With the popularity of Nintendo’s Classic line of mini legacy consoles that currently include both the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Nintendo, it’s no surprise that other players in the industry have jumped on the trend, or at the very least, are rumoured to be in the process of releasing their very own miniature machine. In a recent meeting this week, Sony Computer Entertainment’s CEO, John Kodera detailed the possibility of a PlayStation Classic.
Although not outright confirmed, Kodera admitted that Sony was internally discussing the possibility of a PlayStation Classic mini console, speaking to Mantan Web, a Japanese news outlet, Kodera stated, “Our company is always digging up past assets. I think there are various ways to do (a classic console). There have been discussions happening (within the company) on what kind of ways are there.”
Currently, Sony’s latest console the PlayStation 4 has no way of playing original PlayStation titles, even though the console has several PlayStation 2 classic titles available for it, original legacy titles are only available on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita (and PSP) platform, under the Classics line of releases.
Other big players in the industry that have followed suit with Nintendo’s mini-line of consoles include several big names, such as SEGA, with their Megadrive or SEGA Genesis Mini, Atari with their Atari VCS, a contemporary take on the 2600, and even SNK with the just announced Neo Geo Mini, capable of playing 40 classic arcade hits.
A PlayStation Mini or Classic console would make a lot of sense for Sony, especially if they allow the console to download titles that are already available digitally on the PlayStation store, a catalogue that trumps both the NES and SNES Classic’s library in terms of available titles. Nintendo themselves have just recently trademarked the N64 branding, which strongly suggests that they plan on releasing a follow up to the Super Nintendo Classic with a possible Nintendo 64 Classic, giving Sony a perfect opportunity to release their very own mini console, harkening back to the days of when both the N64 and the very first PlayStation were available in the market. As E3 will be commencing this June 11th to the 14th, perhaps we will see more from either Sony or Nintendo regarding the next in line series of mini consoles.
