Officials from Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) have announced that the company has licensed the rights from publisher Midway for six classic arcade titles, including to be made available for digital download through the PlayStation Network.
With downloads of older retro titles already proving a success on the Xbox 360 and Wii, Sony officials have long since indicated the company’s intention to continue the trend on the PlayStation 3. The six titles licensed for download include
Mortal Kombat II and
Rampage World Tour (originally manufactured by Midway itself);
Gauntlet II,
Rampart and
Championship Sprint (created by the original incarnation of Atari); and
Joust (originally a Williams coin-op title).
Midway were one of the earliest supporters of Xbox Live Arcade, with a similar range of arcade titles, including
Joust, being made available on the service. To date the Wii’s virtual console has not included any arcade titles, although a few home conversions have been made available including
R-Type for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and
Altered Beast for the Genesis/Mega Drive.
The first of the six games will be made available in the U.S. in “early 2007,” although no price has yet been indicated. The titles will join an existing line-up of PS one retro titles for the PSP, such as the recently released
Jumping Flash!, and original/upgraded titles such as PSP update
GripShift.
“This is a great opportunity for SOE and Midway to come together to bring these arcade treasures to the next-generation of gaming on the PlayStation 3,” said John Needham, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Sony Online Entertainment. “SOE will continue to explore additional opportunities to bring fun and unique digital content to the PlayStation Network.”
