Did Sony really have an ANTI-2D policy?

maybe early on , just so they could show off the system , as 3D impressed people more.

that said, Mortal Kombat 3 made it onto the PS1 early on ,so maybe it was just more of a "pro-3d" policy than anti 2D.

besides , saying no to Mortal Kombat 3 in 1995 would have been incredibly stupid

That's what I've read, namely that Sony refused to publish 2D games for the PS1 (aka PSX back then) for a short period of time. Supposedly they abandoned it soon.

No. People got it wrong. There were a lot of 2D games made for the PS, even since it launched in 1994.

What the had (in the west by the way) was an anti-policy against publishers releasing old or outdated-looking games.

If publishers wanted to release these games they had to be in compilations, or at a discount.

In Japan games like the SFC Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger etc. were released separately and for full retail price.

They continued this policy in the PS2 era as well. And in fact it was this policy that basically put Working Designs out of business. First they forced them to sell Growlancer Generations as a compilation (WD wanted to sell them separately), and second they forbid them from releasing Goemon at normal retail price.

Personally, I think this policy benefited its user base. They really had no problem with 2D as long they were recently made games.

No. People got it wrong. There were a lot of 2D games made for the PS, even since it launched in 1994.

What the had (in the west by the way) was an anti-policy against publishers releasing old or outdated-looking games.

If publishers wanted to release these games they had to be in compilations, or at a discount.

In Japan games like the SFC Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger etc. were released separately and for full retail price.

They continued this policy in the PS2 era as well. And in fact it was this policy that basically put Working Designs out of business. First they forced them to sell Growlancer Generations as a compilation (WD wanted to sell them separately), and second they forbid them from releasing Goemon at normal retail price.

Personally, I think this policy benefited its user base. They really had no problem with 2D as long they were recently made games.

Panzer_Zwei

This policy didn't prevent the tons of "litter" on the PS1 and PS2 tho.

[QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]

No. People got it wrong. There were a lot of 2D games made for the PS, even since it launched in 1994.

What the had (in the west by the way) was an anti-policy against publishers releasing old or outdated-looking games.

If publishers wanted to release these games they had to be in compilations, or at a discount.

In Japan games like the SFC Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger etc. were released separately and for full retail price.

They continued this policy in the PS2 era as well. And in fact it was this policy that basically put Working Designs out of business. First they forced them to sell Growlancer Generations as a compilation (WD wanted to sell them separately), and second they forbid them from releasing Goemon at normal retail price.

Personally, I think this policy benefited its user base. They really had no problem with 2D as long they were recently made games.

nameless12345

This policy didn't prevent the tons of "litter" on the PS1 and PS2 tho.

Right on. PSX had just as much shovelware as the wii does, today.

[QUOTE="nameless12345"]

[QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]

No. People got it wrong. There were a lot of 2D games made for the PS, even since it launched in 1994.

What the had (in the west by the way) was an anti-policy against publishers releasing old or outdated-looking games.

If publishers wanted to release these games they had to be in compilations, or at a discount.

In Japan games like the SFC Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger etc. were released separately and for full retail price.

They continued this policy in the PS2 era as well. And in fact it was this policy that basically put Working Designs out of business. First they forced them to sell Growlancer Generations as a compilation (WD wanted to sell them separately), and second they forbid them from releasing Goemon at normal retail price.

Personally, I think this policy benefited its user base. They really had no problem with 2D as long they were recently made games.

Heirren

This policy didn't prevent the tons of "litter" on the PS1 and PS2 tho.

Right on. PSX had just as much shovelware as the wii does, today.

But at least in the west you didn't had to pay full price for outdated or repacked one.

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

[QUOTE="nameless12345"]

This policy didn't prevent the tons of "litter" on the PS1 and PS2 tho.

Panzer_Zwei

Right on. PSX had just as much shovelware as the wii does, today.

But at least in the west you didn't had to pay full price for outdated or repacked one.

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

[QUOTE="nameless12345"]

This policy didn't prevent the tons of "litter" on the PS1 and PS2 tho.

