Which has been managed worse, Virtual Console or PS Classics? Why?

[Deleted member 249]

This discussion is actually borne out of a discussion in another thread—I feel like it is a topic that is valid enough to discuss, especially since in the present day, we can all agree that both have been spectacularly mismanaged.

But of Sony and Nintendo's initiatives to bring their legacy content and catalog to their modern consoles via digital distribution — PlayStation Classics and Virtual Console respectively — which one do you feel has been more mismanaged, and why? As a primer, for Virtual Console, Nintendo built up a really great catalog on the Wii, a far more diminished (but still decent) catalog on the Wii U with some enhancements to the games, barely a presence on the 3DS (even with the New 3DS exclusive SNES catalog factored in), and so far, the Virtual Console is missing entirely in action on Switch, and we have no indication that it is actually coming to the system.

For PlayStation Classics, Sony had a great catalog of PS1 games that was available across PSP and PS3 (with Cross Buy too, all the way back in 2008!), and a handful of PS2 games (available only on PS3). On the Vita, there were no PS2 games available, and multiple PS1 games were caught in rights limbo, either unavailable on the system at all, or only available via a PS3->PSV transfer. On PS4, there are no PS1 games available whatsoever (making it the only PlayStation console that can't play PS1 games, in fact), and some PS2 games available with some enhancements, and that's it.

Which of the two do you think has been handled worse, and why?

A NOTE ABOUT XBOX:

While we are on this topic, I do want to give a shout out to Xbox—they have the smallest legacy coatalog of the three platforms (this is not a quality related judgement, just a recognition that Xbox is the "youngest" console family of the three), but they are most determined to maintain it. Great backward compatibility features on Xbox One that enhance Xbox and Xbox 360 games, games from every single Xbox console represented on the console, and digital continuity (so you don't have to repurchase content! Something neither Sony nor Nintendo has consistently managed) makes their showing in this area flat out the best of the lot in my opinion. Sony and Nintendo could stand to learn from Microsoft.

 

[Deleted member 4359]

PS classics

Wii at least never went away, if you had the console or it's upgrade you got all your games for free and the library was insane and varied. To be fair, the lack of 3DS support was a problem with the older hardware and the hardware licensing was even worse. The Wii U upgrade program wasn't even worth bothering with.

Sony did almost everything right, except the problem of forgetting to add support to your most popular console. Just because Vita support was lazy doesn't mean they couldn't take some guys to go make a PSP emulator for PS4 and call it a day. Makes no sense. They bothered to do it for PS3 for a few games. PS4 with a huge library? Too bad we're already making enough money.

 

[Knight613]

Virtual Console.

At least PS Classics were cross buy on PS3/PSP/Vita.

 

[Bowl0l]

Virtual console.
The great discounts made it hard to swallow.

 

[IfSleepoversCouldTalk]

Wii VC was fantastic

 

[The Almighty Tria]

PS Classics. I get a limited selection of PS1 games and a shit show collection of PS2 games. PS1 games are cross platform with everything EXCEPT the PS4. PS2 games are only on the PS3. There is no PS3 (unless you want to add another subscription to pay for) or PSP (thankfully the Vita is BC with the PSP). And don't get me started on that shit show PS2 Classics on PS4

Nintendo, despite management the overall system in a really bad way, at least gave me access to NES, SNES, N64, Wii, GB/C/A, DS, and many third party systems. Almost all of the major first party games are represented across all platforms, and the Wii had an incredible lineup of third party titles as well. Unfortunately, Nintendo couldn't court the third parties for the Wii U and 3DS Virtual Consoles, which is what I consider their biggest fuck up with the program.

 

[MrDoctor]

ps classics are still around, but at least most virtual console games had emulation standards above "fucking garbage"

 

[Hieroph]

Virtual Console. Wii Shop is closing down, 3DS and Wii U don't have a selection as good as Wii, and Switch doesn't even have the damn thing.

It's funny that after "RIDGE RACER" and all that, Sony has won this match with sheer tenacity.

 

[Disclaimer]

Equally bad, to me, although Nintendo's Virtual Console will have been less poorly handled if it does end up coming to the Switch—which it probably won't in name, since they've specifically avoided using it.

Sony's refusal to bring PS Classics to the PS4 at all is baffling and infuriating. Essentially means I can never stop using my Vita, and devalues my PS4 for my gaming needs.

 

[Nanashrew]

PS classics. So many games I never got to play on PS1, so many games not even released on PS Classics. PS4 still doesn't even have PS1 games, and it barely has any PS2 games.

Despite the management of VC on Nintendo's platforms, Wii U had a great selection of first party stuff, nearly exhausting their own library. The real issue was 3rd parties not coming on board to fill it further like we had on Wii.

 

[Hieroph]

Virtual Console. Wii Shop is closing down, 3DS and Wii U don't have a selection as good as Wii, and Switch doesn't even have the damn thing.

