Sony considers joining the nostalgic console race with PS One Classic

It seems Sony is considering jumping on the classic console hype train — somewhat. While you probably can’t expect to see a PS One revival console on the shelves any time soon, the company is interested in the idea and looking into how it could be a reality.

In an interview with Mantan Web, Sony Interactive Entertainment president Takeshi Kodera said the company wasn’t ruling out the possibility of a classic console in the vein of the NES Classic. He said (shoutout to Twitter user bk2128 for the translation):

Our company is always digging up past assets, and I think there are various ways to do it. There have been discussions happening (in the company) on what kind of ways there are.

If this PS One Classic does happen, it’d join the likes of the aforementioned NES Classic, the SNES Classic, the Sega Mega Drive Mini, and the Atari VCS. If it does happen, the PS One would be the newest console to be revived in this form, being from the fifth generation while every other one that I know of has been from the fourth or older.

I have mixed feelings about this, but that’s not new. I’ve expressed the opinion that gaming as a whole needs to move away from the constant stream of remasters, rereleases, and franchise milking (I’m still not on Todd Howard’s Christmas card list, for obvious reasons). But I’ve also said games need to be preserved for the benefit of history and just because it’s a shame to see a piece of art disappear just because the medium supporting it vanishes.

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If Sony doesn’t want to go the way of the whole “new-ish” console, then it could always mimic its competitor, Microsoft. That company’s answer to the question of “How do you solve a problem like backwards compatibility?” has been to bake it so thoroughly into the Xbox One that you can currently pop in almost any original Xbox disc into a One and play it just fine.

Kodera also said production of the PlayStation Vita would wrap up in the next two years, even in Asia, the market where it’s seen the most success. He implied the PS4’s lifecycle was entering its third and final act as well, but wouldn’t comment on future consoles.

If Sony is planning to discontinue both of its current-gen consoles sometime in the next few years, then a throwback console like the hypothetical PS One Classic, released sometime in the next year or two, might tide everyone over until the next generation of Sony consoles really hit their stride.