New PS5 preservation team could make retro Sony games easier to play

Date:
Tue, 26 Apr 2022 13:20:32 +0000

Description:
A new employee confirmed Sonys established a Games Preservation team through his LinkedIn profile.

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A new engineer at PlayStation has confirmed the existence of a Games Preservation team within Sony, meaning we could see more classic games on
PS5.

Having started as a senior build engineer this month, Garrett Fredley
revealed that hes one of this new teams initial hires via social media. Fredley made the announcement on Twitter , which was spotted by user Smitch
on Resetera .

Fredley calls games preservation my first career passion and said that hes ecstatic to go back. Elaborating on LinkedIn , Fredley explained, it was my first foray into the world of Software Engineering / Dev Ops, and into a
world that so many are unaware of. He ends this by thanking PlayStation Studios global QA manager, Mike Bishop, exclaiming Let's go and ensure our industry's history isn't forgotten! Today is my first day as a Senior Build Engineer at @PlayStation, working as one of their initial hires for the newly created Preservation team!Game Preservation was my first career passion, so I'm ecstatic that I get to go back to those roots April 25, 2022 See more

Now, this doesnt necessarily mean we should suddenly expect a wide influx of old games returning to PS5. Sure, Sonys upcoming PS Plus Premium tier
includes PS One, PS2, and PSP games but, as VGC points out, Fredleys previous work at EA between 2016-2019 saw him leading preservation efforts for the
FIFA franchise, resulting in the complete archival of multiple titles." Considering many FIFA games are delisted, that could simply mean his teams working to archive source code and other assets.

Still, the announcement times up well with a recent ratings leak, which revealed four classic Syphon Filter games are coming to PS4 and PS5. Starting with two PS1 entries Syphon Filter and Syphon Filter 2 weve also got two PS2/PSP releases, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and Syphon Filter: Logans
Shadow. Were missing two other entries right now, but we wouldnt be surprised if both eventually arrived at a later date. Sonys taking its history more seriously (Image credit: Sony)

Sony previously came under significant criticism for not preserving its own history, though not without merit. Last year saw Sony trying to shut down the digital stores for PS3, PSP, and Vita , a move widely considered a blow for games preservation, though they later backtracked on this. When Microsoft expanded its backward compatibility program to let you play original Xbox games through Series X, it didnt compare well.

Backing up this viewpoint, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan was widely quoted from a Time interview in 2017 about Gran Turismo, saying "The PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?" Hes since backtracked on this, telling Axios last year that he was comparing how much better the
PS4 entries looked, saying I certainly wasnt trying to be disrespectful to
our heritage.

Thankfully, weve seen more positive steps from Sony recently, and this preservation team is a good sign. As part of the upcoming PS Plus revamp, PlayStation Plus Premium includes a catalog of beloved classic games
available in both streaming and download options from the original PlayStation, PS2, and PSP generations. Right now though, its unclear if the Preservation Team is connected to this retro push, or whether theyre focusing elsewhere.

Sonys PS Plus relaunch arrives this June. It'll arrive first in Asia, then be available in the Americas, and Europe with three new tiers: Essential,
Extra, and Premium. Essentials what the service already provides, giving you online multiplayer access, cloud storage, and monthly downloadable games. Extra adds a digital catalog of 400 games, similar to PS Now, while Premium expands this with an additional 340 games. New PS Plus vs old PS Plus: what's changed?



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/new-ps5-preservation-team-could-make-retro-sony -games-easier-to-play/


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