The author of the industrial publication GamesIndustry.biz Rob Fahey published a column in which he speculated about preserving the gaming legacy of old consoles Playstation amid messages about the imminent shutdown of the digital store PS Store on the PS3, PS Vita and PSP… He thinks that Sony should work better with classics, pay more attention to backward compatibility programs, and listen more closely to the audience.
It will definitely happen. In the summer, according to new rumors, or perhaps in a slightly more distant future. But the fact itself simply cannot be avoided. At some point Sony will stop supporting its digital store on older generations of systems Playstation…
According to rumor sources, disable PlayStation Store on PS3, PSP and PS Vita at the same time… The reason for this decision may be the fact that on these consoles the store is connected by a single network infrastructure. But even if we assume that the closure of the site may be somewhat delayed, in the long term, its fate is unambiguously predetermined. The fate of countless games is also predetermined, in which it is extremely problematic to play on other platforms today.
And as Sony prepares to wean its old consoles away from the digital PS Store, the Japanese platform-holder’s reluctance to look back at its past is slowly turning into a very tangible problem. It can hardly be estimated how much digital content could potentially disappear into nowhere. The PS3, PSP and Vita catalogs contain hundreds of games that can overnight become treasures available only to the most avid collectors. In turn countless Playstation minis (small digital-only PSP games) and PSOne Classics (original PS1 games available for launch on PSP, PS Vita and PS3) will simply cease to exist in any format.
In simple terms, shutting down the PS Store on the three consoles mentioned above will completely cut off casual users from a whole layer of game history. From the library of games that has been replenished since the inception of the gaming Sony – from 1994 to 2013, when it went on sale PS4… We are talking about almost two decades, reflecting the modern gaming culture, to which it was to a large extent that Sony had its hand.
On the one hand, the situation can be viewed as another reminder to gaming enthusiasts that they need to invest their funds in physical copies. But the availability of games should not at all be bound by artificial restrictions, such as the need to proactively accumulate whole sets of games in your collection. Or the presence of extra money in your wallet, without which it becomes extremely problematic to buy many projects that have already become a rarity in the secondary market. Moreover, not all games were even published on physical media.
Sony’s view of past interactive entertainment and its role as an outside advocate is somewhat controversial. Whenever there is a discussion on the Internet about a catalog of classic PlayStation titles, someone will surely remember Jim Ryan’s quote from 2017, when he sincerely doubted users’ interest in being able to play old PS1 and PS2 era Gran Turismo games…
It is hardly fair to replicate the words of Jim Ryne for so many years, but the reason why many cannot forget them lies in the fact that recently Sony management has not taken any steps in the opposite direction. Because of this, it’s easy to believe that the position of the acting head of PlayStation is shared by other senior figures in the company.
Through a similar lens, the PlayStation brand can also be compared to its direct competitors. Company Nintendo, for example, treats his old games like real treasures – literally and figuratively. Classic Nintendo titles are monetized in a new way every time, and the audience has another reason to drown in pleasant nostalgia. Microsoft she did an incredible job on the backward compatibility system on the Xbox family consoles. One of the most overlooked aspects of service Game pass can be called the fact that the site contains many old games, some of which debuted on the original Xbox… This approach is somewhat reminiscent of a streaming platform. Netflix, which every now and then breathes new life into classic TV shows and films, introducing them to a new young audience.
Especially interesting is the position of Sony in relation to old games looks against the background of the fact that recently a new trend has sparked in the information space, the essence of which boils down to acute nostalgia for the games of the era of the original PlayStation. Talented enthusiasts create a wide variety of projects visually inspired by the aesthetics of early 3D graphics and even try to mimic the unresponsive controls inherent in many games of the past.
To be fair, it should be noted that direct parallels between Sony and a competitor are drawn with a big “but”. The issue of rights to the coveted titles of the past is a very important point. The same Nintendo is the sole owner of its intellectual property, which now and then comes back in the form of reprinted titles of bygone eras. But with games clearly associated with PS1 and PS2, the picture is different. Many of them are the property of third-party companies, which means that their release on various platforms is always associated with a whole string of technical and legal subtleties.
Technical subtleties, by the way, also deserve a separate discussion. Internal emulation of PS1, PS2 and PS3 is not at all similar to the solutions Microsoft came up with in the desire to maintain support for games from the original Xbox and Xbox 360.
But even with that said, it’s hard to take Sony’s strategy in a positive way. It is likely that many of these decisions are made on the basis of a simple desire to increase profits and reduce costs. The preservation of old games as a cultural entity or as part of the historical past of the PlayStation brand may simply not be considered with proper attention by Sony management today.
At the same time, the top of Sony does not want to give up completely from sweet nostalgia either. Surprisingly cool Astro’s Playroompreinstalled on every PlayStation 5 is essentially a love letter from the PlayStation’s early days. However, this game can be analyzed from the opposite position. It is enough just to pay attention to the meticulousness with which all iterations of Sony consoles and their accessories are recreated in the project, when, as cult games, they have to be content with only small neat references, which is very indicative. Sony is far from disgusted with the idea of ​​acquainting the audience with the past of the PlayStation, but it only takes very small steps in this direction.
Certain changes in the current course of development of Sony suggest themselves. And their catalyst should be a balanced awareness of the huge commercial success of the PlayStation, which in itself imposes a certain responsibility on Sony. Such a responsibility that cannot be viewed only from the standpoint of growing sales figures. Such a task is beyond the power of any group of not indifferent enthusiasts (at least if they act within the framework of the law). This means Sony needs to independently oversee and protect the huge segment of the industry that the platform holder has nurtured over the years.
In all fairness, from a commercial point of view, creating a sophisticated backward compatibility system that gives access to a complete catalog of games from all generations of PlayStation can simply be unprofitable. But you still need to strive for this goal. Both out of respect for the industry of which Sony is a part, and to further develop the PlayStation brand, which has cemented itself as an integral part of the history of the world of interactive entertainment.
In fact, it is simply impossible to convey in the dry language of numbers how much weight the above-mentioned topic has. But no numbers will tell you about the devastating blow that will be inflicted on an entire layer of contemporary art simply because several high-level managers are not ready to respond to requests from players who want to touch their favorite games from the original PlayStation and PSP.
Read also: The father of Silent Hill Keiichiro Toyama showed the new art of his first game after leaving Sony…
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