Sony announces the PlayStation Classic

Games
121

It’s too bad this isn’t more than just a lazy cash-in.

122

Underscoring the “lazy” part, this was apparently done to have multi-language versions so they didn’t have to make a third European version.

What’s Japanese for “good enough for those guys?”

123

Pre-PS3 Sony is back in full force IMO.

124

Eyeroll emoji. I watched the Giantbomb quicklook for the classic and they went through almost every game without a complaint until they noticed Tekken felt a little slow. For the market of lapsed gamers this targets it seems like it will be totally serviceable.

The biggest block will be the gamelist. I know my sister was interested until she looked up what was included. She was hoping for stuff like Crash and Spyro and lost interest. I think there will still be a ton of people looking to revisit FFVII, MGS, Ridge Racer, etc, though.

125

I don’t really know who this console is for, ultimately. Unlike the NES and SNES Classics, old PlayStation games are still fairly easy to find for fairly low cost. So the collectors probably have, or can easily get their hands on, copies of these games that they want to hold on to or play. New players are probably going to look at the graphics and the lack of analog control and go, ew. Nostalgic folks are probably the ones who will put down actual money for this, but will probably play each game a few minutes and put it on the shelf. But it will probably sell like crazy because woo, PlayStation!

126

Well, there are some really expensive rare PSX games out there. but there’s none of them on the Classic as far as I know.

127

Sure, there are lots of scarce and just plain expensive PlayStation games out there - I know the Working Designs games aren’t cheap, for one thing. But it seems to me, as a casual explorer of retro game shops, that the average price of a PlayStation game is much lower than the average price of a Nintendo game. Maybe that’s partly due to being on CD vs a cart, or maybe they just hold up better and there are more of them out there.

128

I expect there’s some of both. Also for all that the SNES was very popular, I’m not sure how the install bases or average game sales compared between that and PSX.

129

If you could plug an NES, SNES or N64 cartridge into a common PC, I would scratch my head over them, too. I think the disc format of the PS1 puts the PS Classic at a disadvantage. (Also, the lack of more really great games.)

I mean, there are multiple ways (some involving piracy) that you can play a PS1 game right now:

  1. Run a legitimate retail disc on the original PS1 hardware.
  2. Download and burn an ISO and use it in a modded PS1.
  3. Run a legitimate retail disc on your PC using emulation.
  4. Download an ISO and run it on your PC or any other hardware on which you can install an emulator.
  5. Purchase and download a remake and run it on some newer PlayStation hardware, on PC via Steam, or on mobile.**

This list is much smaller for other platforms.

** Recommended.

130

Persona 1 for psx sells for like $400. It’s on the Classic.

131

Not to mention PAL gamers that always had them in 50Hz anyway.

132

Nah. They’ve made some missteps but they are handling PSVR well over the past few months with cheap bundles and excellent game support. Old Sony wouldn’t have handled it the same way.

133

Yeah, overall I’m still impressed with Sony this generation, despite not wanting cross platform play and the Playstation Classic. They’ve been pretty gamer-friendly and supported their products pretty well.

134

I’m cautiously optimistic about PSVR. We’ll see what happens when the next-gen system is announced and where PSVR stands after that. Ideal: new controllers, integrated console support, higher res headset, wireless. Uh-oh: no changes to the platform, it’s a dead end.

It just feels like another me-too product that Sony has always been prone to doing.

135

Jumping flash is pretty expensive at 70ish bucks used as well.

I think part of what makes the PS Classic so lame to me is that it lacks dual shock, and the games list is missing my favorite PS1 titles (JRPGS other than the 3 on the system) Not to mention you can play FF7 lots of other places etc. The problem with a lot of the PS Classic titles is a bunch of them are playable elsewhere without much trouble.

I think the bottom line on this thing is, the games just aren’t the right ones.

Here is wikipedia’s list of the Top 20 best selling PS1 games worldwide

There is only 1 Japanese only game on that list, and for the other 19, the PS Classic has only 3 of the top selling titles for the system on it.

Looking at the list, there are 4 huge series from the PS1, Tomb Raider, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, and Gran Turismo that are not on the system at all.

Sony didn’t want to shell out the cash for the rights for these, or add in analog sticks to the controllers. I mean, making this without a Crash Bandicoot game is just unbelievable. Crash Bandicoot was the PS1 mascot.

And I am not even getting into the odd choice to use PAL (inferior) versions of games on the system over the NTSC versions. WHY!?!?

Anyway this thing is way off target. We will see how much they sell. 100 bucks is the most of any of these nostalgiasoles, but it is a pretty nifty gift idea anyway.

136

Heh. Remember when they added motion controls to the PS3 controller because Nintendo was going in that direction? That was funny.

137

Jumping Flash is available elsewhere though.

Unfortunately they never gave Revelations: Persona a PSOne Classic release. I think all the others are on there, though which means you can play them on PS3, PSP and many on Vita too.

138

It’s not that unfortunate given that it was remade for PSP with a vastly improved translation, less racism, etc.

139

True! I forgot they went that route with it.

The main point still stands though. PlayStation Classic seems kinda crap and you can buy those games elsewhere comfortably.

140

I did not know that!