PlayStation's 30th Anniversary Could Be Bigger

I believe that PlayStation's 30th Anniversary is gonna be bigger than the 25th Anniversary milestone. I know that there are some naysayers that it wouldn't be any bigger. I'm going to explain on how the celebration could be bigger. Let's jump right in.

The celebration of the brand is almost upon us. PlayStation has posted their 30th Anniversary celebration page that updates as they got more stuff to come. I believe that PlayStation's 30th Anniversary is gonna be bigger. A couple of weeks ago, they given us the first things, Shapes of Play, My First GT. the soundtracks, the bundle that has the PS5 equipment sporting the gray color of the very first PlayStation console and the Last of Us Part I's launch into PlayStation Plus. I can hear them say what about a lineup of PS1 games, and I'll get to that later.

First off, I'm gonna talk about that game that received a Universal Acclaim rank with a score of 93 on Metacritic and became an unforgettable gem of PlayStation. That is Astro Bot.

Astro Bot became an acclaimed gem PlayStation really needs. It celebrates the ultimate PlayStation heritage accompanied by VIP bots that dress up as references to PlayStation characters. A lot of people have praised the heritage and the way Team Asobi, the developers behind Astro Bot did with their game. I am planning to get Astro Bot to celebrate the ultimate PlayStation heritage. I am in the middle of Astro's Playroom to hold me off until I get Astro Bot.

However, things have took a turn for the worse. After the PS5 Pro was revealed, the price of it was revealed to be $700. They don't want to spend that much money for a console they've been waiting, so the trailer showing the PS5 Pro was dislike bombed over the $700 price. It's not the first thing that happened because both of Concord's trailers got disliked bombed over the game's bland Guardians of the Galaxy mimicry in the characters department, slow pacing and the pricing of $40 for a hero shooter game, as well as the eight-year development cycle that Firewalk has threatened to shut the game down and delist it from digital stores. But Ellis has said the game would be shut down while they explore better options including those that can better reach their players. That could mean that Concord may come back in a different form. Or wind up being shut down permanently if the process didn't turn out well.

After the players became critical of the $700 price tag of the PS5 Pro, Sony decided to blind them with nostalgia by announcing the 30th Anniversary bundle that has the PS5 consoles, controllers and the PlayStation Portal sporting the colors of the PS1 and the old red, blue yellow and green PS logo to pay homage to the brand. The bundle goes available on November. I have a feeling that they want to get the controller since they are critical of the PS5 Pro's $700 price tag. I really want to get the PS5 Pro, but $700 is a bit too absurd.

The first piece of the celebration is the Shapes of Play collection that came in three types, Recharge, Battle and Create, the free-to-play experience, My First GT, the soundtrack that contains music from PS1 games and winning a PlayStation's 30th Anniversary avatar from winning one of the PlayStation Tournaments events. During the recent State of Play, they announced the next milestone to the celebration. That is adding the Last of Us Part I to the PlayStation Plus Extra catalog.

The Last of Us is Naughty Dog's dark franchise known to be beloved for the PlayStation community. They are adding their beloved game to celebrate the Last of Us Day. The milestone comes in several activities. There is a PlayStation Stars Campaign activity. Players that play the Last of Us Part I would receive the Clicker digital collectible until November 26. There are new PS Plus avatars that can be received when redeeming a voucher code until October 26. And finally, the Last of Us merch gets a 10% discount when using the promo code. And that's all what the Last of Us Day has to offer today.

They announced the Shapes of Play collection, My First GT, the soundtrack of music from PS1 games, the chance to earn a special avatar by winning a tournament, a special bundle and launched the Last of Us on the Extra catalog today. Now let's talk about the next piece of celebration they announced recently, but didn't hear much about yet. That is a lineup of PS1 games for PS Plus Premium.

"Like, why would anyone play this?" This is a super rude out of context quote from former PlayStation boss, Jim Ryan. He went in for the record and just said that after he said that the PS1 and PS2 games looked ancient. He was at the event where Gran Turismo Sport on the PS4 was showcased. But he has addressed what he said. And just to answer the question, it's because there's lot of love for the back catalogue as we approach the 30th Anniversary of the brand.

On the past post, I mentioned about the one thing I like about both the PS1 and PS2 and it remained a mystery. Well, one thing I like about both the PS1 and PS2 is two things. First off, their Multitap accessory. the first two consoles only have two ports while there are some games that have up to four players. But it's possible for the four players to play any PS1 or PS2 game that have up to four players when you plug in your Multitap to any controller port. Plug in two Multitaps and it can expand up to eight players. PS Plus Premium has PS1 and PS2 games that have multiplayer and you don't need a Multitap. All the third player got to do is to turn on their wireless controller. Same with the fourth player when playing on the same system.

