PlayStation Classic

[Xeogred]

Seems utterly pointless when:

- PS2's run PSX games faster.
- ALL PS3 models also play PSX games and you can create essentially infinite virtual memory cards, or buy adapters to back up old cards like I did to the HDD, and the PSN classics selection is huge itself.

Seriously, do people only own a PS4 now or something? I mean I want to get another original PSX myself someday for the heck of it, or maybe one of the cute little PSOne's someday... but this thing, I don't know. If it's an easy way to get a hold of the original non dualshock controllers in new condition, I might be interested in it for that. But otherwise I don't see the point of this.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I feel like this will miss the type of games I would want to get for PS1. For example, I have a feeling they won't get Symphony, which would be an obvious pick.

Plus, along with what Xeo said... why not just put PS1 Classics on PS4? I know it's too late in the game for Sony to do physical BC, but digital should be really easy.

[noiseredux]

Yeah if anything this just reminds how poorly Sony has handled backwards compatibility.

[isiolia]

Thing is, those are mostly the same arguments that can be made against the Nintendo mini consoles (or any others prior to that, etc). It's just not really targeting the same market. Plenty of people out there don't have a Playstation console at all, and a $100 device with a built-in library is a lot more attractive than buying a PS4 for $300 and then spending another $100 on PSOne classics (20 games at $5 each, for sake of argument), possibly more for a second controller, etc. These are meant to be little bites of nostalgia in impulse buy range, not comprehensive retro gaming solutions.

The timing also more or less puts it on the market for the 25th anniversary - the PS1 launched in Japan on December 3rd 1994 (and this is sharing that December 3 release), making next year the 25th anniversary there. 'course, it didn't launch until fall of '95 here, but hey, maybe they'll do a Dual Shock edition for 2020. Still means putting these on the market in the anniversary timeframe. Considering that though, they should have tried to include 25 games

[bmoc]

But otherwise I don't see the point of this.

It will sell for the same reason the NES and SNES Classics have done so well. It targets a few demographics:

-People that collect all things Nintendo/PlayStation
-People that want a quick and easy nostalgia fix
-People that want to hack it for a neat looking emulation box

It isn't really for people with existing physical PS1 collections because as you have mentioned, there are tons of ways to play physical PS1 games. There is decent value in the PlayStation Classic over buying the games from the PSN. The PlayStaton Classic games are effectively $5 each while PSN PS1 games are $6-10 each.

I feel like this will miss the type of games I would want to get for PS1. For example, I have a feeling they won't get Symphony, which would be an obvious pick.

I've seen a few people say this but I don't understand why. Symphony of the Night is on the PSN and Konami allowed several Castlevania games on the Nintendo Classic consoles. Why would Sony or Konami be opposed to Symphony of the Night on the PlayStation Classic?

[noiseredux]

Thing is, those are mostly the same arguments that can be made against the Nintendo mini consoles (or any others prior to that, etc).

oh, agreed. I'm just not the target for any of those things. I had zero interest in the NES Classic, and yet am ecstatic about the launch of the NES games on Switch. I don't want a bunch of retro themed plug-n-plays that I have to hook-up/unhook from my TV constantly; I want all the retro games on the hardware I already own.

As an aside, I thought Microsoft's reaction to this announcement was great - basically they just linked to their backwards compatible game list and said something like "play 500 retro Xbox games right now!" Haha.

[ElkinFencer10]

I don't have any nostalgia for the PS1 like I do for the NES and SNES, so this is a tougher sell for me especially since I only care about one of the five announced games, and that's FFVII which I have and can play on a real PS1. I may still pick one up eventually, but I'm not hyped or anything.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Part of the success of the new and SNES classics was parents wanting to share their childhood with their kids. The games primarily had some sort of multiplayer function. Sony is not known for their multiplayer or co-op experiences.

Not knowing the full list, the ease of access to playstation games and iconic titles through pretty much anywhere and the overall inexpensive nature of ps1 titles makes this seem like an unappealing bundle. How many places can we get final fantasy vii now really?

We gotta realize that the glut of great titles on the ps1 dilute the audience that wants a specific title. How many people were screaming to see ridge racer 4 versus the folks who wanted final fantasy 6 or earthbound?

I just can't see plunking down $100 on something we know almost nothing about. Their announcement was haphazard and didn't drum up a ton of excitement. I don't know... maybe I'm a crotchety old man.

[isiolia]

I just can't see plunking down $100 on something we know almost nothing about. Their announcement was haphazard and didn't drum up a ton of excitement. I don't know... maybe I'm a crotchety old man.

I suspect they'd have done better with a full list of games, but I also think that going with the non-Dual Shock controllers limits them. It's not like the announcement was out of nowhere, it was part of their Tokyo Game Show stuff. Maybe the remaining 15 titles will be regional or something.

[marurun]

I just can't see plunking down $100 on something we know almost nothing about. Their announcement was haphazard and didn't drum up a ton of excitement. I don't know... maybe I'm a crotchety old man.

You ARE a crotchety old man, and we love you for it. You're not wrong. On the other hand, however, I don't think the idea of the device is a bad thing. The Playstation certainly had at least 20 iconic and fun titles that people would be willing to pay a relative pittance for, and the ones they announced aren't bad picks for that. I wonder if they are hoping to us interest drummed up by the announcement to aid negotiations with certain publishers who might be holdouts. Either that, or they want to trickle out titles in the lead-up to the release, to keep interest high. Now that we know 5 titles, there's certainly a lot of speculation about what the other 15 might be.