PlayStation Classic Announced (3rd Dec 2018)

[Ronnie]

4 hours ago, Ronnie said:

I'm not saying it's a terrible thing, I'm sure it'll be a cool (if crazy overpriced) product and that's all that matters... I just laughed out loud when I saw it.

 

[Julius]

2 hours ago, S.C.G said:

So... is anyone buying this?

Or waiting for the full list and then possibly buying it?

I think I’ll wait and see what else is coming with it. I have a backlog which could fill up an entire corner of the Smithsonian, with a good number of those games being on the PS1, but I’m not really in any rush to get through it anyways, and I’m enjoying bouncing between new and old games.

If it has a fair amount of the games in my backlog (like three or four), then I’ll probably pick it up, but otherwise, I might just put this money towards a PS3, which already has many of the PS1 games that I want to play as Classics. Or, unless it’s overly priced, I guess I might as well just hunt down the physical PS1 version of the game of the game instead, seeing as my PS1 and PS2 still work fine? 

[Sheikah]

I'm guessing Ape Escape is out of the question since it was the first game to require analogue sticks.

 

I hope emulation does become possible as I can't see some of the games I want to revisit being on it. Would be nice if they made it would you could download games to it off their store.

 

 

[dwarf]

The copycat criticism is dumb. Sony will make a small killing on it.

I don't like the Classic on the grounds of crapitalism. Most people buying one will already own a PlayStation console with more functionality. If the 20 games were released as a disc collection there'd be little interest, but because it's packaged as a nostalgic collector's piece people will go mad for it. And then they'll buy the PlayStation 2 Classic, and the PlayStation 3 Classic, and so on for the sake of completing the set. But crucially the consoles won't satisfy any itch, or make the owners feel whole.

To the guys who've pre-ordered: why vote to clutter up the planet with more needless shit when you could put the money towards something worth buying? Hell, make a donation to charity. Almost anything would be better.

 

I will take some of this back if it comes loaded with the PS Store.

Edited September 19, 2018 by dwarf

[Ronnie]

8 minutes ago, dwarf said:

The copycat criticism is dumb. Sony will make a small killing on it.

The latter has nothing to do with criticising the blatant copycatting. If it sells half as well as the NES/SNES Classics, Sony will be pretty pleased.

Meanwhile...

Touché

[dwarf]

14 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

The latter has nothing to do with criticising the blatant copycatting. If it sells half as well as the NES/SNES Classics, Sony will be pretty pleased.

Meanwhile...

Touché

Sheikah dealt with the reasons why the copycat criticism is dumb, but you customarily ignored them.

Also, you have to have already bought those Xbox games for them to be 'free', so that's pretty disingenuous. 

Edited September 19, 2018 by dwarf

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

If it sells half as well as the NES/SNES Classics, Sony will be pretty pleased.

I don’t know if they would be...I think the original PlayStation had sales greater than the combined sales of the NES and SNES?

Edited September 19, 2018 by Julius Caesar

[Sméagol]

Also a big part of those mini consoles is the actual mini console itself. As a collector's item. I'm not a fan of PS1, there's absolutely nothing I want to play on it (ehh well maybe, I'd have to check. None of the titles currently announced anyway), and I don't like the design, so I have no interest. But it's a good and logical business decision. It's going to sell.

[Ronnie]

30 minutes ago, dwarf said:

Sheikah dealt with the reasons why the copycat criticism is dumb, but you customarily ignored them.

What, him saying "copying is good because the chance of you coming up with something original people want is low"?

Yeah. I ignored that.

Like I said, which you ignored, I'm not criticising the copycat-ing, I just found it hilarious. Especially as they picked the same name, and the same press photo. But it looks a cool product and I'll probably pick one up. Just for the hardware itself though, I don't really have much fond memories of the PS1 tbh. Probably my least favourite console.

Edited September 19, 2018 by Ronnie

[Ashley]

 

It's almost like the palm of your hand is a universally recognised approximate unit of measurement that is a handy short hand (puns!) for when marketing needs to indicate something is small when the consumer can't physically see the product to put it into context themselves. 

