Sony unveils God of War Collection

By Tom Bramwell Published 1 September, 2009

PS2 games on Blu-ray with Trophies in 720p.

Sony has announced God of War Collection for PlayStation 3 - a single Blu-ray disc home to 720p versions of God of War.

Due out "this holiday season" (Christmas in old money), the revamped PS2 games also benefit from unlockable Trophies.

According to the US PlayStation blog, God of War Collection will cost $39.99 over there.

We're waiting to hear back from Sony Europe about a European release date and local pricing.

"The fans spoke and we listened," Sony's Anthony Caiazzo blogged, begging the question whether anyone was listening when we all howled with dismay at the removal of actual backwards compatibility from PS3. Oh I went there.

"For those that recall the God of War survey conducted earlier this year, an overwhelming amount of the community suggested the PlayStation 2 experiences of Kratos be brought forth to the PlayStation 3," Caiazzo added, further condemning us to write about loads more bloody surveys and petitions in the future.

Still, it's not his fault we're grumpy. God of War III, incidentally, is due out in March 2010. Like its predecessors, it involves dropping fools with steel.

Check out our most recent God of War III preview to discover how.

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.

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

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Comments (54) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • spatss #1 2 years ago

    Nice move, that's gonna sell like hotcakes.

  • SeesThroughAll #2 2 years ago

    There's a generalized hype all over teh internetz about this, and people now seem to think that Sony is gonna port all the PS2 classics to the PS3.

    I think this was just a lucky one-off, because the (pretty much unevolving) GoW game engine was ported to the PS3 for GoW3 anyway. All the team had to do (not withstanding the amount of work envolved) probably was recompiling the assets to be rendered at a higher resolution.

    It's a good thing, and I'm glad that they're being re-released at the same price as the Platinum PS2 versions together (although I would of course prefer this cheaper still), but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that BC is coming back or that this will become a habit...
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/09 @ 14:34

  • wizlon #3 2 years ago

    I'd buy it, never played GoW 1 or 2. Make it under £30 though please.

  • berelain #4 2 years ago

    Wowza, 720p triophies?

  • andywilkie35 #5 2 years ago

    Sold

  • twoism #6 2 years ago

    Some people have been arguing that this could easily have been done had they added backwards compatibilty, and that's fair (we'd at least be able to play all the other gems like SOTC), but it wouldn't be able to upscale it to a true 720p resolution with anti aliasing going on. That alone makes a nice incentive to purchase the updated collection IMO, who wouldn't want to see GOWI&II in HD anyway?

  • Demiath #7 2 years ago

    Probably won't buy them again (my sexy PS2 slim still works fine), but it's a nice gesture from the developer and should bring in some extra cash to fund GoW3 DLC or something...

  • jamhead #8 2 years ago

    I really want these because I loved GoW 1 & 2. However I am annoyed that I will have to pay for them again though (when I say 'have to' I know I don't actually *have* to, but I also know that I won't be able to not buy them either. Damn you!).

    Having said that, if they would please do the same for SoTC and ICO....

  • berelain #9 2 years ago

    Actually, I have to ask.. why only? Surely as the home of the true *cough* High-Definition experience the PS3 should be able to handle running these games in 1080p? :s

    And, whilst I'm in cynic mode, you have to wonder if the reason Sony removed backwards compatibility is because they plan on rehashing more popular PS2 titles in a similar way to get people to buy the games all over again...
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/09 @ 09:12

  • JahB #10 2 years ago

    SOLD. on day 1.

    KRATOS FTW

  • StooMonster #11 2 years ago

    Played GoW on my PSP, and friends raved about games on PS2 (never owned one) so this is intriguing to me.

    Although this phenomena does explain why Sony aren't arsed by 'backwards compatibility' in the PS3, they can earn direct revenue off of old PS2 games if they do it this way whereas building BC into the console they could only earn indirect revenue (increased sales of PS3) which in unquantifiable.

  • Doctor_What #12 2 years ago

    I hope they've changed the 'hammer this to open the box' button away from the trigger button - I've got a BC PS3 and the open-box button is R2, which means that's it's hard to tap the trigger fast enough to open the doors and boxes.

