Unlike the PlayStation 3 generation, which benefited from a certain subset of consoles being fully backwards compatible with PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 1 games, as well as “HD Collections,” bringing forward Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, and Ratchet & Clank, the PlayStation 5 is not only compatible with any console, but it's not compatible with just any console. Very weak in the classics department.
Sure you can play the entire Jak and Daxter trilogy, the Sly Cooper escapades as well as some odds and ends like the original Lego Star Wars or the classic Tekken games, but many of the best titles from throughout PlayStation's storied history simply don't exist.
How did we go 13 years without a Ratchet & Clank collection?
The latest compilation started back in the PS3 era.
The addition of the PlayStation Classics catalog via PlayStation Plus gave fans some hope to see those games brought forward, and while there are a few standouts, it's still severely lacking. It turns out that money may be the reason that separates players from these beloved titles.
Cash rules all, including, looks, you have access to titles
As first spotted by Push Square, Implicit Conversions CEO Bill Litshauer, in an interview with YouTuber Mystic, said that beyond technical limitations, much of what's available comes down to “financial viability.” Because publishers are essentially risk-averse, it sometimes goes into out-of-bounds territory, adding little risk, even if it's from a “beloved” title.
In one such example from Litshauer, he shared that a publisher passed on a title that could sell 100,000 units at $6 a piece when the company was making a lot of money. “Why should we suffer?” Litshauer recalled the man. In other words, the amount of money that can be generated, however small, is not worth the trouble.
Upfront cost to consumers is also another factor, as Litshauer noted that many classic titles rarely retail for more than $9.99, and often for a fraction of that, eating into profits that still have to be recouped to account for making the game playable on modern hardware.
I know I'll be waiting for whatever PlayStation Plus Classic I'm willing to go on sale for. $9.99 is a good price, but with the lack of basic things like trophy support in some games, I'd rather wait.
All of this has created an unfortunate situation where, aside from licensing issues, revenue sharing and how to get the game running on modern hardware, these groups are also considering whether they're really going to get a significant enough return.
While it's understandable why we haven't seen something like Beautiful Joe on modern hardware, I still find it hard to believe that there isn't money to port Ratchet & Clank, a beloved PlayStation IP that likely won't see a new release for several years, or even SOCOM as a way to test whether a franchise revue is in the future.
- brand
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Sony
- Original release date
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November 12, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$499, €499, £449, ¥49,980 (base) // $399, €399, £359, ¥39,980 (digital),
- operating system
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Orbis OS
- processor
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Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- resolve
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720p – 8K
Kirby Air Riders has 'Cult Classic' written all over its adorable pink body
Masahiro Sakurai's passion project is nothing like Mario Kart World, and that's a very good thing.
