Dear Future Gamer,

I've been thinking about the PlayStation 2 and its backwards compatibility. When it does happen no doubt it will cause many publishers to become all confused and go on a mad re-release frenzy with more budget labels popping up than you can shake a very large stick at.

The reason there is only one for the PlayStation at the moment is because there are not that many old (and good) games. With backwards compatibility it will be a repeat of the PC with every publisher bringing out their own budget label and compilation packs.

I'm not saying I'm against it, it will be good to be able to buy REALLY cheap games (Sold Out anybody?) but will publishers concentrate on their latest budget release rather than putting money towards new games?

Joe Bain

FG: I don't think we'll see the flood that you're predicting. Sony have rights of veto when it comes to what's published on their Platinum range but other publishers are allowed to re-release games at the £19.95 price point. The reason I don't think we'll see the flood of re-releases is because they're not going to be significantly improved by the NGPS's hardware and therefore people are unlikely to rush out and buy games for their new machines that look and play just like the games they're used to. Surely everyone will want the new titles that take advantage of the new machine's power? And I certainly think publishers will consider developing games for the new machine more important than any budget labels they might have.