Capcom’s Best Classic Games Are Easier Than Ever to Play, And More Publishers Need to Follow Suit

As a medium, gaming will always be in a weird spot when it comes to its history. Unlike movies, TV, and books, there isn’t an easy way to pick up any old game you want and dive in. Emulators exist, but represent a barrier to players who aren’t as technically savvy, and there’s always the question of legality. Thankfully, publishers like Capcom have largely done a great job of bringing their fan-favorite games to modern platforms over the last few years. I just wish more publishers would join them to preserve video game history and let new players experience classic games for the first time.

Classic Capcom Games Keep Getting New Ports

Capcom’s willingness to bring its classic games to modern platforms should be commended by everyone. The publisher recently announced that the original Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis games are coming to PS5 and PS4 in addition to PlayStation Plus Premium in August 2025. Last year, fans got the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics on most major consoles. Plus, the first two Dino Crisis games dropped on PC via GOG in 2024.

Look, Capcom’s not perfect (I’m looking at you, Viewtiful Joe), but it’s leaving most publishers in the dust when it comes to making its back catalog available on modern platforms. It’s not easy work, but it’s important work that serves several purposes for Capcom.

The main selling point is that players love nostalgia. Everyone wants to relive their childhood, and by re-releasing those classic games, Capcom can double-dip on profits. These collections likely won’t sell as well as brand-new entries, but the development cost should be a fraction of a modern game. Even if profits aren’t as high, it’s probably still worth the work in most cases.

On top of that, it gives junior developers something to cut their teeth on before jumping into Capcom’s larger prospects. It’s a sort of training ground that doesn’t have quite as much pressure, giving younger devs room to grow and work on key skills. The same could be said for games like the Resident Evil Remakes, but the point stands that these projects can work as talent incubators for companies like Capcom.

Putting out these classics also helps preserve video game history. That’s an important factor for players and developers, especially with how often we see games simply disappear forever when the servers shut off.

Finally, re-releasing old games keeps them in the public consciousness. Dropping the original Resident Evil 2 isn’t going to do huge numbers for Capcom, but it will keep Resident Evil in the news, helping build hype for Resident Evil Requiem when it launches next year. It’s a multi-pronged approach to marketing that’s worked well for Capcom.

More Publishers Need to Be Like Capcom

So why aren’t more developers taking a similar path to game preservation? Well, the reasons are complicated and likely different for every developer, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try.

Electronic Arts is one of the more perplexing publishers for this exercise. The publisher has a massive catalog of fan-favorite games that you can’t play in 2025 unless you have an old console. Players would love to jump into games like NBA Street Vol. 2, Burnout 3: Takedown, and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, but EA has never made the moves to make it happen.

Now, many of those games are held back by licensing issues. NBA Street would require a ton of work to bring back all the old players and get the rights to the soundtrack, but, strangely, EA’s never tried to make that happen. After all, fans of arcade sports games are notoriously underserved by modern sports sims. There’s a market that seems wide open. Someone just has to capitalize on it.

While EA might never be that publisher, things do seem to be moving in a solid direction. Earlier this year, Activision released more than 50 classic games on Xbox Game Pass, letting players dive into retro classics like Pitfall, Commando, and MechWarrior 2. It’s not as robust as what Capcom’s been doing, but it is at least moving the needle forward.

Hopefully, companies like EA and Ubisoft will join the movement. We don’t need the mega-publishers’ full catalog, but it’s past time that I should be able to load up SSX Tricky on my Series X.

And while I’m at it, Capcom, please let me play Viewtiful Joe again.