Greatest Hits PS3 Overview

Greatest Hits Origins for PlayStation 3

The concept of a "Greatest Hits" release dates back to the PS1 days, then followed into the PS2, and then into the PSP. The next logical step for Sony would be to continue their Greatest Hits series into the PlayStation 3.

The PS3 Greatest Hits lineup was first announced to the community on 7/15/2008, followed by the first wave Greatest Hits releases on 7/28/2008. This would be a budget line up series of games which would be re-released at $29.99 in a majority of cases. Generally, a title would be eligible for a Greatest Hits print after meeting certain criteria:

• Selling over 500,000 units

• Being available for sale for at least 5 months (other sources show 10 months of being available for sale, yet official release dates for MAG and for God of War Collection debunk this).

Of course, just because a title became Greatest Hits eligible does not always mean it would be reprinted. The publisher of the eligible game would need to greenlight a reprinting of the desired title. This would be great for additional unit sales of some games, and some publishers would line up a Greatest Hits printing with a sequel in the game series if possible.

For the PS3, a Greatest Hits release would typically consist of reprinted artwork with a red label noting "Greatest Hits" a sleek looking red case to stand out among the abundance of clear PS3 cases, and a new red label disc as well. When a game would be designated to receive a Greatest Hits release, prior to an actual printing run area Sony reps who would visit retail stores would tag games with Greatest Hits stickers to designate an upcoming Greatest Hits release. This would make games stand out among other titles. This process was used between 2008 to around 2011.

As far as Greatest Hits stickers are concerned, there were a few different versions through the years.

Starting with version 1, this follows the mata font on the top of the case, with an extended banner for the Greatest Hits text, basically exactly what would be seen on the upcoming Greatest Hits releases.

Greatest Hits Sticker Version 1 - Original Mata Font

Next we have version 2, this ditches the mata stylized font and only presents the standard Greatest Hits text on the sticker.

Greatest Hits Sticker Version 2 - Standard Greatest Hits Text

Lastly we have version 3, the Greatest Hits text with PlayStation Move branding included. This of course was not used for many titles, and would only be put onto a PlayStation Move compatible / required title which would be receiving a Greatest Hits reprint (something which hardly any Move games received).

Greatest Hits Sticker Version 3 - PlayStation Move Branding Included

Now, with that introduction concluded, lets now move into the next topic - the wonderful inconsistencies of Greatest Hits releases.

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Inconsistencies of Greatest Hits Releases

Throughout the Greatest Hits printing runs, some games slipped through the cracks and did not receive a full "proper" Greatest Hits printing. These games include the likes of; Darksiders, Dead Space 3, Heavenly Sword, and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009.

Starting with Darksiders, this received a proper red case and red label artwork, however there was never a red label disc printed. The same applies to Dead Space 3 as well.

Moving to Heavenly Sword now, this never was released in a red case, nor did it release with any Greatest Hits artwork, so how can this be considered a Greatest Hits release? Well, there was for some reason a red label disc printed for the "Greatest Hits" release. This also did have the artwork reprinted, which removed the reversible artwork that first prints had, and also shortened the manual by 1 page.

Next we have WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, which never released in a red case, but did

actually have red label artwork printed. There was never a red label disc pressed however.

Lastly I will point out as PS3 production cycles were slowing down, Greatest Hits games which were still being produced began to slip even further with "proper" releases. Some titles from about 2015 onward began to lack red case releases for some printing batches, some notable titles here include; Resident Evil 5 [Gold Edition] and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.

Moving forward into the afterlife years of the PS3 (post 2019), Greatest Hits reprints would sometimes be produced in red cases, sometimes in the standard clear cases. Personally, I do not consider these releases with mismatched artwork and cases to be variants of any notable kind; as the manufacturing plants typically would utilize whatever case stock was available as of the time of printing. Additionally here, there would generally be no differences in the print runs other than the case itself. If there are any major differences (as seen with Red Dead Redemption [Game of the Year Edition] [Greatest Hits] [Second Reprint] or Grand Theft Auto V [Greatest Hits] [Reprint]), then they will be noted as a reprint / variant.

To further complicate matters, some afterlife Greatest Hits reprints were issued in the standard red cases, however the case was an updated model to match the previous double disc clear cases. Once again, these were not standardized and even with some newer reprints, you may receive a single disc game, in a double disc red case. Back in the day when the likes of the Batman: Arkham Dual Pack and Borderlands 2 [Game of the Year Edition] released, the double disc red cases were not created and thus these releases were only ever printed in a clear double disc case. You can tell the case differences by the square notch in the opening of the case, if the PS3 case has this notch you have a double disc case.

In the below photo:

• The top case is a standard red case Greatest Hits release.

• The middle case is a standard double disc case used for most dual disc releases.

• The bottom case is the double disc red case used for some newer Greatest Hits reprints. This case is also a slightly darker red shade, feels of a cheaper build quality, and is also transparent rather than mostly a solid red color. If you hold a this case up to a light, you can also see right through the case.