It's funny that after "RIDGE RACER" and all that, Sony has won this match with sheer tenacity.

 

[MattWilsonCSS]

Both had strong initial surges on their original platforms. Right now, both are essentially inert. Conceivably there is still SOMETHING to come from Nintendo going forward, at least in the form of the titles given out through the online service. PS2 on PS4 is pretty much dead, and there are no plans whatsoever for PS1/PS3 on PS4.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

At least the Virtual Console is still being actively supported in some form (I.E. the Classic Edition consoles, the free games included with the Paid online Switch service.)

Sony immediately threw the PS Classics into the garbage with the PS4, and now they say shit like "Why would anybody play this?" even though they're still making remakes of PS1 games like Crash and Medievil.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

Really hard to say... both have been such a huge letdown. But at least Nintendo brought SNES VC to 3DS later that generation, which was awesome for as long as it lasted.

 

[LewieP]

Tough call. Feels to me like Sony are disinterested, whereas Nintendo have been incapable.

I hope E3 brings us news of the new VC program headed up by NERD, who are a great team. I doubt Nintendo don't want to use their back catalogue to shift Switches, they're just taking their sweet time.

 

[FriedConsole]

Virtual Console.

At least PS Classics were cross buy on PS3/PSP/Vita.

Click to shrink...

This. Would have been cool to play all my Wii VC games on my 3DS.

 

[Emperor Ham]

PS2 classics on PS4.

Needs all Capcom/Konami games.

 

[KalBalboa]

Virtual Console.

At least PS Classics were cross buy on PS3/PSP/Vita.

Click to shrink...

Cross save, too.

 

[watdaeff4]

Considering both are *currently* non-existent for their modern platforms; the correct answer is that both suck

I'm keeping my WiiU specifically because of VC and thankfully I have a Vita

 

[pulga]

Considering the Virtual Console is being held back because of how ridiculously well the Classic Consoles have been selling, I'm going with PS Classics.

 

[Giudecca]

Nintendo had a great Wii VC and the Wii U allowed you to play them as well. No VC on Switch sucks, but the NES/SNES minis lessen the sting somewhat.

Playstation is way worse. Spotty PS1 support on the PS3/PSP/Vita and and the PS2 on PS4 program is pathetic. Drop the mandatory trophies, Sony.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Virtual Console was good on one system. PS Classics were good on 3, and you only had to pay once.

 

[Transistor]

I didn't have to pay multiple times for my PS Classics

 

[Deleted member 27921]

I bought so many PS1 and PS2 games on my PS3, naively thinking "Surely, any later Sony console will be more powerful and therefore easily capable of playing these games! I can see no reason why they wouldn't carry over. I'll have them forever!"

How wrong I was.

 

[Marukoban]

I have more hope for VC on Switch than PS Classic on PS4.

Sony just seems to be not interested in their own legacy, which probably make sense from their own perspective considering most of popular games are third party. It's a pity though, PS1 and PS2 have amazing libraries of classics. At this point I'm more hopeful of PC port than PS1/PS2 games playable on PS4/5

 

[きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ]

Virtual Console is better only because of the fact that it has EarthBound on Wii U, and 3DS. That game having some modern way to play it again was wonderful, and more people need to play it. Its nice they put it on the SNES classic too.

 

[SkyMasterson]

PS Classics, only because the Virtual Console on the Switch doesn't exist yet(which is dumb).

VC on WiiU gets some shit, but it actually came close to providing the number of games that the Wii VC had.

3DS VC even has quite a few.

PS Classics on PS4 is pretty terrible in comparison. They did such a fantastic job with them on the ps3/psp. Then dropped the ball.

 

[Dynamite Cop]

How the hell is PS Classics leading as the worst? If you take into account variety of the library in every region, PS Classics shits on the VC.

 

[BassForever]

Tough call, I like how ps1 classics you buy once and can play on psp, ps3, vita, and pstv... but still can't play on ps4 which is :|

Vc on wii obliterates ps1 classics from a library perspective... but that is now trapped on wii or wii mode of wiiu, wiiu got a fraction of what wii got and charged an upgrade fee, and is now afk from switch :|

So both disappoint me at the moment, and from a historical view it comes down to what you prefer. The wii's much larger and varied library, or the flexibility of ps1 classics to follow you from console to handheld and back.

I'd say nintendo vc has been the bigger let down, would have been huge if that whole library had continued from wii to wiiu, and then from wiiu to switch. I'd have bought a lot more vc games over the years, as opposed to buying less due to having to rebuy/upgrade.

How the hell is PS Classics leading as the worst? If you take into account variety of the library in every region, PS Classics shits on the VC.

Click to shrink...

