Over the past several years, retro gaming has experienced a massive popularity boost, with older gamers looking to recapture the nostalgia of their childhoods and younger gamers looking to experience seminal consoles and titles of days past. That boom in popularity has led to games and consoles skyrocketing in price on the second-hand market, particularly titles that were short prints or relatively niche.

That said, a new development in the retro gaming market has fans worried about its short-and-long-term consequences.

Counterfeits Are Spreading Rapidly
As first spotted on Twitter by a retro gaming enthusiast, a surge of counterfeit PlayStation 1 games have made their way onto AliExpress, an online retail company based in China popular for drop-shipping various goods.

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Friends, please share. This could be crippling!

There has been a surge of PS1 counterfeits on markets such as AlieXpress. These counterfeit PS1 titles are being pressed onto a dark substrate which makes these counterfeits visually indistinguishable from the real deal. pic.twitter.com/gjZ3EgYBpA

— Voultar (@Voultar) September 19, 2024

The counterfeits are significantly cheaper than what actual legitimate copies are going for, and to the untrained eye, could be passed off as real.

Taking a look at the AliExpress website, The Gamer can confirm that there are several PS1 replicas being sold. For instance, Silent Hill can be purchased for $11.76, which is far lower than the game's estimated complete price of $187.55.

Posted: 8 hours, 52 minutes ago
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://www.thegamer.com/playstation-1-counterfeit-discs-seemingly-flooding-aliexpress-retro-gaming-collecting/