How should large back catalogues of games be presented on new consoles?

I'm sure you guys know that I like my achievements, so I was happy to recently pick up some discounted ACA NeoGeo titles (they're notoriously easy completions). But as I played a couple it made me realise that I think this is the way all back catalogues should be presented.

Sure, they're pretty barebones releases (although they do often feature US and Japanese versions, plus new time attack modes), but man alive, there are absolutely hundreds of them. So often we're given no choice on what retro titles we get, anthology discs which compile the 'best' games and nothing else, occasionally missing out important games (think of the recent Sega Collection for instance). Say you're a Shining Force fan, why should you have to buy yet another version of Columns? Wouldn't it be great if you could just drop a fiver on getting the ones you actually want?

It made me wonder if the bigger companies could be missing out on a potential goldmine by just following Hamster Corporation's method. By not spending a lot of cash by dressing them up, and by giving consumers the choice of which titles to play, it seems to me like an easy win.

Thoughts?

Release everything you possibly can, lack of preservation is a big problem in gaming. People shouldn't have to rely on piracy to play old games.

Large packaged & downloadable anthology collections, with the top rated games or series' among them getting special treatment with remastered re-releases or Spyro-style total remakes. Bare bones individual download releases for titles in collections to be based on sales of the collections. One free download of a legacy title per month for everyone, not limited to premium accounts.

Basically, just get as much content out there as possible.

This is a good question as if we do end up with pretty much all games from previous generations available it's going to be nightmare to sift through unless the list is well presented in a logical fashion and not just done to look good.
The store will need a lot of work so it doesn't become a clusterfuck and the Xbox dashboard approach is not the answer as I find it unintuitive and confusing to use.

NickSCFC

I'd love it if Sony did the following:

- Dump a ROM of EVERY PS1/PS2/PS3 game ever made on the PS Store
- Let me use any PS1/PS2/PS3 disc on my PS4.

I understand a lot of those PS1 3D games control horribly, but they're a hugely important part of gaming and culture history.

NickSCFC wrote:- Let me use any PS1/PS2/PS3 disc on my PS4.

Definitely this, i still have all my old PS1 games from back in the day.

Just throw em up there, no need for bells or whistles, just make sure they run and theyre a reasonable price. As Mr Crisp said, the bigger problem is finding the stuff when its up there. More games is a good thing for a number of reasons but more clutter is not, just look at the problem Steam is having with all the games available on there, it can be impossible to find the good stuff amongst the crap. As cool as it would be to see massive retor catalogues on modern machines, there needs to be a solution in place for the cluter for it to be worthwhile.

NickSCFC

Have to say what Microsoft are aiming for is brilliant, licenced games aside, emulating every Xbox game released since 2001.

After a decade of mass 80s nostalgia, we're starting to see 90s nostalgia more and more in the media, Sony should really be cashing in.

NickSCFC

Vermilion wrote:
NickSCFC wrote:- Let me use any PS1/PS2/PS3 disc on my PS4.

Definitely this, i still have all my old PS1 games from back in the day.

Got a drawer with about 20 games in, would love to have a quick 10 minutes on something like Tekken 2 or Ridge Racer 4 without having to set up the PS3 each time.

I'd settle for Nintendo just leaving Emuparadise alone.

NickSCFC wrote:
Vermilion wrote:
NickSCFC wrote:- Let me use any PS1/PS2/PS3 disc on my PS4.

Definitely this, i still have all my old PS1 games from back in the day.

Got a drawer with about 20 games in, would love to have a quick 10 minutes on something like Tekken 2 or Ridge Racer 4 without having to set up the PS3 each time.

Such things are possible

However publishers would need to make it easier and more convenient than that and it might mean not making ALL the money, which is an anathema to how most of the industry works.

NickSCFC

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:I'd settle for Nintendo just leaving Emuparadise alone.

Or at least sorting out Virtual Console or whatever the hell their new equivalent is on Switch.

I'm starved for new games on that thing and would happily pay to play Mario 64 on it.

Peter Crisp wrote:This is a good question as if we do end up with pretty much all games from previous generations available it's going to be nightmare to sift through unless the list is well presented in a logical fashion and not just done to look good.
The store will need a lot of work so it doesn't become a clusterfuck and the Xbox dashboard approach is not the answer as I find it unintuitive and confusing to use.

The Neo Geo games I mentioned in the OP are all listed as ACA NEOGEO followed by the name of the game eg, 'ACA NEOGEO Metal Slug'. This means they're all grouped together in the A-Z list, they're easily searchable on the store and they even have a banner on the tile so they're instantly recognisable.

It's all really quite an elegant solution.

NickSCFC wrote:
IAmTheSaladMan wrote:I'd settle for Nintendo just leaving Emuparadise alone.

Or at least sorting out Virtual Console or whatever the hell their new equivalent is on Switch.

I'm starved for new games on that thing and would happily pay to play Mario 64 on it.

My Wii U was almost exclusively used as a GBA emulator. I don't mind paying for retro games if the opportunity is available.

Bluesky

Release everything individually at a reasonable price. Have remasters as option and not as a replacement, but I guess internal resolution increases are fine. Maybe give extra graphics options for PC releases. Also no more 50hz versions of games where possible - don't know how prevalent this is, but I know it wasn't a problem with 3DS VC whereas it was inconsistent with Wii U VC releases. I know about the issues surrounding this, but there are workarounds they can implement if they aren't too lazy.

I hope going forward all the next systems are backwards compatible with current gen so everything we have had released this gen is playable on the new systems.

For games we have not yet seen released, remasters are the way forward (Especially Nintendo with GC and Wii games)

NickSCFC

ITSMILNER wrote:I hope going forward all the next systems are backwards compatible with current gen so everything we have had released this gen is playable on the new systems.

For games we have not yet seen released, remasters are the way forward (Especially Nintendo with GC and Wii games)

The main issue so far has been changes in system architecture.

With next-gen rumoured to be returned PS4/XBO's AMD x86 architecture it should be the first time ever that backwards compatibility is possible without emulation or additional hardware.

Theoretically it will be like playing your old PC games on your new PC.

Im fed up of keeping old consoles just so i can play old games. I also don’t want to rebuy games. New consoles need to be backwards compatable or go digital and let us transfer over games from one system to another.

Having to keep older systems (wii, ps3 and ps2) so I can play older games.

If Nintendo were clever they'd get one over on ROMs by having their Virtual Console be constant, online back catalogue. You could buy an individual game if you wanted, or pay a monthly subscription to access any titles.

They still drip feed all their VC painfully slow, but if they stuck up enough at the start, and supporting it with "new" releases each month, you would still get people paying for it.

It beggars believe that in an industry primarily motivated by now much cash they can all make, the fact all three companies have old games that they could monetise and yet they just ignore them or re-release them so slowly.

If I buy something digitally it should be available no mater which console I own.

How should large back catalogues of games be presented on new consoles?

What is your preference?

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