PlayStation 30th Anniversary PS5: availability, specifications

Hot for them Following the announcement of the PS5 Pro, Sony has upped the ante once again ahead of the holidays with the unveiling of the PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection, available in stores on November 21st. But for some of us, the thought of improved ray tracing and increased performance isn't there yet. It's his most exciting offering.

Readers of a certain vintage will be confused when they think about their old PS1 – arguably the first console that consciously looked beyond the children's market and fully catered to adult gamers – not to mention the list of stone-cold classics and a club culture-influenced advertising campaign that ran in the Led to sales of 100 million units over its lifetime.

Now Sony has revived its '90s groove to celebrate three decades since the console that changed everything – think Gray. Lots and lots of gray. And that's it so good!

Grayscale

The resulting revamp has added some pre-millennium charm to perhaps Sony's most unloved design in recent years. Yes, this author is biased, but when you look at the PS1-compliant Slim and Pro models in their cool and calm form, without the cheesiness that you only get from too much shiny black plastic, you can't help but This can be felt as the color scheme that Sony should have opted for.

Are both models still giants? Oh yes. But their fresh, stony fur is a balm for the eyes – and could it be that their dreary appearance even makes them look less “peppy”? Sony is clearly proud of its work and has even decided to include a matching vertical stand (usually only available separately) so it can be admired in monolith style (although purists like me will of course opt for the flat one).

And yet this isn't the console's greatest design triumph. That's reserved for something far more modest: a special edition charging cable for the controller. The DualSense and DualSense Edge have joined the pre-2000 party by emulating the colors of the original SCPH-1010, but in a delightful display of skeuomorphism, one end of the USB-C charging cable has been embedded into a replica of the PS1 controller -Connector plugs so you can pretend you're back in the good old days when you were tethered a few feet away from your TV. (Unfortunately, you can't upgrade your memory the old-fashioned way by plugging in a memory module into the front – you still have to pry this beast open with a screwdriver.)

Cable type

The decision to include this little Easter egg shows that someone at Sony has a long memory: the previous anniversary console, a PS4 that celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2014, also embraced the gray but didn't lean on the nostalgia quite as heavily lead. (It did, however, include the iconic PS1 startup sound, a feature we have not yet confirmed for this new version.)

The fake plug is not functional; it recalls a less auspicious time; Most of today's wireless gamers will view it with utter confusion. But for Generation X, it's beautiful and shows a rare level of detail and care – Sony understands us. Sony was there.

As someone who spends a lot of his PS5 time playing much, much older titles –Tomb Raider Remastered! Resident Evil: Director's Cut! Assassin's Creed! (Okay, that's the PS3, but you get the point) – the Anniversary Edition Collection is a dream come true, spreading 90s goodness across most of the current PlayStation range.

Hell, I even thought about whether I could use the amazing PlayStation Portal now that it has tasteful, ash-colored handles. For everyone else, the Retro-Pro is a significant improvement in both hardware and aesthetics, adding a bit more longevity to a fairly expensive gaming platform – and let's not forget the potential resale value in a few years.

For those looking for a more recent touch of nostalgia, this limited run of 12,300 numbered Pro consoles (a nod to the initial release date of December 30, 1994) will almost certainly introduce the unseemly problems of the PS5's original release experienced again just four years ago. We can only hope that Sony will fully embrace the 90s here and encourage nightly queues in front of Radio Shack from November 21st. Please note that Sony is yet to announce the bundle price.

(PS: Can someone please do a remaster? Tenchu ​​stealth assassin in time for this publication?)