Almost.

[Sheikah]

What, him saying "copying is good because the chance of you coming up with something original people want is low"?
Yeah. I ignored that.
Like I said, which you ignored, I'm not criticising the copycat-ing, I just found it hilarious. Especially as they picked the same name, and the same press photo. But it looks a cool product and I'll probably pick one up. Just for the hardware itself though, I don't really have much fond memories of the PS1 tbh. Probably my least favourite console.

 
It's almost like the palm of your hand is a universally recognised approximate unit of measurement that is a handy short hand (puns!) for when marketing needs to indicate something is small when the consumer can't physically see the product to put it into context themselves. 
Almost.

Yeah, exactly. A...white background. With a person holding it to show you the scale, given it's sold as a 'mini' console. Hardly copying, is it? Then again, people will see what they want to see.

[Ike]

Nintendo copied SEGA if you want to be technical about it. Except Nintendo executed it way better.

Nice that we can discuss things without devolving into console wars though.

[S.C.G]

Either way, more ways to play Retro games of all types, from all over is a good thing for everyone.

Just as long as the emulation holds up, then all is well.

[dwarf]

3 hours ago, Ronnie said:

What, him saying "copying is good because the chance of you coming up with something original people want is low"?

Yeah. I ignored that.

Like I said, which you ignored, I'm not criticising the copycat-ing, I just found it hilarious. Especially as they picked the same name, and the same press photo. But it looks a cool product and I'll probably pick one up. Just for the hardware itself though, I don't really have much fond memories of the PS1 tbh. Probably my least favourite console.

 

Quote

Basically, copying is needed to some extent because the chance you are going to come up with everything people want by yourself is low.

What's worse is when they don't copy. There is so much Nintendo could do with their online service that you could easily criticise as copying if they did it. But the console would be so much better for it.

 

There's a big difference between 'something' and 'everything.' Sheikah was saying that there's no need for a company to come up with every new idea themselves. He wasn't saying, as you spun it, that there's no need for a company to come up with anything new at all. As he points out, every major console maker has made innovations in hardware and software, and those innovations become standards. Customers of all three consoles benefit from those standards. Nintendo are a bit quirkier and have come up with unique controller designs more often - few would argue otherwise. Microsoft and Sony have made equally important innovations in other areas. What gives?

There's that famous quote Steve Jobs attributed to Picasso:

Quote

Picasso had a saying -- 'good artists copy; great artists steal' -- and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas

I guess I don't understand what's funny about the Classic because this stuff literally happens all the time. As people have said, it's not a particularly new concept to make hardware smaller. You can say your amusement over the Classic console similarities isn't a criticism, but we all know you still buy into the console wars and keep tabs on this shit. It's very trying.

Sometimes calling out a copycat idea is a reasonable thing to do. If something is truly original, and a company shamelessly rips off every aspect of it so as to infringe on Copyright or a patent, then yeah, potentially a funny thing worthy of derision. I could maybe understand where you were coming from more if this was comparable to the Wii Remote/Move controller situation, but it just isn't. There's not exactly anything worth innovating here. Apple had the iPod 'classic' before Nintendo had theirs, but there's no need to rag on any company for using a common and apt word to describe a retro product.

I don't buy into the console wars nonsense, hell I just slated the PS Classic because I think it's shit. But by saying you'd still buy one even though it's your 'least favourite console' and 'crazy overpriced', I mean 1) that's stupid 2) it doesn't convince me that you're over these petty console wars. Your amusement is poorly veiled criticism. You still have an axe to grind, you still have points to score. Saying you'll buy the console doesn't make you more logical in argument, or magnanimous, and it doesn't disguise your true intention which is to have a pop at Sony.

Why do I bother?

Edited September 19, 2018 by dwarf

[Ronnie]

My god, it's really not a big deal, I think the Playstation Classic will be a great product, probably executed well and it'll sell loads. But yes, everything is copied these days. I (and it seems many others, elsewhere, obv) just found it funny to see how blatant they were at ripping Nintendo off. Almost to Playstation All Stars Battle Royale and Playstation Move levels, but not quite. Anyone who doesn't think they were at least partly inspired by the huge sales of the NES and SNES classics are deluding themselves. Anyway....

