Sony's old Anti-2D policy during the early years of the PS1

[Anthony1]

Anybody remember this bullshit? Sony had a policy where they didn't want any 2D games on the original Playstation early in it's life span. Anybody remember that crap?


Man, this policy was so retarded, and for us retro gamers, and fans of old school type gaming, this was such a horrible policy.

Think of all the wonderfull 32 bit versions of 8bit and 16bit classics that we could've seen on the PSX, but were denied because of this asinine policy.


The reason I bring this up, is that I was reading a old video game mag, and a guy was asking a question about Mega Man 8 on the PSX. The editor from the magazine explained that Capcom had to jump through hoops to get it released in the U.S. because of Sony's anti-2D policy.

It just made me remember how Sony did have a dumb policy like this way back in the day.

Anybody else remember anything about this policy, and it's ramifications to gamers who would have loved to see 8bit and 16bit classics get 32bit facelifts on the PSone?

[Kid Fenris]

I actually heard a rumor circa 1996 that Capcom had threatened to make Resident Evil 2 a Saturn exclusive unless Sony approved Mega Man 8. It sounds farfetched, but hey, stranger things have happened in game-related negotiations.

Wasn't Sony anti-2D policy confined to the American market? After all, Japan got plenty of traditional 2D titles, and even Europe saw a release of Gunners Heaven/Rapid Reload.

And from what I remember, Sony's opposition to 2D softened considerably after the PlayStation's first year on the market. Namco brought out all of its Museum compilations, Konami had Suikoden, and even Sony published 2D titles like Beyond the Beyond, Samurai Shodown 3, and King of Fighters '95 in the American market.

[rbudrick]

Yeah, I remember that crap. I used to like 3d, really. But Sony bombarded me with tons of 3d crap, and I just hate almost all 3d games now....I just don't want to play most of them. I just find it very difficult to be impressed by them (there are rare exceptions). As for platformers, I'm not so sure anything has even topped Mario 64 yet.

Symphony of the Night....I think that is the game that may have single-handedly made Sony budge a bit after it came out. But that was it....a bit. The PSX had an amazing amount of power to push 2d graphics, but it didn't. It's a lot of power that just went entirley unutilized. Sony figured," if it's not 3d, it won't sell!" Well isa it the chicken or the egg that came first? By bombarding the market with 3d, I think they became their own self-fulfilling prophesy.

I can't wait to see Viewtiful Joe in action...its all 2d, right? Check out Ikaruga! 2d can rock and almost no one knows it anymore (developers).

At least SNK is back (but even they are going to start doing 3d). But shit, all they make is fighters, and not enogh shooters. Yo, SNK! Make a sequel to Crystalis, god damn it! To think that SNK of all companies made one of the finest NES RPGs ever...

-Rob

[Captain Wrong]

AFAIK, it was confined to the US, as Sony wanted to stress how "well" the system could do 3d vs. the Saturn which had this as a weakness. I think the idea was to get gamers here only wanting 3d games so the Saturn would look weaker by compairson. Seems to have worked.

Zack could speak more to that, seeing as how he was involved with a company directly affected by this policy.

It's a shame though. There were quite a few good games US gamers didn't get because of this policy. (Wasn't WD in talks to bring the superior PSX port of Donpachi over till it got shot down by Sony?)

[Dire 51]

Sony's anti-2-D stance was a contributing factor in my decision to start the OPCFG. I couldn't believe how many great titles were being pushed aside simply because they weren't 3-D.

[SFCfan]

I used to hate Playstation because of that.