We all know them, the thing that makes them stand out on the Thrift Store shelves makes some of us dislike them, or in some severe cases some people hate them. Yep, today I am going to talk about those Green Hued Original Playstation Greatest Hits Games.
The argument, or dislike against these releases 25 years ago was that some people said that they did not want other people to think they were cheap, Really? If you are one of those people who worry about what other people think about you rather than being your own unique individual, then I feel sorry for you, nor can I help you and this blog is not for you.
Greatest Hits is the branding used by Sony for discounted reprints of their Playstation video games. The branding is used for reprints of popular, top-selling games for the console in the PlayStation family, which are deliberately sold with a lower MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) than the initial original production run of a game and feature special branding, colored in Green, on their case art. When Sony introduced the program in March 1997, games could become Greatest Hits titles after selling at least 150,000 copies and being on the market for at least a year., Minimum sales requirement eventually rose to 250,000 copies.
The Suggested Retail Pricing of the Greatest Hits titles were initially set at $24.99, But they typically retailed for $19.99. Though Sony-developed games are virtually guaranteed to eventually become Greatest Hits titles by meeting their sales and age requirements, 3rd party developers are not required to release their titles with a Greatest Hits label even if said titles meet the criteria. Additionally, Sony allows 3rd party developers some flexibility in the pricing of their own Greatest Hits titles, but most of them stick to the agreed-upon suggested retail price of $19.99.
While Greatest Hits titles are usually just a re-release of the original game with altered packaging and a lower price, occasionally a game is given a "special edition" of its original version, released under the Greatest Hits label. Usually these additions are small bonuses, such as the inclusion of bugfixes, new game demos or soundtrack CDs (see pics above), or slight improvements or significant changes are implemented into the game, such as adding analog controls or vibration functionality (see pic below) to games that did not have these features in their original releases.
When you look at it this way, with the new and/or extra content, wouldn't the Greatest Hits release be the best version of the game to own? And (When New) at half the price!
Games that are multi-million sellers may become Greatest Hits titles much later than 9 months after their initial release to maximize profits ($$$). It is also a common practice for a game to be re-released on the Greatest Hits label at close proximity to the release of that game's sequel or follow-up.
Found this picture online, When have you ever seen a yearly sports game as a Greatest Hits?
Story Time: I was 21 years old, married with a one year old and another child on the way as well as a mortgage and monthly car payment when the original Playstation was released in September 1995 in the U.S. As I had mentioned in my last blog post of Playstation game pickups, it was the first game console I had bought on my own. At that time Video Games were retailing for $39.99, so I budgeted myself $45.00 a week (to account for tax) to buy a new game every Friday when I got paid, even back then I was addicted to getting new games.
Then 6 months later Sony starts the Greatest Hits program. Imagine my excitement, I could now pickup games for $20 instead of $40! But me being me, I just used it as an excuse to buy, yep you guessed it, 2 Games a Week!
Personally it doesn't bother me
The point I want the haters to take away from this is: Don't look down on the Greatest Hits Copies, in fact they should be embraced as they served a purpose, especially the ones with extra content. Take my advice, if the Green label on the spine really bothers you that much, then take that Greatest Hits disc and put it in your "Black Label" Case for the best combination of the collection looking uniform on the shelf, and Gameplay options.
