Preserving games is something that larger video game companies have been increasingly focused on in recent times. Xbox has been leading the charge primarily with things like backwards compatibility, and Nintendo has allowed users of its Switch Online subscription service to play classic titles from older consoles such as the SNES, NES, and Game Boy Advance through emulation. Sony PlayStation, however, was often labeled as being behind its fellow platform owners in terms of preserving the history of its games.Recently, Sony accidentally confirmed that it was focusing on preservation after an employee revealed they'd been working as a member of a new "preservation team." Fans were immediately intrigued by the reveal of this new PlayStation preservation effort, but there wasn't much news on what the team actually did. Now, the employee who stated that there was a preservation team has further detailed the purpose of the group. Garrett Fredley, the engineer working at Sony, took to Twitter once again to reveal in full what his role in preserving PlayStation games entails.Rather than give current details of his daily process at PlayStation, Fredley instead linked his followers to a video of his talk at GDC 2019. The talk encompasses "Game Preservation Best Practises" and is more of a case study of when Fredley worked at EA. Fredley explains that game preservation is more than just dumping raw code into an archive, but rather about making games potentially playable even after around a century of storage.
Game preservation isn't just about reviving old classics either. It also supports modern games, giving developers old files that they can freely access to produce patches and updates, especially if a security vulnerability or major bug is discovered and needs a patch years after a game has launched. Fredley is not the only official within the gaming industry to speak on the importance of game preservation, as Xbox boss Phil Spencer has also spoken about how vital it is to the history of the medium.
To gamers and publishers, the most attractive element of game preservation is in the possibility of old classics being brought back to life through emulation, remasters, and remakes. Plenty of remasters have made their way to modern consoles over the years, but emulation is currently becoming more prominent, as it doesn't require an entire remake of a game. PlayStation Plus Premium, for example, is allowing players to hop back into their favorite PlayStation games from older consoles through streaming, a move that has proven immensely popular with PlayStation fans.