Why do most Playstation fans seem to care so little about Sony's legacy content?

[Deleted member 17207]

I don't really have any nostalgia or affinity for Playstation's "mascots" or IP in general. Do I love a series like The Last of Us? Hell yeah. Would I buy an Ellie figurine in a store? I probably wouldn't look twice at it. It could be something to do with me, or it could be something to do with Sony not really approaching their brand the same way as say, Nintendo does.

I also think that it has a lot to do with when Playstation's "legacy content" is from. The PS1/N64 generation hasn't aged as gracefully as say, the NES and SNES generations, so maybe they think rather than dusting off something like Jak to do a new entry, their time and money is better spent on something new/more modern.

I guess what I'm saying is, it's hard to care about their legacy content when it doesn't seem like they do either.

 

[Elios83]

I obviously speak for myself here, but I barely have the time to play the new games that I want to play.
On PS5 I've just finished Spiderman and Astrobot and now I have to play Demon's Souls, AC:Valhalla and soon Cyberpunk.
I've tried the BC just for curiosity (FFXV at 60fps is amazing) but there's no way I spend the little time I have to play old stuff again.

 

[Zombegoast]

Just like with Steam and PC gaming, I like to have the ability to access my old games decades after release in one hardware.

If I were to get rid of my Ps3, I lose access to my games. This is the same deal with Nintendo and with the Wii U which never got proper GameCube emulation.

 

[Alienhated]

This is something i'm really disappointed with, because it really looks that even on dedicated comunities like this ones people only seems to care for late PS3-era Naughty Dog-style games and not really much else.
In the end it looks like Playstation fans are mostly fidelized to its brand and not much to its legacy.
Also i've learned that 30+ years old boomer gamers are actually the most mentally lazy consumers on the market and unwilling to put any effort into adapting to any kind of retro-game that doesn't 100% fall in today's graphical, QoL and control schemes homogeinized standards.

 

[Barrel_Roll]

I always got a sense that most gamers (outside this board) just move on. They play the game, and they're done.

Era is different since this is an enthusiast board, so we're more in tune to legacy content.

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Bingo. As long as there is enough new stuff coming out to occupy people's time (and a lot of 'casual' gamers don't have a whole lot of free time) then that time will be spent playing the current generation of games. Also, games, unlike books or movies, aren't as easily reproduced, by which I mean that if you want to read a three hundred year old book, you can reprint it or convert it to a computer file fairly easily. It's fairly easy to watch films or TV now through streaming. That seems to be the goal of game streaming - create a way for people to play game on an device while making the content providers responsible for running the games on their end. Perhaps when this technology gets better we'll see more if an interest in people playing older games, since they'll be more accessible.

 

[Khasim]

Microsoft cares about BC because they want to differentiate themselves from Sony, as at the moment they cannot compete when it comes to modern, exclusive games.
Sony doesn't have this problem, their games is the main selling point of the PS, so they don't care about BC if it requires additional work.
If Microsoft didn't shit the bed at the start of the generation and actually released as many great, Xbox-exclusive games as Sony has for the PS4, I'd wager Microsoft also wouldn't care about BC. Why spend money to allow people to play games they paid for 10 years ago when you can just remake them, saving tons of money on the designing process?
Sony fans realise this, and they just gave up after asking Sony for backwards compatibility after a certain point.

Remember the only reason we are getting anything good out of any corporation is because they believe it will make them money.

 

[Gentlemen]

Nintendo is immune to criticism for its handling of legacy content. Enthusiast forums and social media get mad, but 3d All Stars is still at 83 OC and people still gladly submit to the new reality of Disney Vaulting a video game. Nintendo has likely squandered all the good will they earned after a record streak of backwards compatibility in its handheld hardware by being stuck in the 1990s with their internet and legacy preservation strategies.

A lot of Sony hardware all-time classics are third party and have received plenty of updates and ports to varied success, but seeing that effort probably blunts the pain of still having games trapped on psp/vita and older hardware. I still want those games but I'm too jaded to believe that simply being hype or angry about it in a small corner of the internet is going to achieve results.

