PlayStation Collections

Yesterday, Sony announced that on August 28, along with the previously announced Ratchet & Clank Collection, two more compilations would be released as well and future compilations would be marketed under the label PlayStation Collection. The Infamous Collection and The God of War Saga will be released and will contain all of the games in their respective franchises up till now. Infamous will have the first and second games, as well as the Festival of Blood downloadable title and some extra content. God of War will have the first, second and third games, Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta and extra content. A voucher for a month of PlayStation Plus will also be included. The PSP and PS2 games will be the HD remakes from the previous collections. Both collection will retail for $39.99.

Now that all the info’s out of the way, I have to say that I like the idea of these collections. What we have is basically a greatest hits of sorts, similar to that of music artists. It’s convinient to be able to have all of a series with just one purchase. Want a collection of hits from the Rolling Stones? Pick up Fourty Licks. Looking for all of the Godfather movies? Buy the Godfather Collection. Want to know Kratos’ entire adventure? Get the God of War Saga. You could argue that Sony should just ship out more copies of the games already out there and lower the price but be aware that option is still available. Sure you are mostly paying for convienience but I’m alright with that. Furthermore, Sony is including some additional content as extra incentive.

I am very much for this compiling of games but I would like to propose another idea. There’s these collections of the hottest songs right now called the Now That’s What I Call Music series. Each collection has some of the biggest songs of the past four to five months from most of the major record labels. I would like to see something like that for video games. The major publishers, like EA, Activision, Sony, and Ubisoft, can release a greatest hits collection of the previous year. For example, this November EA could release “The 2011 Collection” and it would have three of their best selling games from the previous year all for $60. The collection would probably include games like Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, and Dead Space 2. If Sony did something like this, their 2011 collection would include LittleBigPlanet 2, Infamous 2 and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Point is these games will receive a boost in sales all over again and it doesn’t have to be just hit titles. We could also have “critically acclaimed” titles as well or collection of titles from more than just one publisher (although that would be more difficult to achieve).

I currently don’t own a PlayStation 3 but I want one and when I do get one, these collections are looking awfully appealing. One purchase and I could be set for a while. Hopefully this is a trend that the rest of the industry will follow. I mean, the industry followed Sony when they started doing HD remakes, why not this? Look at it this way. This is the console equivalent to all those crazy Steam deals PC owners revel in.

Yesterday, Sony announced that on August 28, along with the previously announced Ratchet & Clank Collection, two more compilations would be released as well and future compilations would be marketed under the label PlayStation Collection. The Infamous Collection and The God of War Saga will be released and will contain all of the games in their respective franchises up till now. Infamous will have the first and second games, as well as the Festival of Blood downloadable title and some extra content. God of War will have the first, second and third games, Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta and extra content. A voucher for a month of PlayStation Plus will also be included. The PSP and PS2 games will be the HD remakes from the previous collections. Both collection will retail for $39.99.

Now that all the info’s out of the way, I have to say that I like the idea of these collections. What we have is basically a greatest hits of sorts, similar to that of music artists. It’s convinient to be able to have all of a series with just one purchase. Want a collection of hits from the Rolling Stones? Pick up Fourty Licks. Looking for all of the Godfather movies? Buy the Godfather Collection. Want to know Kratos’ entire adventure? Get the God of War Saga. You could argue that Sony should just ship out more copies of the games already out there and lower the price but be aware that option is still available. Sure you are mostly paying for convienience but I’m alright with that. Furthermore, Sony is including some additional content as extra incentive.

I am very much for this compiling of games but I would like to propose another idea. There’s these collections of the hottest songs right now called the Now That’s What I Call Music series. Each collection has some of the biggest songs of the past four to five months from most of the major record labels. I would like to see something like that for video games. The major publishers, like EA, Activision, Sony, and Ubisoft, can release a greatest hits collection of the previous year. For example, this November EA could release “The 2011 Collection” and it would have three of their best selling games from the previous year all for $60. The collection would probably include games like Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, and Dead Space 2. If Sony did something like this, their 2011 collection would include LittleBigPlanet 2, Infamous 2 and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Point is these games will receive a boost in sales all over again and it doesn’t have to be just hit titles. We could also have “critically acclaimed” titles as well or collection of titles from more than just one publisher (although that would be more difficult to achieve).

I currently don’t own a PlayStation 3 but I want one and when I do get one, these collections are looking awfully appealing. One purchase and I could be set for a while. Hopefully this is a trend that the rest of the industry will follow. I mean, the industry followed Sony when they started doing HD remakes, why not this? Look at it this way. This is the console equivalent to all those crazy Steam deals PC owners revel in.