  • Beige_Alert #13 2 years ago

    I've never missed the backwards compatibility in my PS3 after having tried out Timesplitters 3 on a friends with it. It just looked awfull and I just couldn't continue playing. But this is smart, I bought the first GoW for the PS2 but never got around to bying the second and now I just might do it.

  • peterfll #14 2 years ago

    I bought GoW2 specifically to play on my BC 60gb PS3. Still, I'd happily pay and play through it and the first one again, if... the price is right.

  • Meho #15 2 years ago

    Unusually smooth and nice move from Sony. Upscaled graphics, 60 FPS... Nice. Indeed, if they do the same for Ico/SotC to promote The Last Guardian, I know I will end up buying those too. Come on, Sony, be SMART.

  • spiny #16 2 years ago

    I never had a PS2, so I'd be all over a Ico/Shadow Of The Colosus/Last Guardian trilogy pack...

  • VandelayIndustries #17 2 years ago

    Missed these two games first time around so this is a must for me, and It would be lovely if ICO & SotC got the same treatment.

    @Donnie
    They appear to be ports in much the same way as Tekken DR on PSN is, (These two are being handled by a separate studio).
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/09 @ 09:39

  • darkmorgado #18 2 years ago

    Conversation at Sony:

    Junior: Sir, people keep complaining that they can't play PS2 games on the PS3. They won't go away!

    Senior Exec: WHAT? Tell them to go out and buy a PS2 separately! We need to recoup the PS3 development cost somehow!

    Junior: I don't think that will work sir. They want to play the games on the PS3. Apparently they don't have the room for 2 consoles hooked up underneath their television. It might be because we made the PS3 so big.

    Senior Exec: (contemplates for a moment). I've got it!

    Junior: Sir?

    Senior Exec: They want to play PS2 games on their PS3? Let's re-release them on blu-ray! That way they have to buy them all over again and we get even more money!

    Junior: Erm, will that work sir? Won't people complain about having to buy the same game twice to play it on a console that originally had backwards-compatibility as standard?

    Senior Exec: Ah, you have much to learn young padawan... If we put trophy support in, everyone will buy it just to increase their Trophy Scores! The stupid idiots.

    Junior: Sir, you're a genius!

    Senior Exec: You don't get where I am today by actually giving people what they want, boy. Now on your knees and give me a footrub! And get me Hideo Kojima! He needs to pay for costing us yet another console-exclusive franchise...
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/09 @ 09:43

  • Darren #19 2 years ago

    The first two God of War games run on my launch PS3 with smoothing and upscaling plus the added bonus of absolutely no screen tearing, unlike the same game on the PS2. The only glitch I've noticed is the lack of shadows in the sequel.

    720p and proper AA are nice in the remastered versions but I hope that doesn't come at the cost of screen tearing. If it doesn't then I'd certainly buy the new versions too as both are among my very favourite last generation games.

  • Darren #20 2 years ago

    I might be wrong but I'm sure that the original U.S. verson of God of War II on the PS2 had a hidden 720p mode that worked with component video but it wasn't included in the European versions.

  • SeesThroughAll #21 2 years ago

    I might be wrong but I'm sure that the original U.S. verson of God of War II on the PS2 had a hidden 720p mode that worked with component video but it wasn't included in the European versions.

    Not really. It was 480p with full size buffers. Couldn't work with PAL, it seems.
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/09 @ 10:11

  • TheNinkyNonk #22 2 years ago

    ICO & SOTC!!!

  • schnide #23 2 years ago

    ZOMG - Sony are starting to get things right? Gaming gets interesting again.

  • bad09 #24 2 years ago

    "ZOMG - Sony are starting to get things right"

    Sorry I laughed at that. Paying over the odds for old games, devs having to port their PS2 games purely so people can experience them is not doing things right my friend.

    Anyway The God Of Wars are on my want list so I guess I'll hold off and buy this, but don't think you can resell me every game Sony, you are still complete idiots behind the game compared to your competetion on looking after consumers of your old tech.....
    Edited by 2 at 01/09/09 @ 10:18

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #25 2 years ago

    Some people have been arguing that this could easily have been done had they added backwards compatibilty... ...but it wouldn't be able to upscale it to a true 720p resolution with anti aliasing going on

    But that's exactly what Xbox 360's software emulation does for games.

