This week I decided to solve a mystery that had been bothering me during my release research. I had spotted a few PAL Platinum copies of Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX sporting an unusual hologram on the case, one with a square aspect rather than the rectangular PlayStation hologram you’d normally expect. It appeared to be a genuine, official sticker rather than a replacement or swap, and what really caught my attention was a sealed, graded copy turning up for sale, which made it hard to dismiss as a fake or a mismatch. The puzzling part is that no PSP games were ever released in a standard multiway jewel case, the PSP had its own proprietary UMD format with its own dedicated case design.

The PSP hologram design on the Final Fantasy VIII case, showing the SCE logo
The PSP hologram design on the Final Fantasy VIII case, showing the PSP logo at a different angle

PSP?

I asked a few sellers if they had any background on these copies, but none of them had any idea why the hologram was different, they’d simply picked them up without noticing anything unusual. After some digging, I came across this thread on Reddit where someone found the same thing in a CEX store. The theory put forward there is that these are genuine PSP holograms, the PSP launched in the PAL region in autumn 2005, and it seems a supply of PSP hologram stickers was mistakenly used on a late run of PS1 Platinum cases around that time. That was all I needed to hear, I had to get hold of one for myself.

Bought

The PSP hologram design on a PS1 case, showing the PSP logo
The PSP hologram design on a PS1 case, showing the SCE logo at a different angle

I managed to track down a copy in good condition and placed an order, it arrived a couple of days later. Sure enough, the hologram is unmistakably PSP: tilt the case at the right angle and you can clearly make out the PSP logo where you’d normally see the PlayStation logo. Before it arrived, I did briefly consider whether it might be a PS2 hologram, since Sony used a similar hologram aspect for that platform too, but the PSP branding is distinct enough to rule that out. The most likely explanation is a simple manufacturing mix-up, PSP hologram stock finding its way onto a late Platinum print run of Final Fantasy VIII and, it seems, Final Fantasy IX as well.

Others

The PSP hologram in the corner of the Final Fantasy VIII case

I’ve seen Final Fantasy IX copies with the same hologram, so I’m keeping my eyes open for a decent example to add to the collection. Beyond those two titles, I haven’t come across any other games with this misprint yet, but as I work through the later PAL releases to build out the database, there may well be others hiding out there.