A peculiar phenomenon is sweeping the world of gaming. PlayStation 5 and Xbox X/S consoles are gathering dust in the cupboard. New games and devices, like the recently launched Nintendo Switch 2, are going largely ignored in favour of their 1990s counterparts. The signs of a heel-turn are clear: vintage consoles are, once again, the toast of the town.
Gen Z are ditching their iPhones and choosing instead to play Snake on old Nokias; on TikTok, #retrogaming videos have racked up over 6 billion views. The contiguous Reddit group, “r/retrogaming”, boast hundreds of thousands of followers and the price of old hardware is soaring. A glance online is enough to make the heart sink – GameBoy Colors and PS1s are selling for more than a hundred pounds on eBay, while mint condition copies of retro games can sell for hundreds of thousands (in some cases, millions).
