pushed higher in price, the Playstation 3 is still enjoying it’s position as an affordable and versatile retro game system. There are a lot of games to choose from, a large amount of hardware available that are both boxed and loose, and you can still find a lot of the accessories rather easily too. Who knows for how much longer though. 15 years on I’m still enjoying my Playstation 3, thanks to finding more Japanese games under $5 with English settings, as well as grabbing a bunch of cheap PS1 games to play on them. If you are thinking of getting into PS1 games in Japanese, I recommend just getting a Japanese PS3 since they are newer and will probably have fewer hardware issues. There haven’t been any major changes to Playstation 3 since my last article about it in summer of 2025.

Playstation Vita

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

The big news coming from the Playstation Vita is that the handhelds have once again gone up in price. In my previous article I mentioned that unboxed Vitas were going for about 13-14000 yen, but more recently that average has climbed to 16-18000 yen in most places. Boxed systems will be closer to the 20,000 to 25,000 yen range depending on where you pick them up. It’s not a huge increase, but it definitely shows an upward trend that could continue this year until it stabilizes. Game wise, there hasn’t been a lot of movement since last time. The Vita doesn’t suffer from being region locked, so most people are only interested in the hardware. The system still seems to be popular with players in Japan though, so some games tend to be a little higher than others, but for the most part they are affordable.

Sega

Sega Dreamcast

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

While doing research for my article on the price differences between Japan and the USA, I took a look at the Sega Dreamcast section at a few different chains so I thought I’d try to give my readers a rough idea as to what the console platform situation looks like. While I don’t look deeply at the prices whenever I go to a retro game store, I always tend to take pictures of the Sega sections so I can at least say I know about the inventory in both the Kansai, Tokai, and Kanto areas of Japan.

For hardware, you’re looking at slightly less availability of the Dreamcast than Playstations and things like the Nintendo Gamecube. There aren’t a lot in console sections of shops, but there always seems to be a few. The price of the hardware seems to be around 13,000 yen or so. Sometimes you might find them for cheaper or a little more expensive, but unless you’re after the Hello Kitty limited edition Dreamcasts you shouldn’t be paying too much for them. There seems to be an equal amount of boxed and unboxed ones as well in case you’re buying it just to have one or to collect it.

Places like Suruguya and other specialty shops always seem to have tons of Dreamcast titles in stock, but you might struggle to find what game you are looking for if you’re hitting up Book Offs and Hard Offs because they tend to carry a lot less. That being said, the Book Offs and Hard Offs will have much better prices on what they do have, although Dreamcast games seem to be mostly affordable at other chains. The only games that tend to be really expensive are the popular titles like Sonic and Skies of Arcadia, but the rest aren’t that bad. VMUs, the Dreamcast memory cards are still for sale, but they seem to be rarer than the likes of Sony and Gamecube memory cards. You might have to visit a few shops to find one in good condition and at a good price. The same is probably true for controllers. Due to their age, condition is definitely becoming a problem and quantity as well.

Sega Saturn

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

I had considered adding the Sega Saturn to my article about how different the prices were compared to the USA, so I did a little bit of research on them recently, but after realizing that I didn’t really know much about the console I decided against it. Just like with the Dreamcast, it’s another system that I always see on the shelves of stores I visit so I can give you readers a rough idea of what the current stock was like at the end of the year.

The Sega Saturn console is probably on par with the Dreamcast. Not quite as plentiful as the Gamecube and Playstations, but most stores always seem to stock a few and there is a good balance between boxed and unboxed ones. I feel like Hard Offs always seem to have them in stock, but they are much rarer at Book Offs and even sometimes at specialty shops such as Surugaya. It really depends the size and location of the stores. The prices vary, but around 10,000 yen seems to be the average. You’ll have more luck finding them at bigger places. Finding accessories like controllers and cables might be a little trickier. Not every store will stock them in their accessory section, and you might have to check junk sections from time to time for them (not because they are broken, but because they just don’t have space for them in the gaming area). If they are selling systems at the store, there is a good chance you’ll find accessories there as well.

The price of Sega Saturn games seem to be cheaper than of those in English in the USA, and they are much more plentiful at stores in Japan as well. Most will be a good deal, but some of the rarer ones can get really expensive due to how rare they are becoming. I would say that the pricing of Sega Saturn games is closer to that of Playstation 1/Playstation 2 games than of the Sega Dreamcast. It is slightly more affordable than its younger brother.

Until Next Time …

That’s going to do it for the 2025 wrap up for retro games in Japan, but I hope to be back around July with a look at what has been happening in 2026. Just as with Nintendo, the “tourist tax” is still there on Sony and Sega products, but mostly on famous and popular titles. I expect things like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Sonic the Hedgehog, and other high demand titles to go up in price between now and summer, but not to the extent that the Nintendo products probably will. I don’t see much happening with the Sega and Sony retro consoles, but I do expect the prices of the PSP and PS Vita to go up again. I’m not sure by how much, but I don’t think they have stabilized yet. If you’ve been thinking of getting them, now is probably a better time to buy than to wait. Just be sure to get them outside of the major cities so you can save a few thousand yen.

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