La historical memory it is a determining factor, whatever the field considered. Knowing the past of those who came before us, how they acted, what choices they made, is very important to allow us to move towards the future; also, and above all, in the videogame sector. It is news a few days ago that Sony has decided to permanently close the digital store of PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita e PSP. From next summer, in fact, many titles will disappear from the digital shelves, and with them, slowly, the memory of those who produced them.
The impossibility of being able to continue buying old gen stocks will be penalizing in the first place for players, but also and above all for developers; both for those who made the game, who will no longer be able to sell it or continue to be present in the industry, and for those who want to work on any remakes or remastered in the future, as they can no longer "study" the original concepts. What will happen to the titles removed from the digital market? Is it still worth investing in all-digital consoles, even knowing that sooner or later we will no longer be able to expand our library? Will remakes be the only hope to relive the experiences of the past? The closure of the stores opens up a whole series of questions that make the future a little more uncertain, regardless of backwards compatibility: let's try to make some hypotheses.
Before buying an all-digital console, check the expiration date
The digital market has always divided old and new players. The older ones, those who have started playing with the Nes or with the Sega Mega Drive, even today they struggle to give up the physical, the need to hold the copy of their favorite title in their hands. However, the digital market is booming and the birth of all-digital consoles, with Series S in the front row, but also of cloud gaming consoles such as Google Stadia, they are the clear proof. Yet, Sony's (predictable) decision to start closing stores of its old consoles sheds new light on this market, which it may lose many users, especially the less informed.
Needless to go around it, the decision made by Sony is right and acceptable. Keeping servers open costs money, and if in recent years the sales figures have decreased exponentially, their closure is certainly an inevitable consequence: after all, how long have we not turned on our PlayStation Vita? However, it is a decision not without consequences. Gamers can yes continue to enjoy the contents already purchased, but they won't be able to buy new ones. This last aspect opens up a whole series of considerations. The first is that to play the titles of our videogame childhood, the only solution will be the retrogaming market. A market that, to date, is prohibitive for the pockets of many consumers, especially the youngest, and which, given the situation, could see their prices rise significantly.
Currently, the service PlayStation Now allows you to recover some old Sony titles: however, it is a decidedly incomplete old gen stock, nowhere near comparable to Microsoft's Game Pass, which is aiming instead at a fluidity of contents between present and past. To recover the old glory of PlayStation you have to turn to the physical format. By projecting this situation into the future, without a hard drive we will be excluded from games. A direct consequence of this last point is the transformation of all-digital consoles into devices with an expiration date. The time will come, distant but inevitable, when they will only serve to reproduce what we have purchased. One problem that could be solved by backwards compatibility, net of forcing the players who are a little behind to switch (at the right time, I would add) on next-gen.
Is backwards compatibility really what you need?
Backward compatibility also brings with it some questions. So much has been said about it, everyone wants it, but we still don't know if it's really necessary. If the stores have been closed, it is clear that players no longer care about that particular market. Beyond retro-gamers and hardened collectors, very few modern gamers invest their savings in titles from two generations ago, but they prefer to focus on the next-gen (as soon as it really starts), or at most on the generation PlayStation 4. The success of Game Pass is the litmus test.
Sony, at this point, it would do well to question this investment. Move to PlayStation 5 the entire PlayStation 3 catalog could be the Japanese company's only solution to allow games to survive and users to continue buying. But are we really sure they would buy? Perhaps the best solution is not to bring back the huge amount of games that have been out for 15 years now, but make a selection of the most popular titles, perhaps the prequels of the sagas still on the crest of the wave, and insert them in a subscription service. This would give users the opportunity to continue living the old gen and, why not, also try that title they had heard about at the time of its release, but which they would never have bought, and would give the software houses the opportunity to new commercial agreements with Sony. A solution, therefore, that would meet almost everyone. What about excluded games, then? Here, as we said, the closure of the stores is perhaps a more serious problem for developers than for gamers.
Studying the past to build the future
Cinema is an eternal means of communication. Even after decades, we continue to appreciate old films, to study their direction and dialogues. It is usable in many ways, and is continually studied and loved by modern directors. And the video game? Are obsolescence and the difficulty of fruition that, compared to other mediums, inevitably brings with it, are sufficient factors to decree that the past is forgotten and that the future is the only way to go? Backward compatibility appears to be the solution: new subscription services bring titles to new hardware, so players can keep playing and software houses can earn; and for those few amateurs who want to complete their physical collection (while it still exists), there will be fairs and flea markets. All happy then? Almost.
The most affected by the disappearance of some titles could be, paradoxically, the same developers. There are some videogame pearls whose teams are now disbanded, and which risk disappearing forever. For all future creators, going to study the past of their work, going to understand the origins of game and level design, will be increasingly difficult. The hope of us players to savor old glories it could only come in the next few years as a remastered or remake. Unfortunately, however, their implementation could become more difficult than expected.
The past is the past. The right to leave it behind is sacrosanct, and to have the sole objective of aiming for the challenges of tomorrow. However, I believe that preserving the historical memory of what preceded us is fundamental. The closure of the stores affects everyone, players and developers. Backwards compatibility may be a solution, yes, but it doesn't solve everything. Sony, unlike Microsoft, may soon show its side to this compartmentalized strategy. Sony gamers who invest in the store of their exclusively digital PlayStation 5 in the coming years will face a paradox: the digital, more than the physical, may not last forever.
