OMG! Our baby’s come home! Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus PSone Classics are both available on the PlayStation Store for only $9.99 each starting Thursday, October 22.
It was only about six years ago that I told our agent at the time, “Larry, don’t you get it!? Our classic Abe games are history. The systems that played them are gone and they aren’t coming back. Ours is a disposable medium and we don’t have a Turner Classics channel.” He looked at me with this defeated expression and said, “Dude, that’s the most depressing thing I’ve ever heard you say.” He believed me, and I too believed it at the time.
Six years later and I have to admit it’s great being proved wrong.
We couldn’t have been more thrilled when we learned that the PlayStation Network was willing to offer our classic Abe games to an entirely new generation of gamers. Finally, gamers who never got the chance to meet and play him when he first came out on the PSone system, will now get that chance to meet the guy who graced many magazine covers and proved the unlikely hero that captured people’s hearts.
We poured years of our lives into both Abe games as part of the love affair that we had with the original PSone system. It was our first character and story to be developed by our new company and I had promised Sherry McKenna, Oddworld CEO, that we would create characters that even she would love. Characters that would make her laugh and that she could be proud of, even though she didn’t care about games. (To this day, Abe is still her favorite)
Gaming seemed such a blank slate of possibilities back then. It was an early super-cool medium with which we could start telling stories of our own. We wanted characters living through stories that might inspire people while still enabling them many hours of challenge and entertainment. We wanted to integrate the best of our previous trade from the visual effects field to delve deeper into the storytelling potential with this exciting, rapidly evolving interactive medium.
We also wanted characters whose score was kept by their karma, not by their number of kills.
We started with Abe, the little chump trapped by the dark side of globalization who would need to find his way (and his soul) through a vast landscape of relentless hazards. He was to be the lovable hero trying to survive heavily armed idiots and hungry critters of the carnivorous kind.
He was designed to cause as many laughs as he would accomplishments, and we wanted him to be remembered.
Now here we are today and because of SCEA and PSN, Abe’s goofy face and doofy walk are finding their way back into gamers’ homes once again. Abe finds a new generation of gamers on PSN, but this time it’s without the costly price of a physically distributed box product, which means Abe is now able to find his way at a ridiculously low price.
We can’t help but feel like Abe is our lost child who has finally returned home. He’s still healthy, he’s still happy, and if you read the forums lately…still holding up after all these years.
Thank you, Sony. (sniffle) You brought our baby home. (sobs)
I had this game for PC when I was a kid, it really scared me. But that was awhile ago. Im not saying I didn’t like it, just scared me:)
YES YES YES!
I remember playing this at Toys R’ Us when I was 6 or 7 I told my parents I wanted it, and I got it for Christmas XDDD
I love this game, I still own the disc from when it was first released and I am definitely rebuying this, it’s a freaking classic so thanks for bringing it back guys.
I remember playing a demo on an old PlayStation Underground CD… ended up getting the game for Christmas!
First thing I’m doing is getting Abe to fart!
Played both of these on the PC way back when. Very excited to play them on the PS3 as well. Two of my favorite games ever. <3
Lorne! You have no idea how excited I am! I still own the original, but I’m definitely going to pick-up Abe’s Oddysee, at least so I can play it on my PSP.
I also want you to know that Abe’s Oddysee is my favorite game of all time, no joke. I’ve used to for COUNTLESS writing assignments, and every time it’s an absolute pleasure writing about the game.
I’m eagerly awaiting your next announcement, and if you’re ever in need of hiring someone, you could do worse than me!
Thanks so much everyone. Those of you most familiar with us know that we never make comments on forums but the nostalgia factor for bringing Abe back to Sony is a special moment for us… so I jumped in. I hope my responses have been helpful to those who had questions. I tried to answer what I could against an insanely busy schedule.
Thanks out there for all the support and great memories thru the years.
LL
This was one of the games that made me jealous of my friends who had the original Playstation. back when i only owned an N64.
Thank you guys so much for bringing this over to the PSN. will definitely get this and be able to play it for the first time.
$10 each? Is this supposed to be funny?
Lorne Lanning I have a question, when do you expect the release of FINAL FANTASY 8 to hit the psn?
absolutely no idea.