If you are pursing a full Greatest Hits collection, and want all of your cases to be red, you can now achieve this by case swapping these double disc clear cases out for double disc red cases (a pretty cool addition if you are wanting to have some sense of uniformity with the Greatest Hits subset).

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Greatest Hits "Myths"

This section is going to cover some myths or misconceptions of some Greatest Hits titles.

Starting off with God of War: Origins Collection [Not for Resale]

• This was only released with the Ultimate Combo Pack - DualShock 3 + God of War: Origins Collection.

• This is a standard black label disc, manual and black label artwork (now updated to be marked as Not for Resale), however for some reason all copies were packaged into a red case.

• I have this as a Greatest Hits technicality as back in the day, old "complete Greatest Hits lists" would often include this as a Greatest Hits release. Double that with the Greatest Hits mock art that was floating around and this is why it is often mistakenly referred to as a Greatest Hits release.

• You can include it in a full subset count, you can exclude it from a full subset count, ultimately this was never released in a true Greatest Hits fashion.

Left is the mock artwork you can find floating around online. Right is the actual [Not for Resale] release with red case.

Next we will cover UFC Undisputed 2010

• For starters, in an official blog post in 2011 to announce the February 2011 Greatest Hits line up, this game was included on the blog post, yet had no artwork on the post whereas the other 4 titles had official Greatest Hits artwork on the blog post.

• The only image I have ever seen of a "true" Greatest Hits artwork print is from an old Best Buy listing which also appears to be general mock art.

• The only copies I have seen in existence are promotional sticker tagged copies.

Forgive the old phone screenshot, for some reason back in the day I never saved the artwork Best Buy had on their site, and now the artwork has been removed! Anyway the right side is the Greatest Hits sticker tagged copy.

Last will be Just Cause 2

• Greatest Hits mock artwork exists online as you can see below.

• I have YET to find any true evidence this actually exists.

• Will an actual copy of this eventually turn up? Maybe, who knows what the future holds!

This is the mock artwork you can find floating around online.

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Greatest Hits Release Information

We already covered at the start of the post the launch date of the Greatest Hits line up, however for the first couple of years of releases, Sony would publish PlayStation Blog articles featuring the upcoming Greatest Hits releases. Sony unfortunately would quickly fall off of this trend by 2011, thus resulting in a lot of missing release dates for a vast majority of the Greatest Hits library.

We can only speculate on rough release dates for most Greatest Hits games based on multiple factors: front and back artwork styles, disc styles, spine and region codes, and even publisher codes and/or UPCs.

Even with the official blog posts, there were still some titles released in the early years which never received a blog post from Sony, but had other posts from other gaming news sites covering the releases.

The first wave released on 7/28/2008 included the below titles:

• Assassin's Creed

• Call of Duty 3

• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

• Fight Night Round 3

• MotorStorm

• Need for Speed: Carbon

• Ninja Gaiden Sigma

• Resistance Fall of Man

• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas

• Warhawk

The second wave released on 6/16/2009 included the below titles:

• Army of Two

• Battlefield: Bad Company

• Devil May Cry 4

• Gran Turismo 5: Prologue

• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

• Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

The third wave released on 8/17/2009 included the below titles:

• SOCOM U.S. NAVY SEALs: Confrontation

• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

The fourth wave released on 4/1/2010 included the below titles:

• Dead Space

• Fight Night Round 4

• God of War Collection

• inFamous

• Killzone 2

• LittleBigPlanet: Game of the Year Edition

• Resident Evil 5

• Resistance 2

• SoulCalibur IV

• UFC 2009 Undisputed

The fifth wave released on 9/28/2010 included the below titles:

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

• Call of Duty: World At War

• Demon's Souls

• MAG

• MotorStorm: Pacific Rift

• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

• Tekken 6

The sixth wave released on 2/25/2011 included the below titles:

• God of War III

• Heavy Rain

• ModNation Racers

• UFC Undisputed 2010 (this never saw an actual Greatest Hits printing run published).

• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Game of the Year Edition

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Final PS3 Greatest Hits Thoughts & Information

The Greatest Hits subset is for the most part a very achievable subset to pursue, provided you are able to track down the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Dead Space 3. These are by far going to be the rarest titles to obtain in the subset.

In total as of 2024, there are 164 unique releases in the Greatest Hits subset (and 166 if you count the technicalities of UFC 2010 which did not see release, and God of War: Origins Collection which is commonly mistook for a GH release).

If you are a variant collector such as myself, then you are currently (as of 2026) looking at around 210 titles (this number will potentially still increase if more variants are found, or more new reprints are ultimately issues, but I do not estimate this number ever going above 300).

Who knows what the future holds for Greatest Hits on the PS3, there may still be undiscovered Greatest Hits releases out there, hidden, waiting to be discovered (as was the case years back with Max Payne 3 and Dead Island: Riptide).