Cognition Dissemination: Sony Doesn’t Care About Game Preservation (Update)

Sony Interactive Entertainment recently confirmed news no one outside oblivious corporate execs wanted to hear through a notice on their official site: The PSP, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita storefronts will close this summer. The PSP and PS3 stores will get the axe first on July 2nd, with the Vita store following on August 27th. Downloading already-purchased games through the borderline-unnavigable download lists will still be possible after the storefronts are shuttered, along with redeeming codes, but kiss goodbye the option to buy them. It’s like everyone who said this was the next step after Sony removed access to the web stores for these platforms last year was right.

The PSP and PS3 stores were bound to close one day soon given how Sony has badly handled comparatively-unimportant digital stores in the past, but this is happening remarkably quickly in the Vita’s case. The platform hasn’t even reached the ten-year-old mark, and at least one developer who was working on a Vita port had to cancel it. These closings mean one thing: Sony does not care about game preservation. If they won’t benefit from it, they can’t see how anyone else will.

Consider the sheer number of games that will disappear with the stores, several published by Sony themselves. The PS3 will have the lowest amount of potentially-lost software, with minimal thanks to Sony. The system had a high number of third-party multiplatform games that also released on Xbox 360 and PC, and those that haven’t been remastered will be preserved through those platforms. But too many popular Sony-published titles like Ico Remastered, Tokyo Jungle, all the PS3 Ratchet & Clank games, and even God of War: Ascension will disappear, along with select third-party games like Metal Gear Solid 4. Many of those games could be saved by physical copies available on the second-hand market, until they jack up in price — though that’s already started in some cases. But the digital only games will be gone outside other means.

This gets even worse when you consider the number PSOne Classics and the lower-in-number PS2 Classics that will disappear too. Nothing is sacred when even the libraries of once-preserved titles from older systems will be lost.

What applied to most PS3 titles will largely also apply to Vita, in which most titles have thankfully been ported to other platforms if they weren’t originally released as multiplatform titles. Games like Muramasa Rebirth remain stuck on the platform, however, and others were released as cross-generation tittles on PS3 and Vita like Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. But it should again be noted how egregious it is that the store is closing not even a decade after the system launched, even for one that never fully lived up to its translated name.

The PSP has the highest number of exclusives that will vanish. Publishers have since rereleased once-exclusive games for other platforms, like Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (the PS3 version of which on the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection will — surprise — also evaporate, but it’s thankfully on 360) and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. But others like Capcom’s Mega Man PSP remakes, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (a game that should be everywhere by now), and Jeanne D’Arc (a Sony title) will disappear into the digital ether. Feel free to port those games anytime now.

Unfortunate as this all this, none of it is a surprise given who helms SIE these days. Jim Ryan, who serves as President and CEO of the company now, once mentioned to Time (and reported by other sources) that PSOne and PS2 games “looked ancient” compared to games on newer platforms when asked about the potential of backwards compatibility on PS4. “Why would anybody play this?” he wondered. It’s very possible that someone explained to him that older games shine despite looking “primitive” in terms of graphics, but there’s no chance anyone with that attitude will understand it. As the boss of the PlayStation brand, he calls all the shots. These ignorant opinions trickle down from the head and turn into company decisions like the one being discussed in this post.

These games that haven’t been ported or remastered elsewhere may not entirely evaporate, no thanks to Sony. The people putting in the work to preserve them for future emulation deserve the credit — “pirates” as others would call them. But they shouldn’t be necessary. It can’t cost that much for a gigantic company to maintain the servers the software is housed on. Other publishers also deserve blame for not porting key games elsewhere (especially Konami), those that have no attached licensing issues.

It’s good for everyone that Microsoft is taking an alternate path. Select games from every Xbox generation can still be purchased from the Xbox store, and the company’s engineers worked diligently to make 360 games backwards compatible throughout the Xbox One’s life. Not every game is backwards compatible or available, like the original NieR and Silent Hill Downpour, but that’s more the fault of the publishers responsible for them (Square Enix and Konami, respectively, in those two cases) than Microsoft’s. NieR is at least receiving a remaster/remake in the form of NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… next month.

The eventual vanishing of the PlayStation stores is a bad situation, so take this time to consider what games you’ll want to own. There’s never any guarantee that every game will be preserved or not. PlayStation Now will not be a total substitute thanks to the lack of ownership and how games can appear and disappear at any point (usually with a heads-up) at the whim of their publishers. I also wouldn’t expect any fire sales before titles disappear, even though they clearly don’t care about making money from them.

Considering this treatment, don’t be surprised if the option to even download older games is removed later. If that happens, there might be questions as to whether you should purchase anything digital from any Sony platforms in the future; but a deeper dive into that will wait until it actually happens. There’s a chance — a chance — they won’t do that based off the backlash they’re receiving from this, unless good ol’ Jim Ryan’s thoughts have seriously seeped through and infected the company.

Anyway, here’s hoping every Sony game is backwards compatible for future consoles from here, or the doomsday clock will eventually start ticking for PS4 and PS5 titles. Good thing that, again, most games are multiplatform, not to mention that Sony is now porting some of their games to PC.

Update: Sony has fortunately reversed course and will not kill the PlayStation 3 and Vita stores. The PSP’s however, will still meet an unfortunate death, and there’s no telling precisely how long this stay of hand will persist. Still, never let anyone tell you that shaming companies doesn’t work.