Metal Gear Acid - 1st Budget PSP title

[boatofcar]

From Gamespot:

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Sony's PSP is getting its first budget-priced reissue akin to the PlayStation 2's Greatest Hits series.

During the Tokyo Game Show, Konami announced that it will rerelease Metal Gear Acid as a "Best of Konami" budget reprint in Japan. The game will be coming out on November 17, just under a month before Metal Gear Acid 2 ships on December 8. At 2,100 yen ($19), the rerelease of Metal Gear Acid will be the lowest-priced PSP game available in the market to date. The game was originally released last December priced at 4,800 yen ($43).

"There are probably a lot of people who haven't played the first game yet. Metal Gear Acid really isn't a hard game, so we hope everyone will try it at our booth and pick up the original game before we release the sequel," commented Metal Gear Acid 2 producer Noriaki Okamura, who made the surprise announcement during an event at Konami's TGS stage.

Up until now, budget reprint titles were economically unfeasible for handheld games, as they ran on expensive-to-manufacture cartridges. Sony's PSP uses the Universal Media Disc (UMD), which is considerably more economical to manufacture.

[Half Japanese]

That's pretty cool. Now Nintendo needs to put a few of the aging DS titles into a DS-equivelant of their "Player's Choice" series to lure in new buyers. Kind of odd to see it happening so early though. Generally a console is out at least a year before you start seeing "Greatest Hits"-type programs.

[petewhitley]

I hope they follow suit in the States. $20 for a handheld game just makes sense, and I'd be much more likely to pick one up for specifically for a weekend trip or even a long airplane ride.

[chrisbid]

proprietary media is not that much cheaper to produce than gba carts. fn sony

[goatdan]

Up until now, budget reprint titles were economically unfeasible for handheld games, as they ran on expensive-to-manufacture cartridges. Sony's PSP uses the Universal Media Disc (UMD), which is considerably more economical to manufacture.

Although I'd point out in response that handheld games have never been this expensive before. PSP games are $39.99 or $49.99. DS games are $29.99 or $39.99. Game Boy Advance games are / were $19.99 or $29.99. Same with Neo Geo Pocket, if I recall correctly.

Since we're talking about PSP games that came out at the same price as a full console game, I think it just makes it more economical to resell that game at a lower price to a wider market after a while.

It also seems like both the DS and PSP haven't been flooded with titles yet. GBA has hundreds of titles. Once a game sells out, people generally move on to the next thing, and the demand for the older titles fall. Since both the PSP and DS seem to be following more generally accepted "console rules," they will be getting less titles, and titles that are older will still be sought after because of that. So a Greatest Hits / Player's Choice series could definitely work.

[PDorr3]

if its marked up with ugly red crap like the ps2 greatest hits I cant get it. I just hate the way they stand out amoung the other games like a sore eye.