Now, over to the second thing, the NTSC and PAL versions. The cases of both systems have a label to make it easy to tell if it's North American or European. NTSC is for the North American versions while PAL is for the European versions. When playing a PS1 or PS2 game on the PS4 or PS5, it's possible to switch between the NTSC and PAL versions on Settings. I prefer to play the NTSC version.

When the PS4 came out, the retro titles were fizzled out, except the ones on PS Now, which didn't offer a catalog of PS1 games and remained having a weak selection of PS2 games. That's why PlayStation's 25th Anniversary didn't turn out to be big. It's also the fact that the PS4 lacked backwards compatibility while the PS5 is only backwards compatible to PS4 games due to the PS3's hard to develop structure. But hey, who needs full backwards compatibility when we have PS Plus Premium?

During the recent State of Play, Sony has announced two new PS1 games. They are Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Dino Crisis. These are the two fan favorite PS1 games coming later this year and they are a part of PlayStation's 30th Anniversary set to be bigger than ever like Days of Play did because of the revamped PlayStation Plus, though I don't have any of these games on my wish list. To have PS Plus Premium offering PS1 games in the back catalog along with PS2 and PSP games is a very smart business choice as we are seeing two PS1 games get added to the classics catalog during the celebration later this year.

They had to announce that Blood Omen would be released on the classics catalog later this year because Soul Reaver 1 and 2 are getting remastered and put in a compilation as Blood Omen is the first game of the Legacy of Kain franchise they have to play first along with the sequel before playing Soul Reaver to understand the story. While Soul Reaver 1 and 2 are getting remastered, the original releases might be released on the catalog one day. Releasing original releases on the catalog while the remakes and remasters are present and vice versa has no conflict today, and it went well with their entry of MediEvil and Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.

Soul Reaver is not the only PS1 game celebrating its 25th Anniversary to get remastered along with its sequel, so for context, the other two PS1 games also celebrating their 25th Anniversary this year are Ape Escape and Xena: Warrior Princess. Which means the remasters for both games might be confirmed because if there is a PS1 game that is at least 20 years old, the likelihood of its remaster is high. Also, there is literally one PS1 game Sony must release to the classics catalog. So what are the common denominators for both of these games? I'm glad you asked. Let's highlight the common denominators between both games that are celebrating their 25th Anniversary this year.

Ape Escape and Xena: Warrior Princess are both platformers that involve Spike and Xena having an arsenal of gadgets and weapons to defeat enemies. They have intros that involve friendships, whereas Spike and his best friend Jake entering the laboratory and Xena and her best friend Gabrielle walking through the trail while making a joke and both Spike and Xena can save their best friends. Both games have a training grounds where Spike practices his gadgets and Xena practices her weapons. And that's it. These are the common denominators between these two games that are turning 25 this year.

To have both games having good common denominators is ideal and there is not a lot of competition between these two games today. Also, Xena: Warrior Princess, though is a third party PS1 game turning 25 this year, is based on the show with the same name. You need to remember that the show first premiered back in 1995 before the PS1 game adaptation came out in 1999 with Ape Escape and others. Which means the show is having its 30th Anniversary next year in 2025, hoping Warner Bros. Discovery owns the show's rights to stream it on Max and put Xena into MultiVersus as an Assassin while the PS1 video game adaptation of the show with the same name is having its 25th Anniversary this year. Maybe Aspyr could remaster it, with just one butt to kick.

And not only PS1 games are coming to PS Plus Premium in honor of PlayStation's 30th Anniversary, because PS2 games are also coming to celebrate that. The PS2 became the best selling Sony console for decades and it's known for characters having smooth models. Since we got the first Sly Cooper game, I hope we get subsequent games in the original Sly Cooper trilogy where the home worlds are bigger and have open exploration to have an emphasis on finding stuff, the option to play as not only Sly, but also his friends and grind coins to buy stuff. I will be livestreaming them as part of PlayStation Rewind.

I know what you're thinking that you are gonna jump up and ask what about the Jak and Daxter trilogy and its racing game. Well, yes, they are currently on the catalog. Except this case, they are currently having the PS Now algorithm that involved only up-rendering despite the fact that you need the Premium/Deluxe membership to play them, so we still don't know if they are gonna shift to the PS Plus Premium algorithm to have not just up-rendering, but also quick saves, rewinds, video filters and the option to switch between the NTSC and PAL versions.

So, I believe that because of PlayStation Plus Premium offering a vast library of retro games and we're getting two new PS1 games, PlayStation's 30th Anniversary is gonna be bigger than previous milestones. It's gonna reign supreme during the course of the celebration. PS Now, though? Nope, its PS2 catalog was limited. Honestly, I'm starting to feel like that as the classics catalog continues to grow, I feel like that the catalog should be separated into three catalogs; one for PS1 games, one for PS2 games and one for PSP games. Here's to a wonderful future of the brand we all know and love.

