Ubisoft confirmed late last year that a high-definition remake of the "Prince of Persia" trilogy was coming to consoles in Europe and North America. The news was further updated a few weeks ago with word that the "Splinter Cell" trilogy would be getting the same treatment, and that both would be coming to PlayStation 3 in a March 22 release. Now an update to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board listings suggests that the release won't be limited to Sony's console.
The newly updated ESRB listings include all three "Prince of Persia" games and all three "Splinter Cell" games with "HD" appended to the end of the title and both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 listed under the consoles the games will be available for. Ubisoft has yet to comment, but either the ESRB accidentally posted incorrect information about all six games... or there's something the publisher hasn't told us yet.
I'm banking on the latter, especially since there's no real advantage to a third-party publisher like Ubisoft putting together these HD collections and not releasing them for multiple platforms. Sony already released HD-ified collections for "God of War" and "Sly Cooper," and has another one coming for Team Ico's beloved games, but those have always been Sony exclusives. Why would Ubi sacrifice the opportunity to sell the packs to twice the number of people when they could... you know... not.
I'm more interested in seeing how these puppies sell. The HD remakes I've seen so far haven't been terribly thrilling. Sure, it's cool to see an older game with slightly sharper visuals and a widescreen presentation, but enough to make me spend $40 (the cost of each Ubi pack)? Nope. The addition of stereoscopic 3-D effects to "Prince" and "Splinter" is a nice touch too, but again I wonder if it's enough of a game-changer to justify the cost.
Then again, these are for the fans. Personally, I've always liked "God of War," "Prince of Persia" and "Splinter Cell" just fine, but not enough that I'd be interested in picking up high-def remakes. Team Ico, on the other hand... sweet, sweet "Shadow of the Colossus" in high-definition 3-D? Who should I sign away my first-born child to?