Well, it’s official: Sony is getting in on the mini retro console bandwagon with the PlayStation Classic. As revealed in a PlayStation Blog post, the mini console is being released on December 3rd, 2018 to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the PlayStation’s first unveiling. If you already own one of Nintendo’s NES or SNES Classic Editions, you know what to expect here: a smaller form factor with pre-loaded games. However, Sony is keeping quiet on a number of details so far and we’ll have to wait until closer to release to find out more about the PlayStation Classic. For now though, here’s what you need to know based on what information has been made available.
Price
This could end up being the most contentious part of Sony’s sales pitch for the PlayStation Classic. At an MSRP of $99.99 USD, Sony’s mini retro console is more expensive than either the NES or SNES Classic and the situation is even worse if you’re in Canada ($129.99 CAN) or Australia ($149.99). With only 20 pre-loaded games included, there are also less actual games included with the PlayStation Classic than either of Nintendo’s offerings.
That being said, it’s difficult to compare games of different generations against each other from a value standpoint, but a PS1 title in general is going to have a higher cost than a NES or SNES game, so this was surely a factor in Sony’s decision to price the PlayStation Classic a bit higher than the competition. Still, $100 for 20 PlayStation games comes out to $5 a title, which is less than what Sony typically sells PS1 titles for on PlayStation Network, so it’s not an outrageous price point by any means.
Sony