At E3 2010, Sony announced the second PS3 compilation of PS2 games, The Sly Collection. Though we at Game Rant had hoped that the Team Ico Collection would be the second such compilation issued, we're willing to make due with Sly. For now.
Keeping our hopes alive for the Team Ico Collection are recent comments from Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios. It seems Mr. Yoshida is pretty hot on these re-releases, and would like to see more of them. In his own words:
"Santa Monica Studios had the brilliant idea to upgrade and improve God of War for PS3 with the God of War Collection that we released last year."
"There were a lot of positive reactions from consumers in doing that, and now we get a lot of suggestions for types of packs they'd like to see."
"So we are looking to continue to do these HD conversions."
When pressed on whether these games may ultimately be made available as downloadable titles on the PlayStation Store, Mr Yoshida was less direct:
"We are looking into ways how we can deliver the PS2 library to PS3 consumers, but were are not ready to announce anything yet."
So, that option has apparently not been ruled out. However, it is worth noting that The Sly Collection is the first game to carry the 'Classics HD' designation on its packaging. Creating a branded line for these compilations would seem to suggest that Sony plans to continue releasing them as retail discs rather than games on demand.
The Sly Collection, like The God of War Collection before it, has been fully remastered in widescreen high definition. Unlike The God of War Collection, The Sly Collection also supports PlayStation Move and 3D. (Fun fact: the original PS2 version of the third Sly game also supported 3D -- it came packed with red/blue anaglyph glasses.)
I'll admit a certain amount of fondness for these re-releases -- it's fun to play nicely updated versions of some old favorites. Of course, for most PS3 owners, these collections are the only option available, given the lack of any sort of backward compatibility on the majority of PS3 systems.
Oh, and the Team Ico Collection? It's currently listed on the Amazon France website, with a June 30, 2011 release date. With any luck, good things will come to those who wait.
Ranters, what do you think of theses Classics HD collections? What games would you like to see get this treatment?
The Sly Collection is expected to release this September, exclusively for the PlayStation 3.