Devil's Third Makes A Killing On Ebay, Even Though You Don't Need A Disc To Play

When it comes to the geek community, you will find no one as passionate or as diehard as gamers. The gaming community might seem a little sour at times, especially during Call of Duty multiplayer matches, or when someone of a higher level keeps killing you every time you spawn in World of Warcraft. Sure, the community can, at times, be downright evil. But, when it means something, when gamers are passionate, the community comes together to revel in it. Such is the case with the Wii-U exclusive Devil’s Third, which is available digitally at $59.99. But, passionate fans are buying the physical copy on Ebay for way more than that.

Devil’s Third on Ebay has been selling from $95 to around $180 for one copy. The game was only released a few weeks ago after a long journey of delays. For some reason, Nintendo didn’t release as many copies in the United States, so the game is extremely hard to find. If you’re lucky, you might stumble across it at a lone GameStop. Amazon Prime put up a Tweet exclaiming they had the physical copy in stock for $59.99 that was Prime Eligible.

You can imagine that didn’t last long because now all that’s available are users selling the game for $99 and up. Is the game even really that good? Metacritic only gave a 44 and reviews haven’t been that great. One Twitter user also doesn’t understand the hype.

So why are fans going out of their way to buy the physical copy of the game for double the price when they could own and play the “just okay” digital game for only $60? The same reason people are still buying DVDs. There is something about owning a physical copy of a movie or game. Knowing it’s physically on your shelf and you don’t need to fill your hard drive with an install, knowing you can grab it whenever you want and flaunt it when you go to a friend’s house. And even in this case, it’s knowing how rare the game is in the United States; being able to get your hands on a physical copy of the game is a feat in itself. Now there’s something to really brag about. Gamers do this for the same reason we push ourselves to accomplish every achievement in a game. We want to gloat about it later, hold it as a trophy.

Or, in the simplest case, you just like the game and want to own it. I only ever buy DVDs of my favorite movies, like 1960's 13 Ghosts. That’s not a movie you’re going to find sitting in the bargain bin at Walmart. And when it comes to games, I own the Sega Genesis cartridge of Ghouls N’ Ghosts because it’s one of my favorite games that’s ever been created, but do I even have a Sega Genesis system? No. It’s a trophy, a reminder that this is where my passion for gaming began (and because I can play Ghouls N’ Ghosts online now). Every now and then I’ll stop at a flea market and see if I can find it in the mess. I almost always find Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but never Ghouls N’ Ghosts.

So this might explain why so many gamers are taking to Ebay to pay big for a rare Wii U game. It’s no Zelda, that’s for sure. But, to certain gamers, it means something. For some it means enough to spend $180, apparently. Lucky for them, then, that some gamers cared enough to buy Devil’s Third and resell it for more money.