 

[ClickyCal']

This is something i'm really disappointed with, because it really looks that even on dedicated comunities like this ones people only seems to care for late PS3-era Naughty Dog-style games and not really much else.
In the end it looks like Playstation fans are mostly fidelized to its brand and not much to its legacy.
Also i've learned that 30+ years old boomer gamers are actually the most mentally lazy consumers on the market and unwilling to put any effort into adapting to any kind of retro-game that doesn't 100% fall in today's graphical, QoL and control schemes homogeinized standards.

Click to shrink...

Wow. This a lot of reductive assumptions.

 

[Kyrios]

I'm under the impression that the fans care more than Sony does at times. But the problem is you have a sizable audience that would love BC and a sizable audience on the other end who just couldn't give a shit. Plus Sony is keeping a lot of people happy with their current output of new games.

I would love the option for all my PS games in one place, but I'm looking at my PS1-3 collection and like 90-95% of what I like to play have already been remastered or got a port save for some more niche JRPGs.

 

[MrCarter]

I actually think Nintendo are far more incompetent when it comes to legacy. With PS4 Sony did not have a choice as it was x86 architecture which made "The Cell" incompatible from the PS3. With Switch, Nintendo arbitrarily removed their virtual console branding and are instead charging full price for a collection of a couple games. The best decision Sony can make is to let users stream the entire PS1-PS3 catalogue on PS Now and perhaps rotate some of the greatest hits in PS+ Every month.

 

[Grimmjow]

I care to an extent. It'd be cool if we got ps1-3 BC on ps4 but I'm not gonna lose sleep over it cause it's not there.

I'd prefer if they remade the classics with better graphics/ framerate, l like Demon's Souls or Crash.

 

[Footos22]

Haven't even got the time to play all the new stuff I wanna play. Couldn't care less about the older stuff. When I do I play it for 5 mins realise it's not aged well at all then try something else and do the same then it's back to new experiences. I have a ps classic loaded with 60 of my PS1 games and even with the convenience of it always being there instead of the loft i never use it.

 

[MrNelson]

I care, but at this point I decided to just invest in old hardware and upscalers, that way I can keep playing the old Playstation systems without having to worry if Sony is going to have any support for them going forward.

 

[Spinluck]

I don't think a lot of their legacy content ages well.

Jim Ryan even kind of made fun of it.

 

[Alienhated]

Wow. This a lot of reductive assumptions.

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Well of course they are, in the end it's just what i think i've learned by observing lots of comunities over the years.

 

[Euler007]

I love all the remasters and I spent the weeks leading up to the PS5 launch playing Infamous 1 and Festival of Blood. I played FF7 at least six times beating all the weapons. I have no idea why you have the impression that Sony fans don't care about legacy content.

 

[thevid]

One difference is that PlayStation's legacy is not that tied to PlayStation. Think of the biggest and best PlayStation games and you are probably talking about a series that is now multiplatform. Crash, Spyro, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.

This is much different from Nintendo where a lot of their legacy is directly tied to the company. Mario, Zelda, Metroid are all Nintendo properties that Nintendo controls.

So people can ask for REmake from Capcom, but everything Mario goes to Nintendo.

 

[Hobbun]

You certainly can't include me on that, I definitely care about the legacy content. And actually quite disappointed that PS5 didn't give us a way to play games before the PS4.

It's Sony that doesn't care, they (or Jim Ryan) has made it clear how it's not worthwhile. "No one wants to play that". Not speaking for me, Jim.

 

[Deleted member 18400]

I just don't have the time to play the games I already want to play let alone games from 20 years ago on my new consoles. I get that some people love to play those old games and so I'm not against them adding it at all.

It's just that the feature is very low on my priority list for any console. I just don't have enough desire for it to be a deal breaker for me. And I think it is that way with a lot of people. Of the 13 or so real life friends I still game with on all consoles I don't think any of them ever play older games. Even the ones with Xbox who seems to be making that a priority most of the time.

 

[Doctor_Thomas]

Also i've learned that 30+ years old boomer gamers are actually the most mentally lazy consumers on the market and unwilling to put any effort into adapting to any kind of retro-game that doesn't 100% fall in today's graphical, QoL and control schemes homogeinized standards.

Click to shrink...

I'm 34 and not a boomer because that would imply I'm born between 1946-64.

