One of the rarest games in the PlayStation 2 library has seen its resale value plummet for an unexpected reason. Generally speaking, many of the most expensive titles in the PS2 catalog happen to be in the survival-horror genre. Games like Haunting Ground, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Obscure, and the obscenely pricey Kuon all tend to sell frequently on the secondhand market for hundreds of dollars (or more) depending on the condition. Fortunately, for those looking to get their hands on the incredibly rare Rule of Rose, it has now become a bit cheaper for one specific version of the game.
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Spotted by @h0pearcana, the cost of Rule of Rose has recently fallen by a substantial margin after a number of unopened copies of the game were seemingly discovered. Previously, the PAL version of Rule of Rose in new condition would sell for as much as $1,400 in 2023 but fell to sell more consistently for about $600 to $800 until as recent as last month. In the wake of these new copies of the game having been discovered, though, it’s now selling for only a little more than $300. This is obviously still a very high price, but it pales in comparison to what was seen before.
The curious thing about this situation with Rule of Rose is that all the new copies of the game that have hit the resale market are being shipped from Italy. This is particularly notable as publisher 505 Games is headquartered in Italy and was the company that published Rule of Rose in Europe when it launched in 2006. In all likelihood, 505 Games must’ve had some copies of the game that it never had hit store shelves that someone then came across this year.
Sadly, this influx of PAL copies of Rule of Rose hasn’t in turn lowered the price of the North American version of the game. Currently, the NA edition of Rule of Rose (which was published by Atlus) continues to sell for around $700 CIB. New copies are then continuing to go for between $900 and $1000 with regularity. So if you’re looking to only collect your retro PS2 games from North America, you’ll have quite a bit of saving to do in order to snag Rule of Rose.