Edited September 19, 2018 by Ronnie

[Glen-i]

Hold up, isn't Tekken 3 the one with Gon?

Wouldn't that cause some copyright issues?

Seems weird to choose that one when it will no doubt cost the most to put on the console.

[Glen-i]

7 hours ago, Ronnie said:

My god, it's really not a big deal, I think the Playstation Classic will be a great product, probably executed well and it'll sell loads. But yes, everything is copied these days. I (and it seems many others, elsewhere, obv) just found it funny to see how blatant they were at ripping Nintendo off. Almost to Playstation All Stars Battle Royale and Playstation Move levels, but not quite. Anyone who doesn't think they were at least partly inspired by the huge sales of the NES and SNES classics are deluding themselves. Anyway....

The ironic thing about that particular game is that the main reason it flopped was because it didn't copy Nintendo enough.

[Hero-of-Time]

24 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Hold up, isn't Tekken 3 the one with Gon?

Wouldn't that cause some copyright issues?

Seems weird to choose that one when it will no doubt cost the most to put on the console.

Yeah, its the one with Gon. They probably went with this one because its not on PSN and it is regarded by many, myself included, as the best of the series.

[bob]

£90 and this doesn't even come with a charger?

[Ashley]

13 hours ago, Ronnie said:

My god, it's really not a big deal, I think the Playstation Classic will be a great product, probably executed well and it'll sell loads. But yes, everything is copied these days. I (and it seems many others, elsewhere, obv) just found it funny to see how blatant they were at ripping Nintendo off. Almost to Playstation All Stars Battle Royale and Playstation Move levels, but not quite. Anyone who doesn't think they were at least partly inspired by the huge sales of the NES and SNES classics are deluding themselves. Anyway....

I don't think anyone is saying/thinking that because that's just basic business.  It's why every game has a Battle Royale mode at the moment.  It's why voxels were big a few years ago.  It's why there are unicorn products everywhere.  It's why phones have notches.

Ideas are made, then popularised (sometimes by those that make them, sometimes by others) and then widely adopted.  Some are a fad that pretty much drops away/becomes niche and some stick around.

Pointing fingers saying x copied y is pretty pointless as y will have copied x at some point and x would have copied z and z would have copied y and...well, Baudrillard warned us. It's even more prevalent in capitalistic products (as opposed to art, although that is full of 'copied' work) because money.  If there's money to be made they'll go after it and marketing is built on short hand.  It would be like complaining about Burger King having an advert featuring people eating food and enjoying life because McDonald's has done it.

[Ronnie]

15 minutes ago, Ashley said:

I just found it funny to see how blatant they were

Nothing more

[Ashley]

6 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Nothing more

Hey I never said that

[Ronnie]

Oops sorry

[Glen-i]

6 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, its the one with Gon. They probably went with this one because its not on PSN and it is regarded by many, myself included, as the best of the series.

Well, kudos to Sony for pony-ing up some extra dough.

I like Tekken 3, absolutely dreadful at it, but I remember having fun with it.

[WackerJr]

Retro games are still popular at the moment and while other companies, such as Sega, did a similar thing to Nintendo, and released a collection of older games on a standalone unit, Nintendo gained mainstream attention for actually marketing theirs and using decent emulation.  They were also incredibly smart and did their old tactic of releasing only a small number of units and watching the demand soar as the ‘Mini’ sold out (I’m assuming it was a deliberate move anyway...).

While the copying is laughable and unsubtle, it makes good business sense for Sony to do this.

It will be interesting to see how well received it is and the games they actually put on it.  While many Top Videogames of All Time lists include games included on the NES and SNES Minis, I’m struggling to think of many PS1 games that jump out as being included on those lists (FF7 notwithstanding, which is being re-released / remastered on all current gen consoles anyway).