PlayStation Hits (formerly Greatest Hits) is a branding used by Sony Interactive Entertainment for discounted reprints of PlayStation video games. The branding is used for reprints of popular, top-selling games for each console in the PlayStation family, which are deliberately sold with a lower MSRP than the original production runs of a game, and feature special branding—colored in red since PlayStation 2—on their box art, as well as red-colored cases on PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 releases (instead of the traditional clear or blue-colored casing).
Equivalent programs exist in Europe and Oceania (as "Essentials"), Japan and select Asian countries (as "The Best"), South Korea (as "BigHit"), and in South America (as "Favoritos"). PlayStation Hits is used as the branding label for PlayStation 4 games in North America, Brazil, Europe, Oceania, Japan, and select Asian countries.
History Sony Computer Entertainment America introduced the program for PlayStation in March 1997 and the first releases were Battle Arena Toshinden, NFL GameDay, NHL FaceOff, Twisted Metal and Warhawk. The requirement for being a Greatest Hits title was selling at least 150,000 copies and being on the market for at least a year. Minimum sales required eventually rose to 500,000 by January 1999. When the program came to PlayStation 2 in 2002, games could become Greatest Hits titles after selling at least 400,000 copies and being on the market for at least nine months, while the threshold for PS1 games was reduced to 250,000 sales.
Suggested retail prices of Greatest Hits titles are typically $19.99, although multi-game packs may sell for $24.99. Though Sony-developed games are virtually guaranteed to eventually become Greatest Hits titles by meeting their sales and age requirements, 3rd party developers are not required to release their titles with a Greatest Hits label even if said titles meet the criteria. Additionally, Sony allows 3rd party developers some flexibility in the pricing of their own Greatest Hits titles, but most of them stick to the agreed-upon suggested retail price. Games that are multi-million sellers may become Greatest Hits titles much later than 9 months to maximize profits. It is also a common practice for a game to re-release on the Greatest Hits label at a close proximity to the release of that game's sequel or follow-up.
In 2006, Sony extended the Greatest Hits program to the PlayStation Portable. To qualify, a title must be on the market for at least 9 months and have sold 250,000 copies or more. The Greatest Hits price for PlayStation Portable games typically begins at $19.99. On July 28, 2008, the program was introduced on the PlayStation 3. A PlayStation 3 game must be on the market for 10 months and sell at least 500,000 copies to meet the Greatest Hits criteria. PlayStation 3 Greatest Hits titles currently sell at $29.99.
Sony announced the launch of Greatest Hits on PlayStation 4 in Mexico, Canada, and the United States, renamed PlayStation Hits, on June 19, 2018. As with PS3 Greatest Hits releases, they feature red-colored packaging and a red banner on their box art and disc. PlayStation Hits pricing will also be available on PlayStation Store.
"Special edition" Greatest Hits While Greatest Hits titles are usually just a re-release of the original game with altered packaging and a lower price, occasionally a game is given a "special edition" of its original version, released under the Greatest Hits label. Usually these additions are small bonuses, such as the inclusion of bugfixes, new game demos or soundtrack CDs, or slight improvements such as adding analog control or vibration functionality to games that did not have these features in their original releases. Occasionally, significant changes are implemented into the game. Noteworthy examples of this are the Greatest Hits special editions of Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3, Heavy Rain, Jet Moto 2, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, Midnight Club Los Angeles, Silent Hill 2, Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon, which were enhanced significantly from their original releases with added characters, levels, modes, features, etc.
List of official Greatest Hits titles
PlayStation The following titles have been released on the Greatest Hits label for PlayStation.
