Finally embracing the old school cool?
Sony has created a game “Preservation team” for PlayStation according to Garret Fredley, a new hire for the team. Fredley announced on Twitter and LinkedIn that it was his first day working with the newly created team yesterday, April 25th.
Previously, Fredley has worked with EA to preserve games in the FIFA franchise. His LinkedIn page states that his efforts resulted in the “complete archival of multiple titles”. Furthermore, in the post he made on LinkedIn, he says “Game Preservation was my first career passion. It was my first foray into the world of Software Engineering / Dev Ops, and into a world so many are unaware of.”
PlayStation’s previous preservation opinions
In the past, PlayStation has been notably opposed to video game preservation. Jim Ryan, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s CEO, has drawn ire in the past for a statement he made about old games. When talking to Time about the Gran Turismo games, he said “the PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?” He has since said he didn’t make the point well and “wasn’t trying to be disrespectful to [PlayStation’s] heritage”. However, the company has reflected this attitude towards older games in the past.
For years, Xbox have been making their new consoles backwards compatible with older games. Many Xbox 360 and original Xbox games are playable on newer hardware, and the games’ original discs work too.
PlayStation, however, have been less open to preserving their back catalogue. Some PS2 games have managed to make it on to the PS4 and PS5, and there are a few PS3 games on PlayStation Now, Sony’s game streaming service. However, there are sparingly few of all of these, and PS1 games are noticably absent.
A turning point in game preservation?
Now, though, with this new team, it looks as though PlayStation are warming up to the idea of preserving their older games. On Fredley’s LinkedIn post, he thanks Mike Bishop, Global QA Manager within PlayStation Studios. Bishop has responded to the post, saying “Let’s preserve ALL OF THE THINGS!”
This is also in light of the recent news that the new PlayStation Plus service releasing in June will include PS1, PS2, and PSP games at its highest subscription tier. No doubt, the company has reconsidered their stance on retro games, and are planning to preserve them more going forward.
What games would you want to see preserved? Will you be getting the new PS Plus to play them? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! You can also go to our Discord to chat with us about all things gaming and entertainment!
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