Former PlayStation boss says it’s ‘criminal’ the industry isn’t doing more to preserve games
Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden has said the industry needs to do a much better job at preserving games.
“Preservation is important,” the ex-PlayStation US boss, who was chairman of the company’s worldwide studios group when he left Sony in 2019, told the Lan Parties podcast (via Kotaku).
“I’m hoping that more people in the industry, certainly the big players, begin to realize that there’s an obligation and responsibility. This isn’t throw-away stuff we’re making.
“This is stuff that should be around for a long time because future generations will enjoy it in the same way that we have and it’s criminal that we’re not doing more to protect it.”
Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently said he’d like to find ways to ensure that hundreds of Xbox 360 titles aren’t lost when the console’s digital store closes next year.
Although users will still be able to redownload their previous purchases for the foreseeable future, after July 29, 2024, it will no longer be possible to buy any more games or DLC from the Xbox 360 Marketplace.
While many of these games will still be playable via other means, around 220 of them will essentially disappear forever, VGC analysis showed.
In March 2021, Sony announced plans to close the PS3, Vita and PSP digital stores, news that was met with widespread backlash due to the number of digital-only games that would no longer be made available.
The platform holder made a partial U-turn the following month, with Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Jim Ryan saying it realised it had made “the wrong decision” in planning to shut all three online marketplaces.
The PS3 and Vita stores remained open, but the PSP store was closed as planned in July 2021, meaning around 35 digital-only PSP games are now no longer
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