PlayStation Has A History Problem

I bought a PlayStation 5 at launch back in November, and pre-installed on the console was the game Astro’s Playroom. What I expected was little more than a showcase of the new features of the PS5 itself as well as the controller, but what I got was a lot more. While it certainly was a well-made game with lots of its own charm, the real surprise was how much of a celebration it was for the history of PlayStation. Chock full of references and Easter eggs to a variety of series that have been a staple of PlayStation history, even ones that have since gone on to be on other consoles, it was clearly made with love and nostalgia for the the roots of the console.

So why is Sony so unwilling to actually use anything from said roots?

Before the launch of the PS5, Sony filed a series of patents, suggesting that PS1-PS4 games would be playable when the PS5 released. Once it did however, it was revealed that only games for it and the PS4 were playable on the console. When questioned about this decision, Jim Ryan, the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said “Why would anyone play this?” when referring to older games, denying the possibility of the feature coming to the console. Not only that, but recently, Sony has begun to significantly downscale Japan Studios, their branch focused on both Japanese developers as well as the Japanese marketing.

Now, Sony is a company from Japan, so the shuttering of this area is effectively cutting off the branch responsible for the majority of its own content, especially in the days of the Playstation 1 and 2. But if this major area of the company is being let go, what remains?

The simplest answer to that question is America. But the full answer is a little more complicated.

Sony’s focus, ever since the end of the PS3 generation, seems to have shifted drastically. While they once released a variety of different types of games that experiment with new ideas, for the past seven years ago the first-party (made by Sony themselves) output on the Playstation has been much grander. Gone are the days of short, quirky games without a path for surefire success, replaced with giant, hundreds of million of dollars spent in development games that also need hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to be considered successful. Sony now sells the Playstation on being the place to experience the most cutting-edge experiences in gaming, pouring money into advertising just how beautiful and detailed the environments are, how expressive the character models are, how many hours you can spend in their giant worlds, and how much their stories will tug at your heart strings.

And before this gets interpreted as “old thing good, new thing bad”, I enjoy quite a few of these giant “blockbuster” games. When their Spider-Man game was released in 2018, I found myself wowed by the in-game New York City, smiling at the feeling of web-swinging, and definitely getting invested in the world and its characters. There is certainly a space for giant budget experiences that push the technology of a console to its limit.

But also, if someone asked me “What’s the first-party Playstation 4 exclusive open world game in which a sad, grizzled old man struggles with dealing with his family, but eventually realizes the value in being a father/husband”, I’d have four games off the top of my head. And if they specified zombies were a major part of the game I’d still have two choices.

When all you’re willing to release is the most expensive product possible, you also need everything to make the most money possible, and that inevitably stifles creativity. I pointed out that four games matched my hyper specific description, but if you want to focus on only the genre of game itself, that number balloons immediately to at least eight, and at that point we are talking about nearly the entire first-party lineup of the console. No matter how great each of these games may be on their own, when they’re the only thing being produced it’s hard not to feel some level of fatigue.

Ultimately, I’d be willing to chalk this up to merely Sony wanting to make ludicrous amounts of money on each game they released. And as much of an insult that sounds like, it’s really not meant as one. They’re a business, after all. Why wouldn’t they want to make as much money on each new release as possible? There are several angles you can look at this from where it makes plenty of sense.

However, when you connect the dots back to the fact that you’re unable to play older games on their new console, the shuttering of the branch that produced so many of those games, as well the head questioning why anyone would even want to play them, it become a lot more than just being frustrated at big games being similar. It points to a larger problem.

Sony does not see a value in their history as more than something to simply point out like an exhibit. To Sony, as well as many other gaming companies, the history of gaming is a linear evolution, in which the quality of games being made has done nothing but improve over time along with the technology being used to make them, and, more importantly, the money they are making. How could someone possibly want to play a Playstation 1 or 2 game, when the “prestige” experiences currently being offered for $70 are inherently better by virtue of being newer. Or, in specific cases, rather than allow a player to play an older game, they’ll simply remake the game, acting as if they’ve created the new definitive way to experience the game, again for another $70 please and thank you.

And frankly, as someone who’s played video games throughout most of his life, as has also played Playstation for a fair chunk of that, it pisses me off that the major players within the medium are so willing to treat it as disposable. As nothing more than a pit stop on the way to the next advance, to the next paycheck, to the next release. It feels more and more like I’m expected to get extremely excited for the “next big thing”, get through it all as quickly as possible, and then move right along to being excited for whatever comes after that.

Over this last semester at school I played through Final Fantasy 7, a game that was released in 1997. A few people asked me why I was playing it, especially considering a remake of the game was released just last year. Frankly, I didn’t have a concrete answer to that question. It was just because I wanted to. Yet in that game I experienced and went through many things that today, in 2021, I find to be fascinating and to have been easily worthy of my time. (I may be writing something about it in the future so maybe keep your eyes peeled for that)

Like I said, Final Fantasy 7 got a remake released last year. It is currently rumored that The Last Of Us, a game released in 2013, has a remake currently in development. If one of the games Sony’s the most proud of is apparently ready and able to be replaced within only 7 or so years, what hope does that give for any game they release?

Throughout the next few years Sony is sure to release plenty of “high-end” games for the PlayStation 5 that fit all the complaints I’ve had here, and I’m sure to enjoy quite a few of them. But, at least a few times, I’m also going to find myself wondering if a decade or so from now, Sony’s going to act like any of them are even important outside of trying to remake them for more than one small pack-in game.