Because the wii virtual console had nes, snes, n64, genesis, turbo graphix 16, and arcade games. Then on wiiu and 3ds you add game boy, game boy color, game boy advance, and game gear. Unless you're a very hard core ps1 fanboy it's basically not an argument nintendo's vc on any of the 3 systems vc has been on destroys the ps1 and minimal ps2 classics if you want to include those as well.

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

PS classics by far. Sony did an excellent job with classic games on the ps3 only to completely shit the bed with them on the ps4

Virtual console was always handled poorly so it being consistently terrible isn't as bothersome.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

They are both rather lacklustre, but considering the best VC was on Wii and that's now gone...I went with PS Classics. Atleast they are still purchasable and you could play them on PS3 and Vita. The only redeeming quality of Wii U VC are the GBA games

 

[rude]

There's 0 reason for there not to be playable PSP/PS1/PS2 classics on PS4. I'm hoping Nintendo really knocks it out of the park for Switch and makes Sony realize the error of their ways.

 

[Nanashrew]

How the hell is PS Classics leading as the worst? If you take into account variety of the library in every region, PS Classics shits on the VC.

Click to shrink...

PS Classics lacks Valkyrie Profile and plenty of big name titles from the PS1 era.

 

[Knight613]

How the hell is PS Classics leading as the worst? If you take into account variety of the library in every region, PS Classics shits on the VC.

Click to shrink...

Most of these responses seem to be under the impression the question is which one is better at the moment.

 

[Common Knowledge]

Most of these responses seem to be under the impression the question is which one is better at the moment.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I'm having a hard time parsing out the actual opinions in some of these responses haha.

I'm gonna go with VC being worse, if only due to the fact that, as of right now, it no longer exists going forward. That's not to say PSClassics is much better though. The PS4 list is so goddamn embarrassing to look at.

 

[Metallix87]

How the hell is PS Classics leading as the worst? If you take into account variety of the library in every region, PS Classics shits on the VC.

Click to shrink...

More systems = more variety

 

[Freddo]

PS Classics
- They introduced Imports, but there been way too few US Imports on the EU PS Store, still waiting for Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy Tactics, Legend of Mana, Threads of Fate, Xenogears and several more that never had a proper European retail release back in the day.
- It had promise, but they broke the whole thing with the PS4, with it being unable to run any PS1/PS2 games bought from the PS Store on the PS4.

Virtual Console
- Not multi-platform at all while PS1 Classics are at least shared on PSP/PS3/Vita
- Seem to offer less and less games each time. 3DS VC have less than WiiU VC, which have less than Wii VC. And Switch have no VC at all.

I would say the PS Classics been managed worse, cause I feel it simply had more promise, and got let down more.​

 

[Etain]

I feel like both have been handled really badly, but I'm going with the PS Classics because they really fucked up for a year or two until FFVII launched, then they fucked it up again for PS4 by wanting to get niceties like trophies that slow the process down, and nothing going on for PS1 stuff at all. At least the Switch is promising something for older games (though I'm still not satisfied at all), but Sony seems to have given up on PS1 stuff.

EDIT: PS Classics is also more frustrating in that the Vita and PSP/PS3 implied they would have supported at least some games across multiple generations of hardware. But nope, just a complete break instead.

 

[G_Shumi]

Definitely PS Classics.

The Wii Virtual Console had so much more variety and content from multiple old consoles that you still can't find anywhere else. The biggest downside is that if something happens to your Wii or Wii U, those games are gone forever.

Sony definitely had the execution down with affordable prices (and even sales) and cross-buy/play with PSP and Vita, but their content paled in comparison to Wii's Virtual Console games.

 

[TLZ]

No option for both? Both should've been ported to be playable on current systems and not make us pay again every time.

 

[Agent X]

I'm amazed at some of the responses here, which have taken great liberties to move the goalposts to tailor the comparison in favor of the writer's preferred system. I don't consider purchasing an NES Classic Edition or SNES Classic Edition to be a representation of "Virtual Console".

Also, people saying, "Well, on the Wii Virtual Console you had games from other systems like Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, NeoGeo, etc., while Sony restricted you to only PlayStation" is another stretch, since most of Sony's recent systems do offer downloadable Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, and NeoGeo games (and in some instances they're cross-buy, too). They weren't "PlayStation Classics" because...well, they weren't PlayStation systems. I understand that the original question was about "PlayStation Classics", but you can't really knock Sony on this technicality.

With that in mind, I'll have to give two answers: "then" and "now", because both companies' current efforts are markedly different than what they were 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago.

