Did You Know? Some PS1 Classic Games Are Currently “Hidden” On PS3’s Digital Storefront
Many great games are still available to purchase, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the PS One Classics page.
I stumbled upon something strange not too long ago when looking closely at the PS3’s Playstation Store offerings in the U.S. I remembered certain games that I had purchased as PS One Classics being available years in the past, and yet I didn’t see them in the “PS One Classics” section of the store. And not just one or two, but a good number of them.
At first, I figured maybe just with the passage of time over a decade or so, that perhaps these games were only available for a limited amount of time years ago, and now they couldn’t be purchased anymore. These kinds of things will happen from time to time for various licensing reasons between companies or similar things. However, the sheer number that I was not seeing on there had me suspicious that something else might be happening.
With a little digging, sure enough, I discovered many of the games I wasn’t seeing in the PS One Classics section were still available for purchase on the storefront, having not been removed after all. So why aren’t they in the PS One Classics section of the store anymore? I have no idea, you’ll have to ask Sony about that one. But I can help you find the games that are hiding.
Finding The PS One Classics Section In The First Place
Ever since way back in 2011 with the fiasco of the Playstation Network hack, players have been treated to various redesigned storefronts on their PS3s over the years, and the modern one is, well honestly? Hard to navigate.
So for those who had no idea there even was a PS One Classics section on the store at all anymore, it’s totally understandable. To find it, from the store’s main page on your PS3 console, move your cursor down the left-hand menu to “Games” and select that option. From there, choose “All Games” and it will show you the full catalog of games on offer.
At the top left of the full catalog, you’ll see it says “Add Filter” with a down arrow next to it. Move your cursor there and select that box. In the little menu that appears, move your cursor down and select “Game Type” and at the very bottom of the list, you will see “PS one Classics” listed, and at the time of writing, the number 66 is shown next to it, letting you know there are 66 games that are within that filter. Select that option, and you’re finally at the PS One Classics section of the store. “Easy” right? Right. Definitely not.
Again, why only 66 in the U.S. storefront, when there were well over 200 released for the service per this list on Wikipedia? I have no idea. Please ask Sony. While you’re at it, you can ask them why they don’t have related pages on their website for these games anymore either. Maybe it’s simply the passage of time and they’re ready to move on from the PS4 these days, let alone the PS3. Who knows?
How Do You Find The Missing Games? Search!
The search feature is another strange beast. You can’t just pull up a keyboard and enter letters for a search. You have to pick letters out from a list one at a time, and the further along you go into the word you are trying to make, the more restricted you are in what letters you can use next. I suppose in a way it tries to be smart and predictive about what people are searching for, but it’s pretty bizarre if you ask me.
Even though the original Parasite Eve, or Suikoden, or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, or Legend of Mana, or Metal Gear Solid, or Twisted Metal 2, or … well you get the idea … aren’t listed in the PS One Classics section of the store, all these games are in fact still on the Playstation Store available to buy. You just have to search them out individually and manually as things stand today.
So to do that, up at the top of the screen is a search box that you can navigate your cursor to and select, and from there you get another left-hand menu that says “Please select a character.” Just start with the first letter in the word you want to search for, navigate your cursor to it and select it, and then repeat for the second letter, and so on, and you’ll see how it limits the possible letters you can use as you go along.
As you pick each letter, it tries to give you results dynamically on the main right side of the screen, so thankfully, you can usually find the game you are looking for with just a handful of letters. So typing “ALU” will pull up Alundra, and “ARC” will get you to the Arc The Lad trilogy of games, “SUI” shows you all four of the Suikoden games available on the store, and so forth.
Grab Them While You Still Can!
So if you’ve been missing some of these classics, and wondering if maybe they were gone, fear not. They’re still around for now, just hiding out until such time if/when Sony decides to correct this issue, or else close the Playstation Store on the PS3 for good. Whichever comes first.