Panzer_Zwei

Right on. PSX had just as much shovelware as the wii does, today.

But at least in the west you didn't had to pay full price for outdated or repacked one.

I'd actually argue that the psx had worse shovelware than that of the wii. There was ZERO quality control.

[QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

Right on. PSX had just as much shovelware as the wii does, today.

Heirren

But at least in the west you didn't had to pay full price for outdated or repacked one.

I'd actually argue that the psx had worse shovelware than that of the wii. There was ZERO quality control.

But in any case, the PS recieved premium third party support thoughout all of its long life-span. The Wii just ended up being GameCube part II and its now dead on the water as well.

This is related to what is arguably my favorite game of all time. So I'll just leave this here:

One of the story accounts that fuels the false "Anti-2D" policy is that the main reason behind Megaman X4's delayed release on PSX in the US is how Sony US refused to localize the game on the console due to its lack of 3D gameplay. Sony reportedly caved in after Capcom retaliated by threatening to not release Resident Evil 2 on the PSX.

I got the game on Saturn so I enjoyed it for over a year of 100+ playthroughs unaffected LOL! Good ol' days. Whenever I had a couple of hours to spare I'd just pop it in until a couple years ago.

[QUOTE="nameless12345"]

[QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]

No. People got it wrong. There were a lot of 2D games made for the PS, even since it launched in 1994.

What the had (in the west by the way) was an anti-policy against publishers releasing old or outdated-looking games.

If publishers wanted to release these games they had to be in compilations, or at a discount.

In Japan games like the SFC Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger etc. were released separately and for full retail price.

They continued this policy in the PS2 era as well. And in fact it was this policy that basically put Working Designs out of business. First they forced them to sell Growlancer Generations as a compilation (WD wanted to sell them separately), and second they forbid them from releasing Goemon at normal retail price.

Personally, I think this policy benefited its user base. They really had no problem with 2D as long they were recently made games.

Heirren

This policy didn't prevent the tons of "litter" on the PS1 and PS2 tho.

Right on. PSX had just as much shovelware as the wii does, today.

PS1 and PS2 still had a higher ratio of quality games to the junk than the Wii does.

[QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

Right on. PSX had just as much shovelware as the wii does, today.

Darkman2007

But at least in the west you didn't had to pay full price for outdated or repacked one.

There is a Final Fantasy collection that was sold in Japan.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PS1-Final-Fantasy-IV-V-VI-Collection-JAPAN-RARE-4-5-6-/300588442110?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item45fc77a1fe

[QUOTE="Darkman2007"][QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]

But at least in the west you didn't had to pay full price for outdated or repacked one.

hakanakumono

There is a Final Fantasy collection that was sold in Japan.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PS1-Final-Fantasy-IV-V-VI-Collection-JAPAN-RARE-4-5-6-/300588442110?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item45fc77a1fe

[QUOTE="hakanakumono"]

[QUOTE="Darkman2007"] Im assuming youre refering to the FF ports? apparently they were sold seperately in Japan , which imo is a bit of a ripoff since no real improvements were made for the games.Darkman2007

There is a Final Fantasy collection that was sold in Japan.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PS1-Final-Fantasy-IV-V-VI-Collection-JAPAN-RARE-4-5-6-/300588442110?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item45fc77a1fe

I don't know when it was released, but they were sold both separately and as a collection.

Im sure the FF games were sold seperately , was this collection a late thing?Darkman2007

Yes, they were initially sold seperately in Japan. My guess from a Marketing standpoint is that culturally Japanese consumers find retro gaming more appealing than do Western consumers.

The only reason they weren't sold seperately in the West was due to the persumed value of a retro bundle compared to the stand-alone game. Especially during the time of the games' re-release.

It's probably more that

1. The original copies were likely way more expensive than the overpriced repackaging (I think FFVI was roughly 100 USD)

2. They thought they could convince people there was new content with FMV shots.

It's probably more that

1. The original copies were likely way more expensive than the overpriced repackaging (I think FFVI was roughly 100 USD)

2. They thought they could convince people there was new content with FMV shots.

hakanakumono

I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I believe the reasons above are way too vague and simple to justify what is in the end a business decision.

