Hot on the heels of its PS5 Pro announcement, Sony has once again upped the pre-holiday ante with its unveiling of the PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection, which goes on sale November 21. But for some of us, the thought of improving the ray tracing has been enhanced. working out is not your most exciting proposition.
Aficionados of some old-time gaming are spoiled for choice when they think of their old PS1s—which may have been the first console to look beyond the kids’ market and fully embrace older gamers—not to mention the list of stone-cold classic titles and the clubbing-culture-influenced ad campaign that propelled it to millions of unit sales. -100 during its lifetime.
Now Sony has revived its ’90s groove to celebrate three decades since the console that changed everything—think gray. A lot of gray. And so it is good!
Gray Scale
The resulting change has injected a pre-millennial charm into Sony’s most unappealing design of recent years. Yes, this writer is biased, but if one looks at the Slim and Pro models bundled with the PS1 in their cool and calm shade, there is none of the brilliance that one finds only in glossy black plastic, and you can’t help but feel this. it’s the color scheme that Sony should have used in the first place.
Are both models still bums? Oh yes. But their new, shiny coats are eye-catching—and could it be that they look “small” in a creepy way? Clearly proud of its work, Sony has even decided to include a vertical stand (usually only available separately) to compliment it, monolith style (although purists like me will prefer a sitting position, of course).
And yet this is not a great triumph of console design. That’s reserved for something more humble: a special kind of charging cable for the controller. DualSense and DualSense Edge joined the pre-2000 group by mimicking the colors of the original SCPH-1010, but in a brilliant display of skeuomorphism, one end of the USB-C charging cable is embedded in a simulacra of a PS1 controller. -connector plug, to pretend you are in the good old days of being tethered a few feet from your TV. (Sadly, you also can’t upgrade your storage the old-fashioned way by plugging in a memory module up front—you’ll still need to open this beast with a screw.)
Cable Guy
The decision to include this little Easter egg shows that someone at Sony has a long memory: The console of the previous anniversary, the PS4 that marks the 20th in 2014, also adopted gray but did not completely surrender to desire. (However, it also included the PS1 startup sound, a feature that has yet to be confirmed in this new iteration.)
A fake link doesn’t work; it goes back to a less simple time; most of today’s traditional wireless players will look at it with great confusion. But for Gen-Xers it’s great, showing a rare level of detail and care—Sony you understand us. Sony he was there.
As someone who spends most of his PS5 time playing very old titles—Tomb Raider Remastered! Resident Evil: Director’s Cut! Assassin’s Creed! (OK, that person’s PS3, but you get the drift)—The Anniversary Edition Collection is a dream come true, spreading ’90s goodness across the current PlayStation range.
Heck, it made me wonder if I could use the weird PlayStation Portal now that it has a nice grip on ash. For everyone, the retro Pro is a distinct improvement in both hardware and aesthetics, pushing that extra longevity out of an expensive playground—and let’s not forget the potential resale value a few years down the line.
For those looking for the latest nostalgia, this limited edition of 12,300 numbered Pro consoles (reference to the first release date of December 30, 1994) will probably allow you to remember the unpleasant controversies of the original release of the PS5 just four years ago. . We can only hope that Sony goes full 90s here again, and promotes an all-night lineup, in person outside of Radio Shack on November 21. And note that Sony hasn’t revealed a bundle price yet.
(PS: Please someone remember Tenchu ​​Stealth Assassins at the time of this release?)