  • SeesThroughAll #26 2 years ago

    Sorry I laughed at that. Paying over the odds for old games, devs having to port their PS2 games purely so people can experience them is not doing things right my friend.

    I also dislike the departure of BC, but on the other hand devs aren't exactly porting their old PS2 games for free, are they?

    3rd party might like the idea (i.e., they could see that it sells) and start porting PS2 classics to the PS3. Heck, some might even make the port multi-platform while they're at it!

    If this experiment works, everybody wins in the end.
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/09 @ 10:22

  • sarcasmoidosis #27 2 years ago

    "ICO & SOTC!!! "

    Seconded.

  • SeesThroughAll #28 2 years ago

    But that's exactly what Xbox 360's software emulation does for games.

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but that emulator requires the user to download specific patches for each title in order to achieve this, doesn't it?

  • bad09 #29 2 years ago

    "Correct me if I'm wrong, but that emulator requires the user to download specific patches for each title in order to achieve this, doesn't it?"

    Not sure but hey a patch is nothing and at least it scrubs up and PLAYS....well most do :)

    MS and their own B/C lies caused this experiment already SeesThroughAll. EFBB was remade due to the devs dissappointment at the original not working on 360 apparently and AODA grew from that. It's a good work around but you will only get a few of the most successful games if you're lucky I reckon. I can see Konami doing a MGS/Silent Hill one or maybe a Getway one (dreams). But most won't bother.
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/09 @ 10:35

  • SeesThroughAll #30 2 years ago

    @ bad09:

    I guessed those patches wouldn't be too large anyway.

    I can see Konami doing a MGS/Silent Hill one or maybe a Getway one (dreams). But most won't bother.

    Absolutely. I still secretly hope for a MGS1 remake using the MGS4 engine. Then again, maybe Konami plan on doing that with the MGS:R engine ;)

  • Darren #31 2 years ago

    People keeping referring to the 720p resolution as being "upscaled' yet nowhere in the blog does it use this word. I suspect the game will be rendered internally at 720p and AA added on top of that to give a crisp, sharp look to the game whilst reusing the same textures and modelling. The original games run in 3D so it's very easy to reuse the assets and render them at a higher resolution. LIVE SoulCalibur and the two Banjo games did this as did Tekken 5 on PSN.

  • darkmorgado #32 2 years ago

    Looks like the Sony Defense Force are on the Karma march again... my first comment went from +5 Karma to +1 in 5 minutes and I've noticed that every other sony criticism has been marked down.
    Oh boo hoo, my karma has been modified. Yes, that will teach me! BOW TO SONY'S MIGHT!

  • Bigglesworth #33 2 years ago

    Does it really beg the question, Tom? DOES IT?
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/09 @ 10:45

  • peteb #34 2 years ago

    Awesome, missed out on the first two!

    But can you really call 2 games a "collection"? Or is there more on the disc than the two PS2 games?

  • malexous #35 2 years ago

    I just bought MGS3: Snake Eater [€14.99], Ico [€29.99] and SotC [€29.99] and got MGS3 free. (Only place I could find them new and don't like second hand)

    I'm not sure if I will like God of War but I have been thinking of somehow getting the two games. I'm going to get a PS3 next summer so maybe I'll be getting this.
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/09 @ 10:50

  • Bigglesworth #36 2 years ago

    It's worth a punt. GoW plays so well you'll probably like it even if you're not a big fan of the genre.

  • SeesThroughAll #37 2 years ago

    I'm not sure if I will like God of War but I have been thinking of somehow getting the two games. I'm going to get a PS3 next summer so maybe I'll be getting this.

    Next summer? By then you'll probably find a bundle with all three games together!

  • SeesThroughAll #38 2 years ago

    Seriously, getting voted down just for asking a question? LOL

  • peteb #39 2 years ago

    @SeesThroughAll

    +1 for his question comment. There you go, all better now? :)

  • malexous #40 2 years ago

    @ SeesThroughAll

    Then I'll get that.

    I'm too content with my Wii to want a PS3 any sooner.

