Game Preservation
In a rather pleasant surprise, it was announced that the PSP strategy RPG Jeanne D’Arc would be coming to the Playstation Store, and available for free through PS Plus. This lovely little game isn’t revolutionary, but it’s a great game, and it was a shame it wasn’t playable on modern systems. That is, until now at least.
I’ve been taking this opportunity to revisit the game, which I played before but never finished. It takes the historical figure of Joan of Arc, and sets her in a world filled with monsters and magic. It mixes historic events with fantasy elements to great effect, and it makes for a fun premise I wish more games would explore. She even gets a magical girl style transformation, what's not to love?
Rather than a port, this is an emulation of the original game, with some up-rendering and quality of life features, like a quick save and rewind feature. This format is easily recognizable if you’ve played any other classic titles through PSN, like the Legend of Dragoon or Okage Shadow King. Most of these titles are also available for purchase if you’re not a fan of the subscription model.
I’m not always a fan of the subscription model, it’s easy to end up with more subscriptions than you can use, and there’s always the threat of price hikes. We’re seeing this play out in real time with Game Pass, which is revamping its structure and prices, after promising not to do so when it was in the middle of acquiring Activision Blizzard. That being said, I think the PS Plus library gives Sony a great reason to reach into its back catalog of games.
As gaming marches forward into the future, previous consoles, and games, eventually become no longer supported. The hardware gets discontinued, the servers are taken offline, and gaining access to older games becomes more difficult, and expensive. According to a 2023 study, 87 percent of games released before 2010 are unavailable to play today. That’s a huge problem.
Like any art form, preservation is important. I want to be able to look back on games I loved as a kid, or games that I love right now, in 20, 30, or even 40 years, and revisit them. As things stand, I have trouble accessing games that I purchased even 10 years ago. Unless something gets a remaster, or port to a modern console, the hoops you have to jump through to play older games become increasingly numerous.
There are certainly a multitude of reasons for this, companies that developed and published games may go out of business, and the rights to older games become murky. Maybe developers feel like the demand for the titles simply isn’t there, and it may not be profitable to put in the work required to make the game accessible to modern audiences. Or maybe the game was developed with a specific platform or feature set in mind. DS and 3DS games in particular were built around the dual screens, and would require a major overhaul to work on modern formats.
Given the current state of access to older games, it only makes sense that so many people turn to emulation, even for games they own. Emulation gives players a wider array of options to revisit older games. Being able to play DS games on your phone feels like a great way to revisit gems that risk being lost to time. There’s even communities that create fan translations to games that were never localized in the west, giving you a chance to play games you would be otherwise unable to play.
Emulation is always a legal gray area, and I’m certainly not a lawyer, so make sure you’re informed and use caution if you decide to partake. However, if companies are unwilling or unable to make their games readily available on modern systems, it feels hypocritical to prevent people from engaging with their works.
I worry that someday my favorite games could be lost to time, that I may not be able to revisit something that brought me so much joy. It’s hard to imagine what the future of gaming might look like in 20 years, but it’s discouraging to think that we might be losing what gaming looked like just 20 years ago. Gaming is still a relatively new art form, and if something doesn’t change, we might lose the things that made gaming what it is today.
I hope that things like PS Plus continue to give a reason to make games from Sony’s past accessible to modern gamers. Being able to revisit Jeanne D’Arc was totally unexpected, but a welcome treat. For one, it’s reassuring that I’m getting some value out of a subscription I pay for, but also shows that Sony at least cares about its older titles.
I certainly don’t want to give Sony too much credit, it certainly could be doing a lot better, but it’s a start. Nintendo has made some solid efforts, but also took down the 3DS and Wii U online store in 2023, making over 2,000 more games far more difficult to access. Companies just seem uninterested in preserving their history, likely due to the profit incentives not being present, but that doesn’t make it less important.
Video games are products, developers and companies need to make money, sure. Video games are also art, and I think they deserve enough respect to warrant being preserved for future generations, and not just the popular ones. Big IPs and the “classics” are probably safe, but what about bad movie tie-in games? What about those weird, experimental games that may not have quite worked, but took some big swings?
I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, I doubt many gamers would be against an increased focus on gaming preservation. As gaming increasingly shifted towards digital media, we were forced to accept that games we buy, we might not always have access to. Companies have seemingly tried their best to erode the idea of “ownership” over a digital title. If we don’t actually “own“ our games how can we complain when they eventually cut off our access to them?
At the end of the day, we have to give a certain amount of trust to companies to keep our games accessible, and that sucks. I have far greater faith in the community, and emulation to keep our history available, but that’s not a perfect solution either. There are still things that are lost over time, and that’s really a shame. I want to be able to revisit my favorite games someday, and I’d rather jump through the fewest amount of hoops to do so.
Like any art form, its history is valuable, and worth preserving. If I had any wish for the future of gaming, it’s that we don’t neglect our past. I’ve played so many amazing games over the years, and I wish I could readily play them on PS5, or my Switch. Instead, I often have to turn to emulation, since in many cases that’s easier than trying to hook up my dusty old PS2 and praying it cooperates with modern TVs. If nothing else, at least I can play Jeanne D’Arc from my couch again, and maybe this time I’ll be able to save France.
