A few months back I wrote an article on the PlayStation Classic titled, as you would expect, “The Incredible Failure That Is PlayStation Classic” where I went over the almost comedic string of things wrong with the PlayStation Classic.
Now, a few months later, post holiday season and now that the “hype” has died down, I’ve decided to revisit the subject for the fun of it because the machine has proven over the past few months to continue to be noting less than an absolute failure on all fronts.
Before we continue, I wanted to point out something funny that happened when I published the original article. I can no longer find the tweet (perhaps it was deleted) where (UPDATE: Watercress found it for me, see below!) someone replied to my article asking “How was it a failure? (or something to that effect.) To that idiot I state if you bothered to actually read the article you would have your answer. Or, maybe if you just paid attention to any discussion on the subject you would see the pattern of complaints and the consensus of disapproval with what the machine actually is. You literally ignored the very reason the article exists to ask the question that it answers! Ah, sounds like a fanboy to me… but I digress, I just had a laugh about that one.
I won’t go over the same tired ground — the power supply not being included, the poor game selection, the usage of European versions of some games, and so much more. It’s been discussed ad nauseam. At this stage, I want to look at the after-effects of all these issues. How, in the past few months, the consoles life has been.
“Terrible” would be the word that comes to mind. Prices started being slashed almost instantly, and now seem to be averaging at least half of what the console originally sold for, so around $50 or less versus the original MSRP of $100! This for a 2 month old “retro” (or, as some would say “Flashback” styled) console! Yeah, when you consider by comparison the demand for NES and SNES classic consoles and how their prices increased or at least stayed constant on the secondhand market, this is both hilarious and sad.
It’s obvious Sony put no effort into the console. They did the bare minimum to make it a physical reality, and presumed the sheep.. I mean, loyal fan base, would jump on board and obsess over the machine like the Nintendo fan base (myself included) did with their consoles. Clearly this wasn’t the case (which restores a bit of my faith in the gaming community) and judging from the pattern of hits I’ve been getting for the PlayStation Classic, what little demand was there for the console has finally died out.
When NES Classic’s still fetch $100 in the secondhand market, the PlayStation classic has dropped to below $50, even going down as low as $20 in one special case I read about elsewhere on the internet. This isn’t a case of low sales, this is a case of no sales! Figuratively speaking, anyway.
This is what a failure looks like. This is what “nobody wants it” actually is. The PlayStation classic is an absolute failure in virtually every market metric, and that’s both hilarious and sad.
I don’t fault Sony for trying. This machine was supposed to take us back to the era of the PlayStation that I actually liked, but instead it showed quite well much of what’s wrong with Sony’s gaming division today, and that’s just sad.
It is what it is, though. I hope to grab one eventually if only to mod it and then probably never do a damn thing with it, much like my NES and SNES Classic’s. I need to break those out and play them again, but that’s for another time.
Sony, you tried, and you failed.
I’ll stick to using original hardware on my old CRT TV thank you.
Oh, lastly, if you got the console and liked it, good. I’m not saying you can’t like it. I don’t know what it is about people always reading an article like this as someone trying to say “hey, you shouldn’t enjoy this” (which is, ironically, what others tend to do to me often, but again, I digress) when I’m just expressing my personal overview on how a product was poorly received by the target demographic. Nothing more.
P.S. There is no such thing as the “PlayStation Mini”
So, my buddy watercress found the tweet mentioned above where someone didn’t bother to read my original article. I’m sharing my capture of it here for the same of comedy, and to prove it actually happened:
Yep. Literally asked the very question that the article in and of itself is an answer to.
A quick look at ebay and not only can I find it for around £25 (about $32) commonly not including postage but most of them are at that price even when modded to include more games. Just shows how much a lot of people don’t want to own them.
Also it is quite fun setting up the original PS1 now and then. Some of the games I used to play a lot (and still own) are Rayman, Tekken 3, Tomb Raider III and Pandemonium 2.