  • SeesThroughAll #41 2 years ago

    Thanks! :)

    But come on, I wasn't even trolling anyone this time! :D

  • penhalion #42 2 years ago

    Given I've programmed for both the PS2 and PS3 I'm puzzled about just how they have ported this to PS3. Without backward compatibility it's not a trivial task. Are EG sure about this story?

  • Bigglesworth #43 2 years ago

    @penhalion
    Actually, thinking about this a bit more, you're quite correct, this is a bit unusual. My first thought was that they're actually gonna release the collection purely for BC-capable PS3's, but of course when running as a PS2 the machine isn't going to be able to read the BluRay... I think. Looking at the press release (so it does seem pretty official), it seems that Bluepoint (them of "Blast Factor";) are doing conversion work. Lets hope Santa Monica didn't take any shortcuts to getting their performance =)

  • Gaol #44 2 years ago

    @darkmorgado

    That post game me quite a laugh :)

    @penhalion

    Well, it's on the official blog so it's defo hapenning. I hope they do a good job, GoW looks pretty ugly upscaled on my PS3.

  • Rens11 #45 2 years ago

    Well colour me tickled pink! What a great idea! here's hoping they start doing this to all the big PS2 games FF10 HD 720p Please!

  • GreyBeard #46 2 years ago

    Doing title-specific emulation is much simpler than supplying a generic "out-of-the-box" solution in all kinds of ways.

    What most non-technical people don't appreciate is that the hardest part of writing a piece of software of this type isn't getting it to do what the original did, its making sure it works consistently and without doing unexpected things due to the original software straying outside "standardized" coding practices.

    If you pick a specific game to emulate all your program needs to do is cater for what that program does internally, not 1000 programs with their own little foibles and issues to work around.

    Creating a flawless universal emulation is an iterative process, as especially dealing with a platform like PS2 with thousands of published titles you simply can't test for everything working correctly within a reasonable timeframe. Never mind fixing it so it always works right!

    Doing title-specific emulations is a far more realistically attainable task, especially if you're running to a tightly-managed publishing schedule.

    Not to mention far more profitable from a commercial standpoint.

  • penhalion #47 2 years ago

    @Greybeard

    The chips in the PS2 were virtually impossible to emulate at a usable speed, that's why Sony still had to use some of them even on the cut down backward compatibility version of the PS3. So this isn't a simply matter of writing some software shell for GOW 1 and 2.

    I would be very curious as to when/if this will actually see the light of day as opposed to what the official blog is saying.

  • JonFE #48 2 years ago

    As I have not played GoW 1 or 2 this collection is more than welcome (as long as the price is right). Hopefully Konami will follow suit with MGS :)

  • GhostInTheShell #49 2 years ago

    I don't know why PS2 BC has to be brought into every single topic about the PS3. I would've wanted this collection even if there was BC. The games will run at 60 fps, native 720p, and will be anti-aliased. This is A LOT better than what we would see with BC.

    I'm new posting to this site - though I've been a reader for a while now. I see all kinds of people fighting childish platform wars on almost every single thread that involves the PS3 and I have to wonder if the writers, like Tom Bramwell in this case, are not instigating these ridiculous affairs in order to see their page hits go up.

  • EvilBob_leeds #50 2 years ago

    "ICO & SOTC!!! "

    Thirded.

    Someone start a petition!
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/09 @ 14:41

  • M_of_the_sys #51 2 years ago

    "ICO & SOTC!!! "

    Thirded.

    Someone start a petition!

    Fourthded!

    I think we nearly have enough people!

  • sneetch #52 2 years ago

    "ICO & SOTC!!! "

    Fifthed. I've never played either of them and I understand that I'm seriously missing out.

    (I know I could by a PS2 for tuppence ha'penny but my under-TV real-estate is running out and I really don't want any more clutter underneath it).

  • Ranger101 #53 2 years ago

    I don't understand... we're lauding a reissue of 2 old games on a new system (that in 2 of its iterations was alreayd able to play them) instead of getting original content?

    All we need now is Microsoft to re-release Halo 1 & 2 with achievements and 'high def'.

    Chronicals of Riddick Dark Athena is how you do a proper reissue at high def. Original content plus a new game.

  • GreyBeard #54 2 years ago

    @Penhalion

    That's why you don't emulate the chips, you emulate the function instead. HLE in short.