I did, however, live through these eras of games and there's been one consistent - things improved with time.

I can go back and ignore the warts and all of old games I have nostagia for, but that doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy every old game of the same time.

QoL exists for a reason - most old games honestly need it. The quirky retro element of less refined design choices may appeal to some, but many who lived those originals and saw what came after it appreciate the changes are necessary.

 

[prophetvx]

A lot of Sony games tend to be one and done stories for me, so it's not a huge priority. BC is great for generation transitions, but in general it's something that I rarely, if ever use. Time is always a problem.

New content is not an issue like it is for Microsoft and to a lesser extent Nintendo as well. With Sony I know I will get a bunch of first party games that interest me on an annual basis. Nintendo franchises have more limited appeal to me and Microsoft desperately needs some new IP.

It's an absolute necessity for Microsoft, they wouldn't survive with out it because they are struggling to release great new content imo. Nintendo it's a nice bonus because they have plenty of nostalgia with their brand. Sony doesn't really hold that same appeal.

 

[Devil]

Maybe because most PS1 era 3D games are a lot rougher to play nowadays than 2D classics. Most of Nintendo's franchises became classics during the NES and SNES time or on GB to GBA.

Yes, there was the 3D Mario collection recently but I think Mario 64 and also Sunshine to a degree prove my point, at least for me personally.
I never warmed up to Ocarina of Tume for example because I played Wind Waker first and then tried to go back to the N64 games on multiple systems but just couldn't tolerate it much. On the other hand, I can still play janky, imprecise Crash Bandicoot just fine because I grew up playing PS1 instead of N64. Original Super Mario Bros or most SNES games are no problem either.

So others might have a hard time with older Sony franchises if this is the first time they are trying them. Heck, I wouldn't force my worst enemy to play the original Tomb Raider for the first time in 2020.

 

[Deleted member 21709]

I think a lot of Sony fans are upset, or would prefer there to be legacy content.

Sony just doesn't cater it to them in the last 2 years.

Personally, I never got into Sony consoles until 2004 when I got a PS2. So most PS1 games were lost on me.

But many of us also realize that a proper BC solution is a huge upward battle with Sony. It'd be nice if the recent PS Store changes are part of a larger product to get older PS1-PS3 content suited for the modern PSN.

Click to shrink...

You are exactly why preserving their legacy is important though. There's probably quite a few PS1 games out there that would delight you.

 

[defaltoption]

It feels this way because the most vocal PlayStation fanboys joined PlayStation in the ps4 days where Sony could no wrong and "Xbox had no games" so their excuse was that only people who had no new games cared for BC.

The real Sony fan base absolutely does care about it. They just aren't catered to as much anymore. The same way you can find many old Sony fans who still love Sony but get so angry about how they seem to only care for western development instead of the Japanese dev as well or how most games they make these days follow the same overarching formula.

The most vocal bunch of Sony players are ps4 new to PlayStation players who just don't know how it was.

The current leadership of the company cares about the new players more at the moment.

 

[Oscarzx n]

I don't really have any nostalgia or affinity for Playstation's "mascots" or IP in general. Do I love a series like The Last of Us? Hell yeah. Would I buy an Ellie figurine in a store? I probably wouldn't look twice at it. It could be something to do with me, or it could be something to do with Sony not really approaching their brand the same way as say, Nintendo does.

I also think that it has a lot to do with when Playstation's "legacy content" is from. The PS1/N64 generation hasn't aged as gracefully as say, the NES and SNES generations, so maybe they think rather than dusting off something like Jak to do a new entry, their time and money is better spent on something new/more modern.

I guess what I'm saying is, it's hard to care about their legacy content when it doesn't seem like they do either.

Click to shrink...

Sony made plenty of 2D games on PS1, or stuff like JRPG's or rythm games that have not aged too much, like Alundra, Arc the Lad, Lomax, Wild Arms, Mickey's Wild Adventure, among others. They have been pretty bad with their PS2 or PSP content and that hasn't aged that badly tbh

 

[Tohsaka]

I almost never replay games these days, and the vast majority of all the previous-gen games I had any interest in I already played or can just play them on their original consoles/PC via emulation.

