Well, although this article in my series about horror games was originally supposed to be about how these games were more popular on consoles than PC during the mid-late 1990s and early-mid 2000s, there were only two older consoles where horror games seriously thrived. I am, of course, talking about the first two Playstation consoles. Yes, horror games did appear on other consoles too, but these two consoles often either got horror games before other platforms or had a wider range of them than other platforms did. And here are a few of my rambling speculations about why.
At a guess, there are several reasons. The main one, for the original Playstation at least, was the intended audience. In contrast to Nintendo, who was still gradually shaking off their reputation of being entirely aimed at younger or “family” audiences, the original Playstation was marketed more at teenagers and younger adults. As such, horror games with higher ratings were a better “fit” with the console and its intended audience.
There were also practical advantages with the original Playstation too. Not only did it use CD-ROMs, with a lower manufacturing cost and higher capacity than the cartridges that the Nintendo 64 used but – from my vague memories of watching Youtube videos – it was also apparently better optimised for 3D graphics and/or possibly easier to program for than the then-current Sega Saturn too. Likewise, unlike Nintendo’s greater focus on making games in-house, Sony seems to have been a lot more open to third-party developers on the Playstation too.
All of this meant that it was easier for more companies to release horror games on the original Playstation. The larger-capacity CD-ROMs not only allowed for more textures (even though the N64 was better for 3D elements), FMV sequences etc.. but the lower manufacturing costs meant that horror games, such as “Resident Evil 2” (1998) could consist of multiple discs if necessary (even if, in the case of that game, the two-disc format was the result of a mistake). Still, “Resident Evil 2” is probably a bad example of this, since it also received a N64 port as well.
The limitations of the console and the fact that horror games were only barely “mainstream” back then also probably helped too, since it spurred creativity. Famously, the original “Silent Hill” (1999) was developed by a team of misfits and “failures” at Konami . Not exactly your typical “AAA” game development plan. And they made it work – even using the technical limitations of the original Playstation to their advantage to give the game a distinctive look and atmosphere too. The most notable example of this is the dense ominous fog added to outdoor areas in the game – this was originally intended to cover up “pop-up scenery”, but it also gave the game a lot of extra atmosphere too 🙂
In contrast, Capcom’s “Resident Evil” (1996) used 2D pre-rendered backgrounds to make the game look good on the limited Playstation hardware of the time too – which became an iconic visual feature of many earlier games in the series. Seriously, the technical limitations of the console also probably helped a lot, given the high level of creativity a good horror game requires.
Of course, horror videogames thrived even more on the Playstation 2. Yes, there were a few horror games on the Nintendo Gamecube – the most notable being the stunning 2002 remake of “Resident Evil” and – although I unfortunately haven’t played it – “Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem” (2002) too. The Sega Dreamcast also had several horror games and the Xbox also apparently had a reasonable selection too. Some horror games were, of course, also released on multiple platforms too.
Even so, the Playstation 2 had: “Silent Hill 2” (2001), “Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare” (2001), “Fatal Frame/Project Zero” (2001/2), “Resident Evil: Code Veronica X” (2001), “Clock Tower 3” (2002), “Resident Evil Outbreak” (2003), “Silent Hill 3” (2003), “Siren”/”Forbidden Siren” (2003), “Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly” (2003), “ObsCure” (2004), “Silent Hill 4” (2004), “Resident Evil Outbreak: File 2” (2004), “Haunting Ground” (2005), “Resident Evil 4” (2005) etc…. Seriously, this isn’t even a complete list. There were a lot of horror games on the Playstation 2. Alas, I’ve only actually played the full versions of a few of these.
Although many of the reasons behind this are… possibly… similar to those for the original Playstation (eg: even though Nintendo had shifted away from cartridges, they still used a weird mini-DVD format for the Gamecube), an important thing to note is that this was also the heyday of mid-budget games.
This was a time when graphics had reached a point where they could look relatively realistic compared to the blocky polygons of the original Playstation, but also didn’t require the major Hollywood-size budgets needed for more detailed modern “AAA” graphics either. Likewise, as with the film industry at the time, even large games companies often preferred to sensibly focus on making a wider range of medium-budget projects rather than betting the farm on a small number of expensive “blockbusters” too.
And, yes, horror games thrive on mid-size budgets. When they have enough financial freedom for decent graphics and production quality, but a low enough cost to encourage creative experimentation and a slightly greater focus on a niche audience of fans rather than on a generic “mainstream” audience. Likewise, middle-size budgets can push horror games into being more focused experiences where the emphasis is more on things like story, atmosphere, claustrophobic contained locations etc… too, rather than on cinematic spectacle.
Plus, of course, the Playstation 2 was also backwards-compatible with the original Playstation – meaning that many horror classics of the mid-late 1990s could still be enjoyed on it without the need for re-releases too (since second-hand PS1 games were common and inexpensive during the early-mid 2000s). So, you could access two large libraries of horror games if you had a PS2 🙂
So, yes, the first two Playstation consoles were the best places to play horror games back in the day thanks to things like openness to third-party developers, a focus on a slightly older audience, backwards compatibility, a cheaper disc-based format, the fact that games cost less to make back then and large games companies wisely preferred the stability of a wider range of mid-budget projects rather than a few “all or nothing” AAA blockbuster projects too.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
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