Leviathyn The Gamer's Chronicle
It may have taken a while to get it right but at least Sony is trying to perfect the art of re-releasing old content and doing it the right way. Today Sony has announced three brand new PlayStation Collections. These new re-releases are different from the others, even though God of War has been re-released plenty of times. PlayStation Collections are full series (or near full in Rachet’s situation) for a very low price: $29.99.
To start this new brand of re-releases, we have the God of War Saga, Rachet & Clank Collection, and the inFamous Collection. All three will be out on August 28th for $29.99 both in retail and PSN digital versions.
This price point is absolutely wonderful for what you get in the packages. Let’s start with the God of War Saga since that is the most jam-packed. You get five games in the case and even more bonus material and promotions. Check the list out:
- God of War
- God of War II
- God of War III
- God of War: Origins Collection (which includes God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghost of Sparta)
- Exclusive Bonus Content
- Voucher For 1 Trial Month of PlayStation Plus
- Remastered for HD, DUALSHOCK Control, Full PlayStation Network Trophy Support and 3D (3D supported only in God of War III and God of War: Origins Collection)
That is a hefty package for just $30. If you didn’t bite into the HD collections for God of War before or are just picking up a PS3, this is the collection for you.
But say you are not interested in playing as a god killing soldier, well you could try your hand at the electricity-wielding anti-hero in inFamous. That pack, again for $29.99, gives you access to inFamous, inFamous 2, and Festival of Blood. That isn’t all, though. The inFamous Collection also gives you extra missions, costumers, power-ups, and weapons.
Finally, we’ve known about the Rachet & Clank HD Collection just for reference I’ll tell you that the package comes with Racket & Clank, Going Commando, and Up Your Arsenal (with online play). No Deadlocked but Sony has told us to wait for news about that entry in the series. Perhaps free DLC for Collection owners in the future.
The thing that makes me giddy about these PlayStation Collections is what Sony could do with them. The current HD re-release strategy wasn’t working too great. You pick 2-3 games in a series, give them bad resolution enhancement, and sell them between $29.99 and $39.99. Something wasn’t clicking. While it was nice to see older games make a comeback, it wasn’t the HD revitalization that we had wanted. God of War for instance came out with both GoW 1 and GoW 2 hitting the PSN, then a collection, then the Origins Collection. If Sony had an inkling of a thought about these PlayStation Collections, holding off to bring this God of War Saga out would have been huge news.
I wouldn’t call it a mistake as much as experimenting. At least Sony is doing this while the other giants leave the past alone or continue to come out with weekly downloads of games no one cares about (cough cough Wii Shop cough cough) Sony has hit the right combination with the PlayStation Collections. We got plenty of content with proper resolution fixing (I’m looking at you almost every Capcom HD re-release), bonus material, and a great price.
Another thing that has me excited is the thought that Sony could be releasing these on a monthly basis. Maybe 1-3 new PlayStation Collections a month and what Sony could do is offer a $29.99 monthly subscription to be able to play all of the PlayStation Collections on the PSN whenever you want. Of course, once you stop that the subscription you can’t touch them but your saves will remain intact and you could just re-sub to play again. $30 a month for access to all PlayStation Collections sounds like a great deal to me. The God of War Saga alone will give you a full month’s worth of play. With new PlayStation Collections every month, hypothetically of course, you would never run out of things to play on your PS3 again.
It’s a thought but giving players access to new content (perhaps tons of new content depending on how many PlayStation Collections get released in a month) for $29.99 a month sounds too good to be true. It’s another fee, especially if you’re a PS Plus member, but it’s something that if you add up is worth it over the long haul.
Sony may not do that, but they’ve already made me a buyer of these PlayStation Collections. The God of War Saga is exactly what I wanted out a re-release. It even gives me a month of PS Plus! The inFamous one comes with everything related to inFamous.
I expect you’ll see plenty of articles in the near future talking about PlayStation Collections people would want to see. Allow me to begin that craze with my dream collection: the Mass Effect Collection.
- Mass Effect
- Mass Effect 2
- Mass Effect 3
- Mass Effect: Infiltrator HD (allows Move or controller input)
- All DLC content for all three games, including Genesis and the Extended Cut
- Bonus content for ME3 Multiplayer like new classes, races, and weapons.
- $29.99
Obviously that price point is easy to laugh at but that collection would be amazing. Also, it would mark the first time the PS3 would see the first Mass Effect. If it released on the Wii U as well, this Mass Effect Collection would sell like hotcakes. If Sony got its hands on this dream collection for the PlayStation Collections brand, they could add in more bonus stuff like PS Plus trials, Killzone weapon pack for ME3 multiplayer, and a new class/race combo for Cole MacGrath from inFamous (a wet dream, I know). Could you imagine Cole shooting lightning at the Reapers or Cerberus? Yes, please!
The point is that Sony can do a lot with the new PlayStation Collections. Whether it is a monthly PSN sub, exclusive collections like Mass Effect or Final Fantasy, or the ability to work with studios to add PlayStation-exclusive add-on content, these re-releases are going to be hot. If Sony can release at least one new collectin a month, you can be sure there will be a huge following for these re-releases and new rush of nostalgia.
