Just what are PSone Books, anyway?

[Spartacus]

I've been picking up a few JPN games for the Playstation and have noticed that some of the ones I've bought new are labled PSone Books. I have no idea what that means and thought I would ask here in case somebody knew. Does it make any difference in the game, artwork, value, ect. ??? Thanks!

[Tron 2.0]

Pretty much it's Sony take on the (greatest hits serise) in japan.
Like we have in the U.S the book one release, are games that sold well now at a lower price.

[Aussie2B]

Just one line of many in Japan for re-released PlayStation titles. And like the US's Greatest Hits line, the PSOne Books releases are worth less than their original counterparts. Unlike Greatest Hits, though, there are a lot more packaging differences. Instead of one of the standard Japanese PlayStation cases, they are normally in a very slim and cheap transparent plastic case that can't hold much more than the disc and a paper insert for the cover of the game. The manual is tucked behind the case with a rendition of the original back case insert on the back of the manual to give the illusion that this case actually has a back. The spine card covers up the bare spine of the case. It's all held together in a plastic bag. If you have everything together, it can look pretty decent, but it's awkward to take out the game and then you really see how lame the packaging is compared to the normal releases. I think I'd actually make a bigger point to avoid PSOne Books releases than Greatest Hits releases since at least in that case all you're getting is a green spine and a colorless disc.

[delafro]

On the plus side, there is still even today a large selection of PSOne books games in stores in Japan... much more than you'll be able to find new Greatest Hits games in the US. So, if you've just got the play that classic title, it doesn't seem to be that bad at all, as long as you don't mind the aforementioned packaging differences.

[Aussie2B]

Well, the main reason for that is because unlike in the US where the PlayStation is dead and Greatest Hits releases have stopped, they're still churning out PSOne Books releases in Japan. Off the top of my head, I know they just a week or two ago released a PSOne Books Valkyrie Profile, and they're going to do one for Star Ocean: The Second Story very soon too (if they haven't already). I'm not quite sure how they package multi-disc games like those, though.