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[DiddyKongRacing69]

Sony has a responsibility to preserve its gaming history | Opinion

Whether it happens this summer, as is widely rumoured, or at some point in the near future, it's an inevitable event; S…

www.gamesindustry.biz

This is why emulation is a great thing. If Sony isn't willing to preserve their past, then we have to do it ourselves.

 

[Agent X]

The author seems to have his heart in the right place, although some of the comparisons they make are completely off the rails. Take this nugget:

Sony's disinterest in its own back catalogue and in the history of PlayStation software stands in stark contrast to its rivals' attitudes. Nintendo regards its old games as a treasure chest, both figuratively and literally; it regularly finds new ways to monetise them and gleefully digs into its own history to stoke the nostalgia of its players.

So, the author is advocating that Sony go ahead and completely abandon their old systems' online stores, and then repackage a small selection of those games for current systems and resell them again? Because that's exactly what Nintendo has done over the last few years.

I agree that Sony should keep the old systems' legacies alive, but that is definitely not the way to do it.

 

[Rival]

It seems so easy in concept for them to put those games on the store and let me download and play them all on my PS5. Certainly it wouldn’t lose money.

 

[AV]

They really, really don't. I'd love if they actually took an interest in it, but they in no way have a "responsibility" to anyone.

I'm quite happy to let people that care archive this shit quietly in the background, like the PS2 bet/demo disc archive that went up recently.

 

[sackings]

The platform holders arent going to do this, their primary concern is profit, as any business should be. If you want to play old games, people need to get over their aversion to using emulation and pirated roms. We think its simple, but the truth is 3rd party licensing is the reason most old games arent available.

 

[Raekwon26]

Sometimes I have to laugh and remind myself that its video games we are talking about.

"Sony has a responsibility....."

I mean, reading that headline makes it seem like Sony are about to end world hunger and find a way to create world peace.

 

[Zeroing]

Ok let's use logic here. PS1, 2 and 3 were made on exotic hardware, it is hard to emulate therefore you will need hardware or update the game or both. Let's not forget the need of avail from 3rd party developers if change (even the slightest) needed... If it was easier I am sure Sony would keep the games around. It is a company dream to have tons of games that appeals to nostalgia.

Nintendo can do it and get a huge profit with it. Sony? nah, not the first time they updated a game, rerelease it and got backlash for it.

Also NES, SNES games do not look outdated like the PS1, PS2 games.

 

[Fake]

Every company should.

 

[Radical_3d]

The author seems to have his heart in the right place, although some of the comparisons they make are completely off the rails. Take this nugget:



So, the author is advocating that Sony go ahead and completely abandon their old systems' online stores, and then repackage a small selection of those games for current systems and resell them again? Because that's exactly what Nintendo has done over the last few years.

I agree that Sony should keep the old systems' legacies alive, but that is definitely not the way to do it.

Yes. This is like asking Russia to be more democratic and afterwards saying something like “can’t you be more like North Korea?”

 

[MrS]

There's no money in that. Sony cares about money over everything, as all corporations do.

 

[LazyParrot]

Ok let's use logic here. PS1, 2 and 3 were made on exotic hardware, it is hard to emulate therefore you will need hardware or update the game or both.

I'll give you PS3, but Sony has been emulating PS1 and PS2 since the PS3 days. Only reason we don't have full BC for those consoles on PS4 and PS5 is because they don't think it's worth their time and effort.

 

[Zeroing]

I'll give you PS3, but Sony has been emulating PS1 and PS2 since the PS3 days. Only reason we don't have full BC for those consoles on PS4 and PS5 is because they don't think it's worth their time and effort.

Like I said, you are right.

 

[bender]

Why would you want to play old games? They look awful.

 

[Craig of War]

 

[sainraja]

I'd be shocked if they weren't looking into how they can offer access to their back catalog in the future. I hope streaming isn't going to be the main way that they do (if they are going to do it) - let me purchase/download them on to the PS5 and any future PS console. Having said that, I know I won't care as much about BC as the generation progresses. You have to pick and choose where you want to spend your time and I'd rather put it towards newer games whenever possible.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Sony are weird. Glad to be able to play my ps1 copy of Doom on my phone though.

 

[RoboFu]

emulation is already dead for anything past a PS2. no online servers..no updates.

 

[DGrayson]

Im not financial analyst but I really would love to see how some of these financial decisions are made.