The Truth Behind Concord's Biggest Failure

You know, things have gone chaotic within the game industry and community these days. I was about to make a blog post about 2XKO. And then I was about to make the next one about the next Mana title followed by the one about PlayStation's 30th Anniversary, but I have to talk about this news piece that blew up and it's even worse somehow! Concord has died after two weeks. So here we are, ladies and gentlemen. After eight years of development, Concord has flopped real bad after its release on August 23rd and two weeks later, the game was taken offline and dead. For those of you who actually loved the game, be sure to show up to its funeral and bring it some flowers.

If you don't know what is going on regarding Concord's failure in performance and life, Firewalk Studios game director, Ryan Ellis has posted his article regarding the game. And it shows that the game's servers will be taken down offline on September 6th, which it did. But he said that the game will be taken offline while they explore better options including those that will better reach players. This is where it stands now that Concord is no longer listed on PS5 and Steam and on retailers that sell physical copies. I'm gonna tell you what made Concord flopped real hard with 25,000 copies in sales.

The reception of its two gameplay trailers were poor that they were dislike bombed. Many people suggested that Sony and Firewalk should've delayed the game a bit to change its business model that relied on people to spend $40 on a hero shooter as other competitors are free-to-play. This wasn't the problem with Overwatch 1 because it was $60 dollars. It's clear that Sony and Firewalk should've delayed the game a bit before releasing to differentiate from Overwatch and Apex Legends. However, the majority of people that aren't interested are actually happy that Concord flopped due to the trailers' poor reception, the pricing of $40, the characters and generic maps that lacked inspiration. I was interested in getting Concord and I never played it, but personally, I'm glad I did not get it in case it flops, and it did. That has to be the biggest flop I have experienced and it's probably the worst since Sanjay and Craig.

Regarding the poor reception, Concord's characters became ugly and bland and the cast became a Guardians of the Galaxy mimicry. The shooting is great, but the gameplay is slow. And the game was sold for $40. That's why nobody didn't want this game unless if it was free-to-play. But Ellis has clarified that the game will be taken offline while exploring options to better reach players. This is not the only bad news that came to fruition.

In exchange, the death of Concord comes with a new release, Astro Bot, which received a 92 and a Must Play accolade on Metacritic and an outstanding reception, thus being a universally acclaimed game over Concord. So it makes it clear that on September 6th, an utterly disappointing game like Concord was shut down in favor of an utterly outstanding game like Astro Bot was released in exchange. It is the fact that both of Concord's trailers got dislike bombed over the game's lukewarm Guardians of the Galaxy mimicry of characters, inspiration lacking maps, the bland gameplay and the $40 pricing while Astro Bot's trailer received an overwhelming amount of positivity over the game's ultimate PlayStation experience accompanied by VIP bots that dress up as our favorite PlayStation characters and it's in time for PlayStation's 30th Anniversary. I have a post about PlayStation 1's 30th Anniversary coming soon, so stay tuned for that.

Again, Ellis has made it clear that Concord will be offline while they explore other options including those that can better reach more players. Does this mean that we will never see Concord again and is it deemed dead? Absolutely not. It will return in a later date potentially as a free-to-play title and will remain on Prime Video's upcoming anthology series, Secret Level. This is not common of the situation today and it's largely dominated by Blizzard with their free-to-play entry of Overwatch 2. To have a free-to-play hero shooter is a very smart business choice as everyone can play it without their paid membership on console and the chances of a free-to-play hero shooter to flop are very slim.

In fact, if I recall correctly, there has been one free-to-play hero shooter that has been ported to console and has not flopped, and that is Valorant, which did a great reception since the console launch. The only upcoming free-to-play hero shooter coming to consoles this year is Marvel Rivals. There is literally one free-to-play team-based game that Concord will have to compete with if it returns as a free-to-play title.

One last thing to be made. The main reason of hero shooter games to be free-to-play is a train that they have a slim chance of flopping and an excellent chance of doing pretty well. If the game goes free-to-play, it will very likely succeed to have a good player base. To give a hero shooter a pricing makes no sense. They need to be free-to-play so that they can succeed to have a skyrocketing player base. So it's possible that Concord may return as a free-to-play title as Ellis stated that they would take the game offline to explore better options to reach more players or not. But when? The answer is unknown.

UPDATE 10/29:

I went on X and one of the articles has stated that Sony has closed Firewalk Studios. That means Concord will never return as they have been exploring better options to reach more players for few months to find no solutions. So effective immediately, Concord is shut down permanently and will never be heard from again.