That God of War one sounds amazing.

That infamous pack sounds pretty neat, considering I just bought a PS3. Definitely thinking about that & Ratchet.

Weirdly amusing that in an age of digital information redundancy Sony is making this big play to keep their games new on store shelves by shuffling the SKUs around.

Or maybe it's directly related. If the people can get Infamous 1 or 2 anytime they want from PSN, you need something to push on retail since they won't have incentive to hold on to the old SKUs.

Definitely a worthwhile purchase for PS3 users that haven't traversed those waters.

@Brodehouse said:

Weirdly amusing that in an age of digital information redundancy Sony is making this big play to keep their games new on store shelves by shuffling the SKUs around. Or maybe it's directly related. If the people can get Infamous 1 or 2 anytime they want from PSN, you need something to push on retail since they won't have incentive to hold on to the old SKUs.

Plus end of console generation means less exclusives it seems. Plus they will be seen as good value come the holiday season (why get boring sequel for game X when I can get 2/5/etc good games for the same price).

They should make the covers look even more terrible by adding some PS PLATINUM swag to it.

@Jack268: Most important thing about games is the cover. ;P

@Jack268: They should take a page from Arkham City GOTY boxart and put some quotes of praise.

Wow 5 games for 40 bucks. That is a fucking steal. Anyone who hasnt played god of war needs to pick that up. I need to play the 2 psp ones myself

Those are pretty fucking awesome.

Box art could be worse I suppose

The Ratchet one is missing Deadlocked. Shutup, I fucking loved Deadlocked.

Anyway, this is a pretty good deal for anyone who hasn't yet dived into these series, but... who hasn't yet dived into these series that has any interest? I guess if you really liked God of War but never bought any of the others, buying its collection would be nice.

Still, Sony making great games available at a good value is a step forward in my book.

Wait, so is the Ratchet one different from the Ratchet and Clank Trilogy released last month?

While these are good deals, I have to say I think it's funny that they're putting out that God of War one now, given that there's another one coming out next year. Not that I would expect them to bundle everything else in with a new game when they know people will pay $60 for just the new game, I just think it's funny.

The Infamous one sounds cool, but I already have the first one, so I'll skip it. God of War sounds good, since my local store ran out of copies of the collection that had 1 and 2, and I've decided to stop trusting my PS2. It reads some games that are totally scratched and may not read some games that are in Near Mint. Which games are in Ratchet and Clank? Are those the ones from the PS2? I'm assuming, since it's "remastered in HD".

@Funrush: The Ratchet & Clank Collection contains the first three games on the PS2. The only game missing is Deadlock.

@Hizang: It is the same one but it hasn't been released yet.

@believer258: They could release another Ratchet & Clank Collection that has Deadlock, Size Matters, and Secret Agent Clank.

@MooseyMcMan said:

While these are good deals, I have to say I think it's funny that they're putting out that God of War one now, given that there's another one coming out next year. Not that I would expect them to bundle everything else in with a new game when they know people will pay $60 for just the new game, I just think it's funny.

They did that with the original God of War collection a few months before God of War 3 came out.

"Hey God of War 3 is coming out so play the original classics.!"

Considering that I never did finish God of War 3(was literally impossible to complete due to some glitch/bug), and that I have yet to play any of the HD remakes of the other God of War games, I am interested in grabbing the GoW one.

Wait, so is the Ratchet one different from the Ratchet and Clank Trilogy released last month?

I'll pick up the Ratchet & Clank collection. I have yet to play any of the R & C series, so I might as well start at the beginning... I don't mind these, in fact i kind of like them doing this with some of their older PS2 era games that I wouldn't be able to play otherwise (my PS2 died long ago).

@Hizang: Other then a few goodies its the same thing. It hasn't been released yet in US, so this is the version we get.

@Funrush said:

Which games are in Ratchet and Clank? Are those the ones from the PS2? I'm assuming, since it's "remastered in HD".

Yup.

@mosdl said:

@Brodehouse said:

Weirdly amusing that in an age of digital information redundancy Sony is making this big play to keep their games new on store shelves by shuffling the SKUs around. Or maybe it's directly related. If the people can get Infamous 1 or 2 anytime they want from PSN, you need something to push on retail since they won't have incentive to hold on to the old SKUs.

Plus end of console generation means less exclusives it seems. Plus they will be seen as good value come the holiday season (why get boring sequel for game X when I can get 2/5/etc good games for the same price).

Yep. I always thought a good detector of when a major video company is about to announce a new console is when exclusives come to a halt, because the developers who do exclusives/are tied to contracts with companies are playing the new hardware, and coming out with game ideas that could make good use of said hardware.