Sony has announced the return of its Days of Play promotion, a monthlong celebration that brings sales, game catalog additions, and more. While there’s a lot in the PS Blog post, the real big deal here is the addition of PS2 games in the Classics Catalog, something fans have been pining for since the creation of the new PS Plus. It’s a watershed moment that could open the door to countless other titles, and it hopefully, shows that Sony is trying to be more thoughtful about its back catalog from past systems.
This isn’t actually the first time Sony has re-released PS2 titles, as the company put out a selection of 21 “classics” in 2018 and 2019, but unceremoniously stopped. These PS2-emulated games were playable on PS4, and then could be played on PS5 after its release. But that means Sony hadn’t put out any more PS2 games since before the launch of the PS5, and the relaunch of PS Plus’ tier system.
What was also strange was the selection of games, which included a surprising amount of Star Wars titles and obscure RPGs. In the mix were a handful of first-party games, including Ape Escape 2, Siren, Dark Cloud, and Okage.
Hopefully, that will change with this latest round of additions. On June 11, five years later, Sony will add three PS2 games to the classic games catalog: Tomb Raider: Legend, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (yes, more Star Wars).
While all three games are great, the addition of Sly Cooper is the real treat here. Easily one of the most beloved PlayStation games of all time, Sly Cooper launched a new mascot and franchise for the company and put developer Sucker Punch on the map, which would go on to develop Infamous and Ghost of Tsushima.
Sly Cooper being in the first round of PS2 games feels like a strong indicator that Sony wants to leverage its massive library of first-party titles. The PS2 is the best-selling video game console of all time, and along with that has the largest software library of any system.
There are dozens upon dozens of first-party games alone: more Sly Cooper games, the Ratchet & Clank series, Jak & Daxter Trilogy, Twisted Metal, Ico, Syphon Filter, Genji, and more. And that’s not even to mention massive third-party franchises that had multiple games on the PS2, like Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Katamari Damacy, SSX, Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, and much more.
Sony has a fantastic well of content to draw from with the PS2, which makes it all the more frustrating that it’s spent all these years doing absolutely nothing. Physical games become harder to find as each year goes by, and having a catalog of beloved PS2 games could absolutely help give PS Plus a leg-up on the competition, namely Xbox Game Pass.
By comparison, Microsoft has emphasized backward compatibility and has a catalog of over 100 Xbox and Xbox 360 games that can be purchased and played on any modern Xbox console. These can also be accessed through a single subscription Xbox Game Pass, whereas Sony has three different tiers you need to choose from.
What makes all this even worse is the drought of first-party content the PS5 has suffered from, and clearly continues to suffer from. The last year has only seen the release of a handful of titles from Sony’s first-party studios and third-party partners: Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Spider-Man 2, Helldivers 2, and Stellar Blade. That’s basically it, and at the moment there are literally no announced PlayStation exclusives still planned for release this year.
That’s a real lack of games that’s only become more apparent with each year after the PS5’s initial release in 2020. A good way to assuage some of that would have been to fill the gap with a wealth of classics, from both the PS2 and other systems. It’s possible we’ll start seeing Sony use this tactic more moving forward, but one has to wonder if it’s too little, too late.