 

[Deleted member 17207]

Sony made plenty of 2D games on PS1, or stuff like JRPG's or rythm games that have not aged too much, like Alundra, Arc the Lad, Lomax, Wild Arms, Mickey's Wild Adventure, among others

Click to shrink...

Fair point, but on the other hand - I don't think any of those IP popping up these days would make some kind of massive splash that would warrant more looks back.

I think the Spyro and Crash collections are pretty much the most "they" (not Sony, but famously PS games) can do.

 

[TitanicFall]

Most older 3D games haven't aged well outside of maybe the PS3 era, and most of the great games from that era were ported to PS4. I fully support remakes of old games, but have no desire to play them in their native state.

 

[Hobbun]

I just don't have the time to play the games I already want to play let alone games from 20 years ago on my new consoles. I get that some people love to play those old games and so I'm not against them adding it at all.

It's just that the feature is very low on my priority list for any console. I just don't have enough desire for it to be a deal breaker for me. And I think it is that way with a lot of people. Of the 13 or so real life friends I still game with on all consoles I don't think any of them ever play older games. Even the ones with Xbox who seems to be making that a priority most of the time.

Click to shrink...

I can completely understand that, and if I was caught up in my backlog of legacy content, it probably wouldn't be as that important to me to have access to. However, when I say my backlog is huge, it truly is. I have games from the PS1 era I have not played and I still want to get through, same with PS2 and PS3. So my desire to have access to legacy content is not to replay games (like you, I don't have time to do that), but it's to play them for the first time. Right now I am going to be completing Suikoden II for the first time.

So yes, I would feel a whole lot better if I had current means to play PS games back to the PS1 besides through my BC PS3, which I don't know how long it will last for.

 

[batrush]

It's because almost all of the good games have already gotten remasters/remakes or ports. Can't think of many pre-PS4 games that I want to replay but can't on PS4 ・PC・Switch. And honestly regarding classic Sony's first party -- it isn't very strong at all.

 

[Deleted member 49535]

Edit: completely misread the thread.

 

[Kyuuji]

Also i've learned that 30+ years old boomer gamers are actually the most mentally lazy consumers on the market and unwilling to put any effort into adapting to any kind of retro-game that doesn't 100% fall in today's graphical, QoL and control schemes homogeinized standards.

Click to shrink...

Maybe those people just don't want to play retro games?

 

[Bigwombat]

Sony keeps putting out high quality games year after year. It makes it a little bit easier to not look back when great stuff is coming out all the time.

I'm a big Nintendo fan too and I think alot of their older games still look great after all these years. Ps1 and ps2 games tend to not age as well because of the jankiness of polygons back then. Contrast that to link to the past, un squadron, or even final fight. It's easier to tell what's happening in lots of older Nintendo games.

With Nintendos age there's a giant catalog to choose from so it's harder to move on; especially when Mario and link are still their main attractions.

Plus how many times will Nintendo get it wrong on backwards compatibility? Online infrastructure is a mess and I refuse to buy the same games over and over anymore. That's extremely cheap of Nintendo on top of their evergreen pricing structure.

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

It's really sad how quickly Sony went from the best most backwards compatible/ game preserving company to comfortably the worst.

 

[Gelf]

There are certainly people who care. Unfortunately since BC became a positive point for the other side there appeared to me to be a large uptick in the amount of people who have to state at every possible moment that old games don't matter.

Thier current stance is sad for me who was more of a Sony fan in the PS2-PS3 era.

 

[JaseC64]

When the Crash Bandicoot PS2 classics were added to PSN, they were the top selling digital titles for the next few months IIRC. There's still lots of people who were happy to play the old final fantasy games.

so id say there's interest.

Click to shrink...

Yeah its so weird Sony is not doing anything about this. It was so cool seeing these PS1 games on the PSN charts from time to time back in the PS3 era. Sure not all the games will have that power like Crash and FF7 but its like leaving money off the table.

Jim Ryan is a fool though. PS fans would certainly be engaged with legacy content. I guess we just need to get an Xbox Series X/S to play some nice retro PS classics.

 

[Alienhated]

I, honestly, think a lot of people pit too

I'm 34 and not a boomer because that would imply I'm born between 1946-64.

I did, however, live through these eras of games and there's been one consistent - things improved with time.