For Nintendo, I wonder how they justify piecemeal releases of old games on Switch instead of opening the floodgates of their back catalog. Admittedly with the later approach they would have to charge less for games, but they would sell more right?

That kind of stuff really interests me.

 

[baphomet]

All of this stuff is being preserved with or without Sony. Same goes for literally every other video game company.

 

[JSoup]

Since we're seeing more and more PS3 games on PSNow, lot of people are pushing for full PS3 library access via Now. It's not perfect, but it'll get the job done until Sony is finally at a point of shit or get off the pot.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Im not financial analyst but I really would love to see how some of these financial decisions are made.

For Nintendo, I wonder how they justify piecemeal releases of old games on Switch instead of opening the floodgates of their back catalog. Admittedly with the later approach they would have to charge less for games, but they would sell more right?

That kind of stuff really interests me.

I just find it very odd that most of the vast back catalogue of Playstation 1 games can run on a toaster nowdays and the rough size of most of them are what? 500+ meg? Yet they still wont put any up to purchase or at the very least let you play what you'd bought via the ps3, on the Ps4 or 5...

It's beyond a joke really. I know MS doesnt have too much in regards to their original Xbox library on the Xbox one but it's running rings around whatever Sony is playing at

It's just sad to be honest.

 

[ACESHIGH]

Sony and Nintendo are clueless about preservation. It's a japanese thing... they would delete the source code of their games once shipped to free space...

 

[JeremyEtcetera]

 

[bender]

Im not financial analyst but I really would love to see how some of these financial decisions are made.

For Nintendo, I wonder how they justify piecemeal releases of old games on Switch instead of opening the floodgates of their back catalog. Admittedly with the later approach they would have to charge less for games, but they would sell more right?

That kind of stuff really interests me.

Nintendo (especially) and Sony have a ton of data thanks to PSN and the eShop. If Virtual Console and Playstation Classic were wildly successful, I'm sure we'd have modern adaptations of those services today (I guess we do with Nintendo Online Subscriptions). Part of the benefit to Microsoft getting their teeth kicked in after the 360, at least for gamers, is they were looking for goodwill investments which is why they've spent so much time bolstering their excellent backwards compatibility offerings and a side benefit is that it makes Gamepass more robust.

 

[ethomaz]

I'm sure Sony is preserving all the past games.
Backups are not like in the past that the media get corrupted due the bad storage and you lose most of your work.
Today they can easily have all art, source code and binaries storaged.

What the OP wants is not that btw... it is a way to people that doesn't own the media to preserve the same... I'm not sure if that is the right think in this case.

People needs to understand that the owner company preserving their games is one thing while release these games to everybody is another completely different... the first one already happens and the second will never happen.

 

[Drewpee]

Sony has a responsibility to preserve its gaming history | Opinion

Whether it happens this summer, as is widely rumoured, or at some point in the near future, it's an inevitable event; S…

www.gamesindustry.biz

This is why emulation is a great thing. If Sony isn't willing to preserve their past, then we have to do it ourselves.

It will not happen without Sony fans pushing for it and most Sony fans are too busy defending anything the company does no matter how much it might hurt them as gamers.

It has been interesting to see Jim Ryan ask why people even play old games and the resounding silence that has come from Sony gamers. It reminds me of Don Mattrick when Xbox One launched, just completely out of touch with the core audience. The difference is Don lost his job and Jim continues to be celebrated.

 

[PlayerPurple]

Glad this issue is starting to get more publicity.

Consumers want it. The competition provides it. Hobbyist programmers provide it via emulators.

Plus, the further Sony tries to push PS Now as a "replacement" for it, the more their core audience will resent the service, despite its other merits.

 

[Perrott]

Sony is looking into integrating the PS3 catalogue in a more meaningful way into PS Now, so I'd give them the benefit of the doubt in the short term to see what they do. I don't remember if there were plans to do the same with PSX and PS2 titles as well.

Jim Ryan teased big changes coming to PS Now back in November of last year, maybe this is it.

 

[Zeroing]

It will not happen without Sony fans pushing for it and most Sony fans are too busy defending anything the company does no matter how much it might hurt them as gamers.

It has been interesting to see Jim Ryan ask why people even play old games and the resounding silence that has come from Sony gamers. It reminds me of Don Mattrick when Xbox One launched, just completely out of touch with the core audience. The difference is Don lost his job and Jim continues to be celebrated.