Then (5-10 years ago): Nintendo's offerings were worse. They really weren't bad in and of themselves, but Sony totally trounced them in three areas:

1. Pricing. Most of Nintendo's games were very overpriced, thanks to their notion of setting the price solely by the platform of origin. Sony, by comparison, had a couple of tiers, including a fair base price ($5.99 for PS1 games, $9.99 for PS2 games) and a higher price point for some popular top-shelf games. Nintendo just priced everything like they were all top-shelf.
2. Discounts. Sony had 'em, Nintendo didn't (at least during the PS3/Wii era). This was great because there were a several PS1 classics that I felt weren't worth the $5.99, but knock a couple of bucks off, and I'm on board. Nintendo was just horribly rigid. I think I might have seen one or two discounts ever on the entire Wii Shop Channel in over a decade. Thankfully, Nintendo has started offering discounts on their newer systems, so this isn't as much of an issue anymore.
3. Cross-buy. I loved being able to buy PS1 classics, and being able to play them across PS3, PSP, and PS Vita. Sadly, this seems to be a lost art for Sony with how they handle PS2 classics for PS4...but on the Nintendo side, they never developed this "art" to begin with.

Now: Nintendo still loses on this one. Really, both companies have done a lousy job, as others in this thread have also pointed out.

1. When it comes to the PS4, Sony has no PS1 classics per se (unless you count a handful of remakes/remasters), and their PS2 classics program is botched because of higher pricepoints, mandatory trophy requirements (which add all kinds of unwanted hassles to development), and no cross-buy carryover. It's a mess. At least the PS2 emulation is decent, and you get some enhancements, even.
2. When it comes to the Switch, Nintendo has...nothing.

I guess some people adhere to the logic that a flawed strategy is worse than no strategy at all, because they'll give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt that whenever they finally do get around to rolling out Virtual Console for Switch, it'll be absolutely spectacular--no, absolutely glorious, and demolish anything that Sony ever had and ever will manage to muster. That's fine, if we assume Sony would never respond in kind. Personally, I hope Nintendo does blow the doors off of Sony then and now, and I hope Sony likewise does respond in kind and give the PS Classics for PS4 a much needed revamp to similarly high standards. I'm all for it. But I can't judge potential, and I can't judge "what if"--I have to judge what I see, and as it stands right now Sony's current classic game offerings (as diminished as they might be) still outshine what Nintendo has to offer.

 

[Aprikurt]

PS Classics might have less actual content, and if we take into account PS2 they totally shit the bed, but at least I could play the same PS1 Clasaics that I bought on my PSP, PS3 and Vita.

 

[ULTROS!]

Having played and using both, it's really VC. VC requires me to pay twice or ever thrice.

 

[Calverz]

I should be able to play all my ps1 classics on my ps4. Its absolutely ridiculous i cant.

 

[Randroid]

I'm still mad that Europe keeps getting unplayable 50Hz PAL-versions of a lot of PS-games. Resident Evil Code Veronica X was a recent example.

 

[.exe]

Both of them suck for regularly releasing 50hz versions of classics in Europe. SotN on PSN EU is a travesty. Everything, including music, is slowed down! Ridge Racer is unplayable for me. It feels like it's in slow motion. At least PSN sometimes marks US versions, but this is super spotty with many ports of the good versions left unmarked.

 

[Windrunner]

Both are massive disappointments.

I have several PS1 Classics across my Japanese and American accounts (the PAL versions on the European stores are trash) but I can't play them on my Vita unless I get 2 more memory cards and I can't play them at all on my PS4.

I have VC games on my Wii, 3DS and Wii U but they're all marooned on their respective systems because Nintendo are either completely incompetent or deliberately anti-consumer when it comes to DRM and account systems.

Meanwhile if you bought OG Xbox Ninja Gaiden Black over 10 years ago for play on your 360 or you just have your disc from 2004, you can now play it on your Xbox One X in almost 4K. That's how things should be.

 

[Joni]

One was managed badly, the other was managed as a disaster. But the disaster wasn't supposed to be a major system feature while the Virtual Console was.

 

[Stilton Disco]

PS classics, since we know from tech analysis from places like digital foundry as well as hacked systems that it's possible to just run old PS2 games at least using the original discs with the emulator the P4 has, and crossbuy on previously purchased classic titles has no reason not to be in place. It's a clear step back from how Sony handled these games last generation.

Conversely Nintendo have always half arsed the virtual console, so it's either going to be not much of a loss if it never shows up or treated with the same lack of care it's always been if it does show up.

It's the downgrade in service that makes Sony the greater of two evils basically.

 

[Gelf]

Both of them are unsatisfying right now. Last gen I would have easily said the PS classics were handled better just because of how portable they were. You bought a PS1 game and you could play it an any system with access to PSN. Now we can't even buy those games on PS4, we just have make do with the tiny amount of games Sony want to remake. Nintendo meanwhile have always irritated with the slow drip feed on every new system and again the lack of cross buy.

Right now it's Xbox that easily handling it's classics in the best way. I don't own an Xbox One yet but the fact my Ninja Gaiden disk(and hopefully others if/when they get added) will work and be displayed in a higher resolution when I do is fantastic.