The long awaited Pixel Remasters of Final Fantasy I through VI finally arrived on Switch and PlayStation 4 on April 19. Unfortunately for longtime fans, the physical editions of the collection sold out immediately on Square Enix’s website and show no signs of coming back in stock. Scalpers are now trying to flip them for hundreds on eBay.
The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters came to Steam a couple years ago, but the console ports include some new features and improvements like a new font that’s not perfect but still a marked improvement over the modern look of in-game text on PC. Most importantly for collectors, there are physical versions this time around. The $75 standard edition just has the games—Final Fantasy I, II, III, IV, V, and VI–-and an Anniversary edition includes vinyl soundtracks, artbooks, figures and more for $250.
While pre-orders were available starting last December, the release date for the PS4 and Switch versions was only revealed earlier this month. By launch day, Square Enix’s website, one of the only places to order physical copies, was already sold out of the Standard edition. The Anniversary editions are currently waitlisted, meaning new orders will only become available if existing ones are canceled.
Anyone who’s late to the party and still wants to pick up the latest version of some all-time classics is now at the mercy of resellers. “This is insane,” wrote user tuhbreezy696 in a post on a game collecting subreddit alongside a screenshot of outrageous listings on eBay of the remasters for as much as $400.
Scalpers taking to the ecommerce platform with ridiculous listings has become commonplace, but a quick search shows dozens and dozens of PS4 and Switch copies of the game all going for double the sticker price or more. The lowest price at the time of writing was $175 with 17 people watching it.
The pull of nostalgia is strong, especially for a beloved franchise whose stories and art helped define the NES and SNES console generations for millions of players. It does still seem possible to order physical copies via Asian retailers like Play Asia, though with shipping the price still comes close to roughly $100. The earliest delivery some fans are reporting for those copies is June, and that appears to be predicated on additional shipments from Square Enix.
There is one bit of solace for longtime Final Fantasy fans: the Pixel Remasters aren’t really the definitive versions. There are arguable advantages to the previous ports on PSP and Game Boy Advance, and players can of course access the new versions digitally. Still, as we saw from the Metroid Prime Remaster physical copies selling out, having a box and a cartridge goes a long way to rekindling what felt so special about these games in the first place.