Marketing departments in companies like Square take more into account than a simple: "The FMV sequences is more than enough new content". The first point is however, in a way, legit.

But again, finance and marketing are more thorough and detailed with their business decisions than a simple "This FMV is enough" or "The package is currently too high a price". For all we know their decision to bundle it had nothing to do with neither mine nor your assumptions.

What I mean is the FMV could have served the purpose of making it seem that it was more than a simple port with an FMV intro and ending.

How did Tomba and Tomba 2 get made if they did?Tony-Baxter

they had early on in it's first 2 years or so but I think it was largely against western developpers and about creating new 2d games that looked bad in their eyes

[QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]

[QUOTE="Heirren"]

Right on. PSX had just as much shovelware as the wii does, today.

Heirren

But at least in the west you didn't had to pay full price for outdated or repacked one.

I'd actually argue that the psx had worse shovelware than that of the wii. There was ZERO quality control.

it depends on how you define shovelware. there was zero control almost on psx yes but for the wii basiclaly any game made for it sucks so hard that I would consider it shovelware although nintendo will think otherwise

[QUOTE="Darkman2007"] Im sure the FF games were sold seperately , was this collection a late thing?Aero5555

Yes, they were initially sold seperately in Japan. My guess from a Marketing standpoint is that culturally Japanese consumers find retro gaming more appealing than do Western consumers.

Nah, they most likey did it because they could get away with it.

Even now Square-Enix got away with releasing the pitful Dragon Quest I-II-III collection on the Wii because of the huge popularity of the series in Japan.

[QUOTE="Aero5555"]

[QUOTE="Darkman2007"] Im sure the FF games were sold seperately , was this collection a late thing?Panzer_Zwei

Yes, they were initially sold seperately in Japan. My guess from a Marketing standpoint is that culturally Japanese consumers find retro gaming more appealing than do Western consumers.

Nah, they most likey did it because they could get away with it.

Even now Square-Enix got away with releasing the pitful Dragon Quest I-II-III collection on the Wii because of the huge popularity of the series in Japan.

much like what Nintendo did over here with the Mario collection on the Wii, which is really just a repackaged mario All Stars. people will buy anyhting with the right name on it.

[QUOTE="Panzer_Zwei"]

[QUOTE="Aero5555"]

Yes, they were initially sold seperately in Japan. My guess from a Marketing standpoint is that culturally Japanese consumers find retro gaming more appealing than do Western consumers.

Darkman2007

Nah, they most likey did it because they could get away with it.

Even now Square-Enix got away with releasing the pitful Dragon Quest I-II-III collection on the Wii because of the huge popularity of the series in Japan.

much like what Nintendo did over here with the Mario collection on the Wii, which is really just a repackaged mario All Stars. people will buy anyhting with the right name on it.

From what I can tell there's been a few companies which have been purchasing the rights of games from companies that went under like Jaleco, DECO, Toplan etc. to release them for mobile phones.

I've also seen a lot of remakes from Japanese PC games, so I guess mobile phones must be a popular platform for retro games.

Much like what Nintendo did over here with the Mario collection on the Wii, which is really just a repackaged mario All Stars. people will buy anyhting with the right name on it.

Darkman2007

My guess is it was all down to budget. They were gearing up for Zelda's anniverssary + Skyward Sword and pretty much had no console counterpart for Mario to celebrate with. So they thought instead of marking the occassion with a bucketload of nothing "Let's make an OST assorted mix disc and bundle it with a re-release of Mario All-Stars". They could've atleast not directly emulated the SNES bundle but they were cutting corners. They probably came to the conclusion that retro gaming is popular enough these days to turn a profit with the least cost. Sega set the benchmark with Sonic's anniversary anywho.

I still own the Mario All-Stars cart I got back in '94. Having never owned a NES, it was awesome to finally play the original Mario Bros. trilogy (in US sense) upscaled and re-mastered to boot.

>Castelvania:SOTN

>GEX

No.