I can go back and ignore the warts and all of old games I have nostagia for, but that doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy every old game of the same time.

QoL exists for a reason - most old games honestly need it. The quirky retro element of less refined design choices may appeal to some, but many who lived those originals and saw what came after it appreciate the changes are necessary.

Click to shrink...

Eh, the boomer thing it's only a silly meme. Anyway i'm not saying that every single retrogame is some kind of priceless treasure, but still there's plenty of different kind of games that doesn't get made anymore and a ton of stuff that still holds a lot of value behind the outdated graphics and the control schemes' anachronims.
I'm not saying that old games are better and new ones are worse either, but they're deeply different and have their own pros and cons.
I'm just glad i'm not living in this "CURRENT FOMO® IS THE BEST GAMING HAS EVER BEEN™" and "EVERYTHING MADE BEFORE 2018 IS LITERALLY UNPLAYABLE TRASH" hype-driven, terminal consumerist world yet.

 

[Yasuke]

People get older and don't have enough time to play old games.

Click to shrink...

This is kinda it for me tbh.

I'd love to have access to the PSOne/2/3 titles I still have in my possession on new hardware (I've got all my old hardware, but who wants to plug all of that in?), but realistically, even if I did....there's just so little time to split between my interests and responsibilities as is.

For me, at least, that part of the party is over, so I tend not to trip over it too much. It sucks, but it is what it is.

 

[PSOreo]

That's a massive assumption and a bit of protection going on. I think honestly it's the opposite for most people, especially on here.

 

[AndrewDean84]

I think more would care if Sony cared.

People like to shit on Nintendo's handling of legacy titles, but my stance has always been, it could be worse, like how Sony does nothing.

 

[justiceiro]

Most sony fans I know have pride in getting new franchises in every console, so makes no sense those people would be worried about older games being available.

 

[TaySan]

PS fans care just as much, but there is only so much you can do if Sony doesn't care at all about it.

 

[AndyD]

I think you are projecting. Most PlayStation fans on here would be delighted to have access to their PSone Classics and have BC that goes beyond PS4.

Click to shrink...

Yep. But at the same time we are also realistic that it's niche for the games market as a whole. We have so many incredible new games coming out all the time, we are also not stuck on PS1 remakes or rereleases. New characters (Astro), new experiences (VR, Dualsense), new games and franchiese (Horizon and Uncharted), new stories in the legacy universes (Ratchet and Crash Bandicoot), they are all wonderful to enjoy without being tied to the very original PS1 or 2 or 3 games.

 

[Kyry]

I love Playstation legacy content. I just largely don't care about its playback on current consoles.
I have my old collection and my old hardware, and don't mind running them thru my OSSC or something similar.
Most of the people I see IRL complaining about compatibility on current consoles are people who never cared about/bothered with this content in the past.

 

[Creepy Woody]

I do care, that's why I own a PS2 and 3 so I can keep playing these games.

 

[WhtR88t]

Be a there's constantly something new/awesome coming out and rarely a software drought on PlayStation.

I don't have time to play older games.

 

[Alienhated]

I think more would care if Sony cared.

People like to shit on Nintendo's handling of legacy titles, but my stance has always been, it could be worse, like how Sony does nothing.

Click to shrink...

I think both Nintendo's and Sony's approach are kind of flawed and annoying, just in different ways.
Sony is occasionally coming up with full-fledged, high fidelity remakes of some of their most popular games, while Nintendo mostly relies on the most cost-effective, lowest effort-with-biggest-profits-margins solution.
Sony is going to either entirely remake few selected games or leave them behind forever. Nintendo is still somewhat preserving most of its classics in their original state.
Nintendo abandoning the Virtual Console initiative to just lock their old games behind some shitty online paid service is genuingely infuriating.
Sony is going to not give any single shit about any of their PS1 and PS2 classics.

 

[Fonst]

I personally don't fully care about legacy content to play since I have a bunch of current content to play.

 

[KalBalboa]

I currently have a PS2, PS3, PS5, and PS1 Classic hooked up to my television.

I still buy PS1/2 games on the regular.

 

[get2sammyb]

Didn't Sony just spend millions of dollars meticulously remaking Demon's Souls?