Best Buy Is Discounting The PlayStation Classic Yet Again

It seems stores just can't get rid of the PlayStation Classic quickly enough. After months of huge cuts to the mini console's price, retailer Best Buy is once again discounting the PlayStation Classic to a ridiculous degree.

According to Game Rant, you can currently find the PlayStation Classic at Best Buy for just $20. That is a fifth of where the Classic was priced when it launched in December of last year, a little over seven months ago. And it really speaks to how poorly Sony's take on the classic console trend has performed when compared to similar efforts from Nintendo, whose NES and SNES Classics regularly sold out and became hot ticket items for scalpers.

We've detailed in the past why the PlayStation Classic turned out to be a dud. That doesn't make it any less surprising, considering Sony's dominant performance with the PlayStation 4 this generation. Had the company simply taken its time to put something together that would've appealed to the nostalgia of older gamers and collectors, and given new gamers a reason to buy, the Classic could've easily been on par with Nintendo's systems. Instead, Sony rushed out a product riddled with issues, full of games that were either not synonymous with the PlayStation brand or were inexplicably included as PAL versions.

Of course, it didn't help that you can find may of the PlayStation Classic's on modern storefronts today, but the PlayStation Classic's failure likely has far more to do with its overall quality, and with word of mouth. News spread quickly that the Classic wasn't up to snuff, disappointing even those who wanted to love it. And judging by the number of times the system has been discounted, including today, it's hard to imagine the PlayStation Classic has done anywhere near as well as Sony would've liked.

But it stands to reason that Sony might give this a try again someday, perhaps with the PlayStation 2, which was huge for the company. It's an easy sell when done right. In the meantime, Sony's first effort originally sold for $100, and can now be had for $20. If you're into collecting gaming memorabilia and feel you simply can't live without this tiny PlayStation, now might be a pretty good time to buy.

But who knows; maybe it'll get even cheaper.