007: Tomorrow Never Dies 007: The World Is Not Enough 1Xtreme 2Xtreme A Bug's Life Activision Classics Air Combat Alien Trilogy Andretti Racing Ape Escape Army Men 3D Army Men: Air Attack Asteroids Battle Arena Toshinden Casper Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Chrono Cross Cool Boarders 2 Cool Boarders 3 Cool Boarders 4 Crash Bandicoot Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back Crash Bandicoot: Warped Crash Bash Crash Team Racing Croc: Legend of the Gobbos Dance Dance Revolution Konamix Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX Destruction Derby Destruction Derby 2 Die Hard Trilogy Digimon Digital Card Battle Digimon Rumble Arena Digimon World Digimon World 2 Digimon World 3 Dino Crisis Disney's Tarzan Doom Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 Driver Driver 2 Duke Nukem: Time to Kill The Dukes of Hazzard: Racing for Home Fighting Force Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VIII Final Fantasy IX Final Fantasy Anthology Final Fantasy Chronicles Final Fantasy Origins Final Fantasy Tactics Formula 1 Frogger Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge Gran Turismo Gran Turismo 2 Grand Theft Auto Grand Theft Auto 2 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Hot Wheels Turbo Racing Jeremy McGrath SuperCross '98 Jet Moto Jet Moto 2: Championship Edition Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver The Legend of Dragoon Loaded The Lost World: Jurassic Park – Special Edition Madden NFL 98 Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX Medal of Honor Medal of Honor: Underground Mega Man 8 Mega Man Legends Mega Man X4 Metal Gear Solid Monopoly Monsters, Inc. Scream Team Mortal Kombat Trilogy Mortal Kombat 4 Namco Museum Vol. 1 Namco Museum Vol. 3 NASCAR 98 NASCAR 99 The Need for Speed Need for Speed II Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit Need for Speed: High Stakes NFL Blitz NFL Blitz 2000 NFL GameDay NFL GameDay '97 NHL 98 NHL FaceOff NHL FaceOff '97 Nuclear Strike Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee Pac-Man World Parasite Eve Rampage World Tour Rayman Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Reel Fishing Resident Evil: Director's Cut (Dual Shock Version) Resident Evil 2 (Dual Shock Version) Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Ridge Racer Road Rash Road Rash 3D Rocket Power: Team Rocket Rescue Rugrats: Search for Reptar Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase Silent Hill SimCity 2000 Sled Storm Soul Blade Soviet Strike Spider-Man Spider-Man 2: Enter: Electro SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge
Spyro the Dragon Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! Spyro: Year of the Dragon Star Wars: Dark Forces Star Wars: Episode I – Jedi Power Battles Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace Star Wars: Rebel Assault II – The Hidden Empire Street Fighter Alpha 3 Stuart Little 2 Syphon Filter Syphon Filter 2 Syphon Filter 3 Tekken Tekken 2 Tekken 3 Ten Pin Alley Tenchu: Stealth Assassins Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins Test Drive 4 Test Drive 5 Test Drive: Off-Road Tetris Plus TNN Motorsports Hardcore 4x4 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Tomb Raider Tomb Raider II Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue Triple Play 98 Triple Play 2001 Twisted Metal Twisted Metal 2 Twisted Metal III Twisted Metal 4 Vagrant Story Vigilante 8 Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense Warhawk WCW Nitro WCW vs. the World Wheel of Fortune Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: 2nd Edition Wipeout WWF SmackDown! WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role WWF War Zone WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game X-Men: Mutant Academy Xenogears
PlayStation 2
The following titles have been released on the Greatest Hits label for PlayStation 2.
007: Agent Under Fire 007: Everything or Nothing 007: Nightfire 24: The Game 50 Cent: Bulletproof Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War American Chopper American Chopper 2: Full Throttle ATV Offroad Fury ATV Offroad Fury 2 ATV Offroad Fury 3 ATV Offroad Fury 4 Avatar: The Last Airbender Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance Battlefield 2: Modern Combat Ben 10: Alien Force Ben 10: Protector of Earth Beyond Good & Evil Black Blitz: The League Blowout Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 Bully Burnout Burnout 2: Point of Impact Burnout 3: Takedown Burnout Revenge Cabela's Big Game Hunter Cabela's Dangerous Hunts Cabela's Deer Hunt: 2004 Season Call of Duty: Finest Hour Call of Duty 2: Big Red One Call of Duty 3 Special Edition Call of Duty: World at War – Final Fronts Cars Champions of Norrath Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Chicken Little The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Conflict: Desert Storm Conflict: Desert Storm II - Back to Baghdad Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex Crash Nitro Kart Crash Tag Team Racing Crazy Taxi Dance Dance Revolution Extreme Dark Cloud Dark Cloud 2 Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 DDRMAX2 Dance Dance Revolution Dead to Rights Def Jam: Fight for NY Def Jam Vendetta Destroy All Humans! Destroy All Humans! 2 Devil May Cry Devil May Cry 2 Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening Special Edition Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII Disgaea: Hour of Darkness Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King Driv3r Dynasty Warriors 4 Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures Enter the Matrix Fantastic 4 Fight Night 2004 Fight Night Round 2 Fight Night Round 3 Final Fantasy X Final Fantasy X-2 Final Fantasy XII Finding Nemo FlatOut FlatOut 2 Flushed Away Freekstyle The Getaway Ghost Rider The Godfather: The Game God of War God of War II GoldenEye: Rogue Agent Gran Turismo 3: A-spec Gran Turismo 4 Grand Theft Auto III Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Guitar Hero Guitar Hero II Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance Hitman 2: Silent Assassin Hitman: Contracts Hot Shots Golf 3 Hot Shots Golf Fore! The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction The Incredibles Iron Man Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy Jak II Jak 3 Jak X: Combat Racing Jaws Unleashed Jet Li: Rise to Honor Juiced Kill.switch Killzone Kingdom Hearts Kingdom Hearts II Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2 Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning Lego Batman: The Videogame Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Lego Star Wars: The Video Game Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age Madagascar Madden NFL 12 Manhunt Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Max Payne Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne Maximo: Ghosts to Glory Maximo vs. Army of Zin Meet the Robinsons Medal of Honor: European Assault Medal of Honor: Frontline Medal of Honor: Rising Sun Medal of Honor: Vanguard Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Midnight Club: Street Racing Midnight Club II Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance Mortal Kombat: Deception Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks MVP Baseball 2005 MX Unleashed MX vs. ATV Unleashed MX vs. ATV Untamed Myst III: Exile Namco Museum Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary Nanobreaker Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2