Random Roar: Revisiting the PlayStation 2 Classic Question

 

About a year and a half ago, I speculated that if there was going to be a PlayStation 2 Classic, it was perhaps a little too soon to release one.  In the time since that editorial was posted, has a lot changed?

Well, it has been a year and a half, so if nothing else, we’ve had more time to grow nostalgic for Sony’s sixth generation console.

Sony has also recently announced the further obsolescence of the PlayStation 3 (as well as their two portable systems), which will be achieved by taking away its digital store.  This includes classic PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 games that were available, something which the PlayStation 4 was never made capable of playing, but the PlayStations 3, Portable and Vita were.

As such, Sony is going to completely cease selling their classic titles “brand new” after August, except for whatever physical copies are left on Amazon.

So is it finally time to start speculating on what a PlayStation 2 Classic might look like?

Maybe not.  Classic systems haven’t really been a thing in the last year and a half.  Not from the major console manufacturers anyway, and definitely not to the same degree of hype that Nintendo’s efforts generated.  Nintendo has stubbornly stuck to its guns and still isn’t releasing a classic edition of their N64 console, despite how well the NES and SNES editions sold.  This could speak towards a less than stellar lineup of games on the N64, although the console did see the release of instant classics like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye 007 and Super Mario 64.  Unlike for the first two classic editions, Nintendo may have to scrape the bottom of the barrel in order to adequately fill an N64 version.

Sony has much different problems.  Their PlayStation Classic was an utter disaster, although I don’t know how much of that was just general incompetence and how much of it was due to the influence of their current President and CEO, Jim Ryan.  As Geoff reminded us a couple days ago, Jim Ryan is not too fond of older games.  The often used quote from him is, “Why would anybody play this?”

So not only are they being run by someone who looks down upon their older games, Sony also has the sales figures of their first Classic to look at, as well as whether retailers are willing to get burned a second time if the next one also fails.

The sheer amount of games available for the PlayStation 2 will also make it difficult to create a Classic system because just how are you supposed to whittle down close to 4000 games into a list of 30?  I stated a year and a half ago that the PlayStation 2 Classic should have closer to 50 games and I stand by that.  A list of 30 would only contain the super popular titles, most of which have been remastered and re-released on newer consoles, but a list of 50 would have a greater chance of containing some of the hidden gems of the console, like Legend of Kay, Okami or Katamari Damacy.

Actually, come to think of it, all three of those games have been getting remastered and ported around lately, too.

Basically, not a lot has changed in the year and a half since I proposed it was too soon for Sony to give their second home console the classic treatment, and the ship for miniature “classic” consoles has likely sailed by now.  Right now, the only ones talking about the potential for new classic consoles are gaming blogs who are perhaps starved for content and/or ideas (two separate N64 Classic speculation articles popped up within a week of each other on two separate sites in February, for example).  As far as I can tell, there’s not a lot of people speculating about a classic version of the PlayStation 2, but then it’s hard to find anything amidst the glut of posts right now about the games being taken down from the PSN.

On the plus side, Sony can afford to wait on another classic system.  As said before, the original PlayStation Classic did not perform well, and right now classic systems are hardly a priority for Nintendo either.  It also seems to me like older games are going nowhere, assuming they’re being properly archived.  We could have a PlayStation 2 Classic tomorrow, we could have one nine years from now to celebrate its 30th anniversary.  We may also never get one, it wouldn’t be that big a deal if we don’t.  Most gamers who still have their PlayStation 2 probably own enough good games for the console that they basically have a Classic already.