THE BUZZ: Victor Ireland today announced that the Working Designs published Vanguard Bandits—a Japanese strategy RPG released on the original PlayStation—will be hitting PSN in North America next week.

Ireland used to head Working Designs, and has in recent years been making effort to re-publish some of the titles the now-defunct publisher originally brought over.

Vanguard Bandits will be released at a $9.99 price point, something Ireland said he had hoped to avoid, but which was necessary in order to have the re-release happen. However, on internet message forum NeoGAF, he made the following statement in regards to that price:

“We’re doing something fan-centric next week on launch day that I hope will take a little of the sting out of it.”

EGM’s TAKE: One of my favorite uses of digital services where older games are offered up for sale is the re-release of niche games that are now nearly impossible to track down. Paying $100+ for a copy of a game that came and went long ago only benefits those trying to make a few bucks off of collectors—so give me more of these great under-appreciated games of the past at these fantastic prices!

Source: NeoGAF