Sony Joins The Retro Classic Trend.
While the world collectively watched Nintendo in anticipation of their impending announcement of an N64 Classic Edition mini to follow their vastly successful NES and SNES Classic Editions, it looks like Sony snuck in to steal some of the thunder with an announcement of their own: A $99 PlayStation Classic. 
Unlike the Big N, who typically reserves releasing information about their systems until after they’ve finalized the included games list, Sony decided spreading the word of their next hardware release was paramount even if only a handful of the anticipated 20 title list has been confirmed. Among these: Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, Tekken 3, Ridge Racer Type 4 and Wild Arms.
Pundits are hoping that the list will expand to include one of the Crash Bandicoot titles, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Twisted Metal, Resident Evil and perhaps one of the Spyro entries.
It appears as though the package will include 2 corded controllers out of the box but don’t get excited for analog sticks; these things mimic the original PlayStation release’s with digital D-pad only affairs. Hopefully prototype shots aren’t the final spec, however, as the cords on display look quite short. If nothing else, we hope Sony would have learned from Nintendo’s faux pas with that situation on the NES Classic.
The unit is to come equipped with HDMI output only to accommodate modern displays and, like the C64 Mini before it, will be USB powered though the power cube for your wall outlet is not included.
Optimists were hoping that a port on the back could be used to install additional content but Sony has since announced that there are no plans to support the console post release. In short, unless users manage to hack this thing, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to add games to the unit later on.
While preorders are already available at most major electronic distributors, Sony promises these units will be in the hands of consumers before the holiday season with a December 3rd release date. And since they are not Nintendo, we don’t anticipate hardware shortages to be a factor.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this whole development stems from the fact that indeed the retro plug and play hardware trend is approaching fever-pitch proportion. In fact, as the net’s been buzzing with news of Sony’s PlayStation Classic, Sega quietly confirmed that they are planning on releasing a Genesis Classic Edition. Not to be confused with the units readily available from ATGames, this one will be an OEM affair not unlike recent Nintendo hardware.
Sony answered the call – it looks like the ball is back in Nintendo’s court.
