Sony "keen to look into" ICO/Shadow HD

By Tom Bramwell Published 2 July, 2010

Yoshida: "We want to see and play in HD."

Sony is "keen to look into" converting ICO and Shadow of the Colossus to HD for PlayStation 3, Shuhei Yoshida has said.

"As soon as we released God of War Collection, a lot of people were giving us suggestions, and ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, these are at the top of the list," the Sony Worldwide Studios boss told Joystiq.

"We are very aware, and we want to see and play in HD in the better frame-rate as well," he said, joking about Shadow's famously dodgy performance on PS2.

Sony's God of War Collection brought together the first two GOW titles on a single Blu-ray disc for PS3, converting them into 720p and winning rave reviews in the process.

Sony did announce a new HD collection at E3, but it wasn't ICO and Shadow - it was The Sly Collection, bringing Sucker Punch's trio of excellent Sly Cooper platform games together for PS3.

But Yoshida seems to agree that ICO and Shadow are the obvious next priorities.

"That's something we are very keen to look into," he agreed, "because we believe in this conversion effort."

We do too - so much so that we emulated both games in HD and ran performance analysis to see how they may turn out.

Shadow of the Colossus performance analysis based on emulation.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (56) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Doctor_What #1 2 years ago

    Soul Reaver, Jak & Daxter, and SSX HD versions please!

  • jamhead #2 2 years ago

    Very keen to see these too, although not keen on the idea of paying for them again - and again, no doubt, when they are released in 1080p on the Playstation 4!

  • RickHard #3 2 years ago

    IMO : "Sony keen to make easy money" would be more appropriate...

  • LowEnergyCycle #4 2 years ago

    This pleases me greatly. I never got around to playing them on PS2 and I've just bought a PS3 Slim 120Gb.

    I was seriously considering hunting down a 2nd hand PS2 just for these 2 games.

    Now I'll just bide my time.

  • Kanselier #5 2 years ago

    The 3 posters above me do not show enough love for Ico/SotC. Heathens!

  • NotSoSlim #6 2 years ago

    These will be immense...people can moan all day long about paying for them again but these don't get released at 40 quid and when Ico is still that price eBay we should welcome the idea especially the improvements :)

  • Wedge1985 #7 2 years ago

    @RickHard - you could say that about any company that releases anything. IMO these collections are great. I couldn't afford a ps2 but managed to save for a ps3 and so missed out on all these games first time around. For people like me they're great.

  • space_ace #8 2 years ago

    me keen to look into ps3 purchase, then
    :)

  • AllenSpawn #9 2 years ago

    Please do it Sony.

    Never got round to playing Shadow.
    And I would love to see some Art.

    Love Roger Ebert.

  • ant72 #10 2 years ago

    Good. Best news for ages.

  • RandomTerrain #11 2 years ago

    Hurray, it's looking more and more likely that this will happen. :o)
    I wonder if they'll have it ready close to the release of the third game.

  • Raziel #12 2 years ago

    I already own both ICO and SotC for the PS2, in their orginal paper cases, but I'd buy it again for the PS3 in a heartbeat.

  • ant72 #13 2 years ago

    @Raziel I struggled to find SOTC in paper. Darnit, I knew it existed. Que frantic ebay search....

  • parablax #14 2 years ago

    How long do you think it would take them, are we talking 6-12 months or longer?

  • NotSoSlim #15 2 years ago

    Released alongside Last Guardian with a possible 3 game collection :-)

  • 3william56 #16 2 years ago

    I'd prefer a full remake, to up the poly counts and animation to go with the pixels, but any extra love for Ico and Shadow are 110% welcome, even with a back compat PS3 and copies of both in my lounge.

  • taurus82 #17 2 years ago

    Thus God spoketh "GET ON WITH IT!!".
    Oh, and be sure to include Home rewards (a la PixelJunk Shooter) and Home space.
    Edited by taurus82 at 02/07/10 @ 10:24

  • groovychainsaw #18 2 years ago

    Why not wrap them in 3D too, if you're reworking the whole game anyway. Shadow of the colossus would be pretty awesome in 3D!

  • TadejVig #19 2 years ago

    I'd love to see it in HD, those games are one of my favourites.

    Tho, Sony only removed the backward compactible PS3 function because they want to make money on re-releasing old PS2 games in "HD" (right, we saw what they did with God of War collection...).

  • towser #20 2 years ago

    On top of all the other suggestions I would like to add Crash Bandicoot to the list. Loved those games... well, the older versions at any rate.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #21 2 years ago

    I would love HD versions of the Fatal Frame/Project Zero series. Can we have those please?

  • Retro_ #22 2 years ago

    Own both in Ltd edition form, ICO is still it's it wrapper ( nerdy collector alert) but would buy a HD version without a doubt.

    Please Sony, just get on with it!

  • Doctor_What #23 2 years ago

    @PatAU and JohnnyWashnGo: +1. Those would be great!

  • sonicyoda #24 2 years ago

    Stop being cock-teases and just do it!

  • TheHitman #25 2 years ago

    @Retro
    I saw a sealed Ico listed on eBay for about £90 the other day. Not that you want to sell it or anything ;)
    ----------

    I've taken a gamble that Ico/SoTC are definitely being HDified and I've sold my cardboard cased copies of both for a combined £50. Should cover the cost of purchasing the new ones.
    Edited by TheHitman at 02/07/10 @ 11:21

  • UKArch #26 2 years ago

    Ico is my favourite game of all time. I'd buy this in a heartbeat.

  • andywilkie35 #27 2 years ago

    This and the Jak games, I beg you

  • frugtkompot #28 2 years ago

    If making money ensures that Sony continues to revive old classics in a better-than-ever format, then count my money in.