I mean... nobody is defending Jim. Look at the gifs.
Don got tons of fans defending him over and over. He did not lost his job, he went to another one thinking it would be a even better option ( lol )
Jim only has 1 year as head of PS... If he continues like this it won't be longer.

Because Playstation is one of the most successful parts of Sony. If that company wants the money from us gamers, they will try really hard to impress us.

 

[Kenpachii]

PC versions will do fine, if it doesn't have a PC version its probably not worth its time anyway.;

 

[Hobbygaming]

I

It will not happen without Sony fans pushing for it and most Sony fans are too busy defending anything the company does no matter how much it might hurt them as gamers.

It has been interesting to see Jim Ryan ask why people even play old games and the resounding silence that has come from Sony gamers. It reminds me of Don Mattrick when Xbox One launched, just completely out of touch with the core audience. The difference is Don lost his job and Jim continues to be celebrated.

If I have no interest in playing old games this hurts me as a gamer??

 

[MeatSafeMurderer]

So, the author is advocating that Sony go ahead and completely abandon their old systems' online stores, and then repackage a small selection of those games for current systems and resell them again? Because that's exactly what Nintendo has done over the last few years.

Also, lets not forget that Nintendo is so infamously bad at preservation that they sold an illegally downloaded rom dump of Super Mario Bros on the Wii VC.

 

[Kokoloko85]

No reason why PS1 and PS2 games arent on the Current Store, considering they are on the PSP, Vita and PS3 stores.
Unfortunely Nintendo killed its virtual console too

Both need to put it up or they cant complain about emulations and roms etc

 

[alabtrosMyster]

So, the author is advocating that Sony go ahead and completely abandon their old systems' online stores, and then repackage a small selection of those games for current systems and resell them again? Because that's exactly what Nintendo has done over the last few years.

• PS2: Sony is doing it with their PS2 catalog (PS2 classics or something)
• PS3: They have some PS3 games on PSNow as well, but you need to stream those, so they may as well not be offered

Their "strategy" is a bit like a bad mix of what MS does (they use their compatibility layer to boost their back catalog on their rental service), but Sony doesn't talk about it too much.
They also do like Nintendo and release a few select PS2 titles on their store for the PS4 (PS5).

This is clearly not close to be enough, the PS1 is the machine that started it all, they should use some emulator image enhancements (high quality texture resolution boosts with high quality algorithms, higher resolution, MSAA, texture warping removal, higher precision polygon movement, widescreen support)... preferably with individual toggles for each enhancement effects, as some aren't possible in all games.

If homebrewers can do it, Sony should do it as well.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

Sony is looking into integrating the PS3 catalogue in a more meaningful way into PS Now, so I'd give them the benefit of the doubt in the short term to see what they do. I don't remember if there were plans to do the same with PSX and PS2 titles as well.

Unless the integration is emulation based I could not care less, streaming is useless to me, it may as well not be there.

 

[Barakov]

They really, really don't. I'd love if they actually took an interest in it, but they in no way have a "responsibility" to anyone.

I'm quite happy to let people that care archive this shit quietly in the background, like the PS2 bet/demo disc archive that went up recently.

Definitely agree. It's shitty that they're shutting down the PS3 store etc. but I'd rather they leave it alone and put that money elsewhere. To be honest, people that archive old games do a much better job than any of these companies.

 

[e&e]

There's no money in that. Sony cares about money over everything, as all corporations do.

Nintendo must be dumb lmfao!

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

No they don't.

 

[Keihart]

Ok let's use logic here. PS1, 2 and 3 were made on exotic hardware, it is hard to emulate therefore you will need hardware or update the game or both. Let's not forget the need of avail from 3rd party developers if change (even the slightest) needed... If it was easier I am sure Sony would keep the games around. It is a company dream to have tons of games that appeals to nostalgia.

Nintendo can do it and get a huge profit with it. Sony? nah, not the first time they updated a game, rerelease it and got backlash for it.

Also NES, SNES games do not look outdated like the PS1, PS2 games.

Sony doesn't have what you would call high standards on emulation so making most of the legacy library on a PS5 would be trivial on the R&D aspect, what it's probably stopping them it's the licensing fees, since it's a new console or platform, every game would need to be licensed somehow again which would probably incur in some costs for sony that they don't feel is worth it. I wouldn't be surprised if we see more PS2 and 1 classics in PS5 using the same old PS3 emulation with some trophies slapped on top to charge you again for them.

