PSV and PS3 Online saved!?

 You live to see another day

Not too long ago I came before you a beaten man. Bitter, broken, lost and despondent; because I had heard that most damnable of news, how the Playstation store was shutting down. Well, certain segments of it, to be clear. (It would be a little weird if they turned around and suddenly shut down the PS5 store.) This was a clear move to consolidate the online infrastructure of the PlayStation systems completely oblivious to the clear and lasting effect this would have on the wider library of available games in the world today. Because once that online store logged off for good, that would immediately make it so that only games bought in person could be played on the old Playstation 3 and PSV. Nevermind any patches those games might have had, online functionalities, always-online checks or heck, just any game that could only be bought online in the first place. All these games had been proclaimed the exact same execution date and it came to a shock across the PlayStation community. Not least of all because it was reported on as a exclusive leak before being officially confirmed by Playstation, kind of making it look like they weren't planning on telling people at all.

Of course this wasn't exactly anything new to the gaming community. Those who've spent any amount of time with Nintendo consoles will tell you how the big N drops the previous consoles as soon as humanely possible and tries their damndest to kill those old storefronts so that they can justify reselling those games with a minor touch-up down the line. (It's just the Nintendo way) But Sony fans couldn't help but feel a little run around in a tizzy thanks to the lack of forewarning about this store closure that was due in the summer. Developers who still made their games for the PSVita voiced their disdain for projects that they were working on which would either have to be cancelled or reworked onto other systems. In fact, the Vita crowd in general were inconsolable, because they've held for years that their console had been done a raw deal by Sony, never given the support it needed, and now it would die in a backroom deal alongside the PS3 and PSP. It just didn't seem right.

And what's more, there was the precedent that this set. The line in the sand which said "From this point forth, every new generation will kill another behind it." This hurt specifically for the Playstation 4 as recently there was a big reveal that I didn't get to cover because it happened after the original story. Quite simply, it was a design flaw for the PS4 whereupon the console needed to check itself against the sever in order to keep the console running in the instance of a clock battery death. This is something that is unavoidable, and in fact scheduled. And fans reported that should this clock battery die and there be no server to reconnect to, then the console would immediately become bricked, essentially. Downloaded games and disc games could not be played from that point onwards, rending the console unusable. (And apparently this was only designed this way to stop people from messing with the console clock to make it look like they earned trophies before they actually did. Doesn't really seem like a fix worth the cost, huh?)

But I'm using past tense both purposefully and cautiously, because the recent update on this story is that the good word has made it's way to higher ups and the impending death of the PlayStation's infrastructure has been... let's say postponed. This is definitely a 'stay of execution' over a complete pardon, because Sony have already made themselves abundantly clear with how they feel towards paying a pittance to keep servers running. That annual cost, which likely comes up to the change under management's couch-cushions, just disgusts these people to have to pay; and the concept of 'game preservation' clearly isn't something that occurs to these money men trying to turn a buck out of art. I know this because they made the darn decision completely quietly trample it and only responded when the internet shouted at them too. They don't care about preservation. So bet you bottom lip we'll be back here in a year in two.

However I'm being a downer, let's celebrate in what small victory this is, shall we? Playstation made an official comment admitting to getting things wrong and undoing their summer murder plans. This means that those online exclusive games aren't going to soon disappear forever, Playstation 3's aren't about to become the next scalped to death item and PS4 owners can breath a confused sigh of maybe relief as they ponder how this 'clock battery death' thing is going to work out even with servers there to pull from. Will the console suddenly become an online-only device from that point on? Can this be reversed remotely by the team at Sony? And how much will it cost to get my console jail-broken, because right now that seems like the smartest choice for any console owner not thrilled about watching their game console slowly become a paperweight.

At the very least, I think this is a victory of larger consequence than itself, because the effect this has on the wider market will be significant. I've noticed how the Xbox news has been favourable against comparison with Sony in regards to preservation, noting how well backwards compatibility works, but I know that Xbox would have been first in line to kill off their older markets if Sony had simply broken the seal first. It's an opportunity to save a percent of a percent worth of costs, any company is going to jump on that no matter the irrevocably horrendous damage it might have on art as we know it. Xbox may play goody two shoes, but they'll disappoint their fans just so long as Sony disappoints them more first. Right now we're in a holding position where both consoles are kept by the other's reticence to be the first loser, and in an ideal world this mutually assured destruction treatise would be enough. But ultimate deterrence has ever been a flawed theory.

Yet we celebrate anyway. Pointedly ignorant of future woes and the next fight. But hey, isn't that what life is all about? Enjoying the moment instead of splitting hairs about tomorrow? I mean afterall, all the Playstation stores are sav- wait a second, what about PSP? Yeah, all the news I've heard about the reversal have spoken about the PSV and PS3 stores, but nobodies said jack about the death of the PSP stores. Is this just the usual case of that platform being ignored because it's decidedly not worth caring about like the PSV store? Perhaps. I can't imagine what would be the point of shutting down PSP stores but keeping PSV open. Aren't their stores literally mirrors of one another? Unless actually nobody cares about preserving PSP games, which being a PSP owner myself I can sort of understand. (A lot of them are really bad) But that platform held the definitive, surprisingly, version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance, with several game modes that other versions still do not have, thus I say: "Save PSP too. Or at least save MUA on PSP. Let the rest burn"

I wonder, on the otherside of this, what it really was which stayed the executioners axe this time. Because as sure as I am that, when asked, Playstation management will parrot the talking points of the detractors for public recognition points, I think we all know the truth is far more cynical than that. Maybe at it's heart this really is just a question of public backlash that Sony wanted to get ahead of, even indie developers were getting upset at Sony over this choice, and Sony already has a strained relationship with the indie community compared to Microsoft. So perhaps this was in their sake, or simply just to keep fanboys happy. I ask this because I merely wonder if, just like EA and Activision have mastered, this is a capitulation for as long as the flames of outrage spark. For in such a scenario, once the fires die from peoples' heart, and it always does, we'll have lost. I certainly hope Sony management isn't that shallow, but I just don't know.