New ps2 games without security labels/stickers
 

Hello,

Is it just me or is it everyone.... Recently, i have purchased many new games at a retail store (fry's, best buy, gamestop), and i've noticed it does not have a security labels that's usually on the ps1 and older ps2 games. Games that are new that does not contain such labels: RE 4, Atelier Iris, SF Anthology, basicaly, the new releases. Anyone has more information on this topic???

They stopped putting those labels on PS2 games around July of last year. I'm not sure why they decided to get rid of them. I did find them to be pretty annoying when they were around. But this isn't a recent thing to happen. It has been like this for a year now.

Last july? Well i recently bought a sealed copy of the first Shadow Hearts (2001) and i didn't see any security sticker. Comments?

Miles,

Thanks for your response. But i believe it was not last year, b/c last year, i was still able to obtain new games with labels on them. I think it was sometimes around March/April of 2006 was when manufaturer stop putting the stickers. I don't agree with you that the security labels are annoying for many reasons. One example, the sticker is there to inform consumer, that they're getting a new copy, instead of one that has been opened (and probably played) and was resealed. Don't you think? Imagine if you're a collector, how would you feel, if someone opened that [item] and resealed it, and sold it for the original price or even higher?

Double Post:
Yoman,

If what your claiming is true. By that, i mean, you recently purchased a new copy of the first shadow hearts (2001), than i have good reasons to believe you have purchased a re-sealed copy. I can prove to you that the first shadow hearts does have a security sticker, b/c i personally own a seal copy, with the seal on. BTW, how much did you paid for the game?

35 bucks. I'll send the seller an email, see what he has to say.

What, is it inconceivable that there are still some new and sealed copies of Shadows Hearts floating around the planet? Get serious guys, I highly doubt that your Shadow Hearts was resealed.

Xbox and Xbox 360 games still have those security labels, as do PC Games.

However, the PC game labels are really troublesome, as EA's been having a tendency to put the system requirements/recommended specs on the top or bottom labels, and most people peel those off. :/

Are the security stickers over there the huge pink squares that DESTROYED cases like here? Seriously the only way to get them off was to snap the case in half and make a new one out of wet clumps of hair a cat had coughed up. So awful. It was even worse when they put them on GBA games, they'd take up half the box and spelled certain doom. First prize in the spelling bee, so many people got stung.

They don't have them anymore though, because everything in every store is gutted (even the staff) and you pay full price for scratched discs that smell like trash bags and have sticky mystery adult book shop type substances on the case. It's the only way to go!

I don't doubt that there's still new and sealed copy's out there. But the thing is that Shadow Hearts came out in late 2001 when security stickers were still around so one would expect there to be a sticker on every new and sealed copy unless the title has been through a reprint since last july or so.

I heard they did actually do a reprint of Shadow Hearts recently. No idea why, maybe they saw it was still selling on Ebay or something. Of course that's just what I heard and I don't have any confirmation of it, although if there are new/sealed copies floating around without the security tab then it would seem to support that.

Yeah, im also leaning towards the reprint idea. That would indeed explain why my copy didn't have the seal. To begin with i though that they only released it in 2001. That's why i thought it was funny that my copy didn't have the seal.

Anyway, spoke to the seller and he said that the copy was a brand new one and that sony stopped sealing the games like that so everything points in the direction that SH indeed was reprinted. Although i haven't heard any official word of it.

Are you sure it is only the re-prints that does not contain the stickers? Than how come new releases such as re4, Street Fighter Anthology, Grandia 3, Atelier Iris 2, Kingdom Hearts 2, Romancing Saga, alltogether does not have ghe labels. So this means that it is a re-print. How can it be a re-print copy when it's barely released for less than 6 months. Can anyone explain this???

Double Post:
I can understand for SH but not the games i've listed abover. Guess i have to contact sony on this issue.

I can tell you that at Toys R Us we stopped getting the games with security stickers on them sometime just before Christmas of last year. I know because I distinctly remember having a customer issue about them and the service desk associate thought it was resealed but all 50 copies of the game didn't have the little top seal on.

Yeah, they were annoying, unless you felt like keeping them there. I think the main reason they took them off was because it was too easy to just open it on the other end and take the game out. That seal really was too circumventable. The XBox/360 seal is a better idea, because for one it's on the actual handle part of the game, which makes it a bit harder to open, but also because that paper that they make it out of becomes fucking trashed when you peel it off. It's impossible to reapply it and make it look like you didn't do anything to it.

Sony taking off those little tags has created a problem for us and I'm assuming other stores. There are people going out and buying $50 games, opening them, taking the game and rewrapping them in such good quality that it looks professional unless you know EXACTLY where to look (there's a crease in the plastic that isn't normally there). They then return the game, getting their money back but keeping the game. They only do it with PS2 games because I'm guessing an adult returning a bunch of kid games would look weird, and the XBox seal thing keeps them from doing it. It's a phenomenon we've only had trouble with since Sony took the stickers off the PS2 games.

tl;dr section

To summarize, yes, Sony has stopped putting the security stickers on any game manufactured at any time this year. Greatest Hits, reprints, etc. all fall under this category, so if you have no seal on it you have a recently made game.

They reprinted Shadow Hearts for the promotion when you pre-ordered Shadow Hearts 2 and got Shadow Hearts 1 for free.

I also heard word of a more recent reprint as well, so that might actually be new.

Thank you MoO for clarify the issue with the members here. I'm glad someone knows something about it. And your absolutely correct about consumer opening game, re-wrap, and returning it. Thank you again.