 

[AmuroChan]

It seems so easy in concept for them to put those games on the store and let me download and play them all on my PS5. Certainly it wouldn’t lose money.

If they could wave a magic wand and make that happen, I think they would certainly. I just don't think their engineers are very competent. They're certainly not even in the same class as Microsoft in that area.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

 

[fart town usa]

There's some weird responses in here.

I think Sony owes it to its fans to make all generations of titles available, at least if the emulation is up to par. PSX is clearly able to be emulated. Not sure where PS2 emulation is at as a whole, PS3 is a non-issue, too recent.

The first PlayStation generation is legit as fuck. Some of the greatest games of all time. I'd be 100% down with PSX games being made futureproof

 

[StreetsofBeige]

There's some weird responses in here.

I think Sony owes it to its fans to make all generations of titles available, at least if the emulation is up to par. PSX is clearly able to be emulated. Not sure where PS2 emulation is at as a whole, PS3 is a non-issue, too recent.

The first PlayStation generation is legit as fuck. Some of the greatest games of all time. I'd be 100% down with PSX games being made futureproof

PS2 was BC in PS3 across two variations. The first year fat models had the chips in it to make it easy. But then a second wave of models had BC via software (no more chip).

So it shows Sony has PS2 software emulation for ages. And that was even in weird architecture systems like PS3. PS4/PS5 are more straight forward PC systems and way more powerful.

 

[BlitzerRadic]

Sometimes I have to laugh and remind myself that its video games we are talking about.

"Sony has a responsibility....."

I mean, reading that headline makes it seem like Sony are about to end world hunger and find a way to create world peace.

IKR? Plus what people mean when they advocate for preservation is playing old games for cheap or free.

 

[plasmawave]

Nintendo must be dumb lmfao!

Nintendo just released an OK port of 3D Marios with limited time availability to drive up sales.

 

[Ten_Fold]

It wouldn’t surprise me if the next PlayStation won’t let you play PS4 games. It seems they just wanna make big AAA movie games.

 

[Clear]

Deeply stupid article, and here's why:

1. Playstation was built on the back of third-party software. Meaning that Sony doesn't actually own or control much of its past.

2. Pre PS3-era software was never licensed for digital distribution, meaning that there are likely many issues regarding rights that would need to be worked through and renegotiated. A lot of games have disappeared because things like music and likeness rights would need re-licensing.

3. To say Sony has never been interested in its back catalogue is a lie. The breakpoint clearly is around the PS3 where the B/C functionality was stripped out as part of manufacturing cost saving.

4. PS3's oddball architecture presents numerous difficulties for implementing B/C. Certainly during the PS4's life-span they had no choice but to look to keeping that generation alive via streaming (PSNow) and remastering because of the challenge of emulating the CELL.

5. The previous point leads to a problem with curation and presentation; Is there any gain to offering something like Shadow of The Colossus in all 3 versions? PS2 original, PS3 remaster, and PS4 remake. It might be fine for connoisseurs but for newcomers it looks messy and confusing.

6. Regarding the infamous Jim Ryan quote: Was he really off-base with his comment? How big a market is there for decades old driving simulations, its not like there's something unique and creative about real-world cars and race-courses recreated in more primitive fashion than in subsequent iterations of the series.

7. Lastly there's a big difference between preservation and recycling old product for profit. Selling old stuff to a tiny niche market or as catalogue filler on storefronts/services is not preservation. I'm sure if people were being asked to pay equivalent to the original rrp of such titles there'd be complaints! That such stuff has to be bundled in order to be sold at budget prices is I think a good indication of what the perceived value is of a piece of vintage software in today's market.

At which point I have to conclude that people actually care far less than they protest that they do! Collectors pay top-dollar for old, rare pieces, so why devalue these things for novelty and cheap nostalgia?

 

[SLB1904]

It wouldn’t surprise me if the next PlayStation won’t let you play PS4 games. It seems they just wanna make big AAA movie games.

 

[e&e]

Nintendo just released an OK port of 3D Marios with limited time availability to drive up sales.

And?....

 

[SpongebobSquaredance]

I for one like the Sony of the PS1 and PS2 era much more and I think it's a shame there is no official way to play a lot of their classics.
PS5 with emulation would be GOAT, I don't care what anyone says. Just imagine something like Xbox enhanced BC on the PS5. Put in a classic like Legend of Dragon or Wipeout 3 and you can immediately download an enhanced emulated version of the game with HD resolution and upped framerate. I'd absolutely love that.