  • Ryze #29 2 years ago

    Why on earth would they put the time and resources into 'Sly' which no one has heard of, instead of two of the best games of the last generation - ICO and Shadow of the Colossus?

    I don't understand the motives of these companies, I really don't. They should be half way through this conversion by now, considering GOW collection was finished last Autumn.

    Pathetic.
    Edited by Ryze at 02/07/10 @ 15:44

  • Snidesworth #30 2 years ago

    Is there some petition that we can sign to make this happen?

  • SeesThroughAll #31 2 years ago

    This pleases me greatly. I never got around to playing them on PS2 and I've just bought a PS3 Slim 120Gb.

    I hope you enjoy your new PS3 as much as I enjoyed mine, but right now that MS has released a pumped up version of the 360 with a 250Gb drive, I would hold on until Sony follows suit before buying a PS3.

  • razzastuta #32 2 years ago

    I bought ICO for the PS2, played it to death, completed it - then traded it in. What a mistake I made, I could never ever get my hands on another copy as I missed it. Always sold out or going on e-bay for huge prices.

    ICO is a masterpiece. I never played Shadow of the Colossus but IMO, this is a no-brainer. This simply has to happen. If anything, I get my hands on ICO again and will never make the same mistake again.

  • SeesThroughAll #33 2 years ago

    Can anybody imagine what kind of trophies would the remastered versions have?

  • GamesConnoisseur #34 2 years ago

    Yippee! Hurry up please!

  • makeamazing #35 2 years ago

    Never heard of these games until recently, never played them on PS2, so if they are as good value, then for me personally its worth taking a risk.

    If they had brought out GOW 1/2 before 3, then i would have done that... but as it was I had never played a GOW game before, I toook a risk, but found that I loved it and then got 1 & 2 when they released it. So for me, more of the same please :)

  • danathjo #36 2 years ago

    let's hope a sensibly priced triple pack comes out with Last Guardian, never got to finish Ico after some mug broke into my house and stole my 60g PS3 when I was half way through it :(
    Sony didn't want anything to do with me when I tried to get another one via insurance.

  • X3Entente #37 2 years ago

    and dont try to staple on some shitty move features

  • telboy007 #38 2 years ago

    Shadow of the colossus is one of those games that rarely appear in today's market (except all the imitators and spiritual follows up but that is not what I mean) something completely and utterly different and magical. The concept of playing a platform game where each level is a giant hulking beast that doesn't even register your existence until you're twatting its weak points with a sword. Bonkers. Truly epic bonkers genius.

    I didn't even get to play the whole thing as my mate owned it, tragic really.

  • SEVQA #39 2 years ago

    They better be HD and all that, as I bought these games for my 60gb ps3 that has ps2 backwards compat with smoothing!

  • Zebula77 #40 2 years ago

    Sony, make it happen and I'll buy. It's a no brainer. :)

  • sonicyoda #41 2 years ago

    @SeesThroughAll

    Or you could just upgrade your PS3's hard drive to one of these bad boys.

  • mungolikebeans #42 2 years ago

    WANT. NOW.



    please

  • Feanor #43 2 years ago

    HD SSX 3 would be un- be-lievable.

  • BlinxHDD #44 2 years ago

    They've really given no indication how far along they are, so you're talking cack.

  • LowEnergyCycle #45 2 years ago

    @SeesThroughAll

    I'm enjoying it immeasurably. Haven't switched my 360 or Wii on in over a week. I got the 120Gb Slim since Mrs LEC's Dad is a Manager at Gamestation and got me a sweet deal.

    £185 with LittleBigPlanet GOTY, brand new too since there's a Carphone Warehouse just across the street (chavs get free PS3s with every new phone contract, then sell them straight to Gamestation - everyone's a winner!)

    Even if I buy one of those 500Gb drives that sonicyoda recommends, I would still have made a saving.

  • darc #46 2 years ago

    Will totally buy, no questions asked. Even if they're just like for like ports. Amazed it's taken this long.

  • darc #47 2 years ago

    "It wasn't a dodgy performance, it was fucking stunning."

    It was stunning, yes, but the controls would benefit immensely from a more consistent framerate. I think that's all that's meant by it.

  • FenderMaster #48 2 years ago

    SotC's bad frame rate actually enhanced it's art style, kind of reminded me of a certain type of animation, like snowman (walking in the air) they play every christmas, kind of choppy, but somehow charming

  • SeesThroughAll #49 2 years ago

    @sonicyoda: Thank you. Wow, I had no idea you could already get half a Tera for less than €70 these days! :D

    @LowEnergyCycle: If you got it on discount, it was fantastic value for money indeed! :)

  • BritishBlue1 #50 2 years ago

    If they released an Ico/SoTC HD re-make I would hold my local Gamestation at gun point to get an early copy. Then laugh...laugh like a maniac and run home with mah precious game clutched to my sweaty breast.

  • SeesThroughAll #51 2 years ago

    I hope that the ICO Team themselves do it, and while they're at it, make it a "Director's Cut" version, with a few of the Colossi that were cut from the original version. \o/

  • Mr_Bison #52 2 years ago

    Want!

  • gjgjg #53 2 years ago

    look in to?
    god damn thought theyd be working on it already and might have released it like gow col. as a kind of prequel to the last g.
    look harder sony/team ico!
    Edited by gjgjg at 03/07/10 @ 00:16

  • Skire #54 2 years ago

    give me MGS1, 2 and 3 on 1 blu-ray please!

  • Chalee #55 2 years ago

    If a large enough number of us show them that we're willing to buy the games if they do this, then corporate greed will make them do it. Let us all appeal in unison: Please do it!!!!

  • Grayvern #56 2 years ago

    Weirds me out that two of the most interesting affecting games of last generation could well hold exactly the same place in this generation.