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I for one welcome the glorious return of overconfident E3 2006 Sony.
Adrock:
--- Quote from: UncleBob on March 31, 2021, 06:15:15 AM ---So, all you have to do is replace the battery and connect to PSN once? As long as some form of the PSN exists, you should be okay?
--- End quote ---
Yes? This is assuming old PlayStations won't be cut off from servers. Still, physical games don't have the same value they once had.
While this likely only affects a relatively small portion of the user base (again, I expect the vast majority to move on to new hardware), I imagine most people don't know this is a potential issue or how to fix it which Sony is likely counting on. Sure, one can google it, but there's also a reason why LMGTFY is a thing.
It should also be noted that the CMOS battery for PS3 and PS4 is directly on the motherboard so you would have to open up the console to access it. How many people have a Torx screwdriver? Few people know this is an issue and even fewer people have the tools to fix it themselves. Comparatively, the CMOS battery on Wii and Wii U is accessible from the outside of the console. You would need a #00 Philips screwdriver which you may have if you wear glasses.
Regardless, what's worrisome to many is the implication that these games can disappear coupled with Sony's apparent disinterest in preserving its own history. While most of the bigger titles are available on the PlayStation Store and tied to a PSN account, there are also a lot of games "trapped" on those old systems so in the event that the CMOS battery dies and access to servers is gone, those games are unplayable (barring a hack). The ones I keep hearing about are the older Gran Turismo titles which will likely never get re-released due to the ungodly amount of licensed content in them.
--- Quote ---I mean, this isn't ideal (and, in theory, is something Sony could patch at some hypothetical point in the future when PSN support is totally taken away), but it doesn't seem as world-ending as some are making it out to be.
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One thing I've learned from working in IT is that fixing one thing can lead to unintentionally breaking a slew of other things. Removing the requirement to pull the date/time from a server is a really easy fix on paper, but it could create an exploit for hackers. And if it's a lot of backend work, no f-ing way Sony fixes this. There's very little cost benefit from the company's perspective (i.e. the goodwill of a small group of PlayStation owners). What are we collectively going to do about it? Stop buying PlayStation things? Given Sony's market position, it will call our bluff 100 times out of 100.
Again, I'm not trying to be alarmist. This absolutely is not world-ending. It's just kind of crummy because Sony didn't have to write its software on at least four different systems this way, and I'd bet it's the same on PS5. Nintendo's and Microsoft's hardware do not seem to have similar issues.
UncleBob:
I agree that it's shitty.
Similarly, the Nintendo DS will not work without a battery in it. Even if you have it plugged into AC power. I don't like that either, since battery packs can go bad to the point you don't want them in your system for fear of damaging it. Seems like an oversight in design to me - but we just kinda have to face the fact that systems aren't designed to allow us to play our games indefinitely anymore. It's no longer a question of how good of shape you keep the system/media in, and no longer worries of data/bit/disc rot rendering your games into useless piles of plastic to rival the Wii accessory dump bin at the local used gaming store, but a worry of when some design decision (either just not well thought out, or via planned obsolescence) by your chosen manufacturer renders you sol.
I would fully support changes to copyright law to make preservation of "lost" media legal.
Hug your video games tight, kiddo. The Grim Reaper cometh for your bits and bytes now.
Ian Sane:
The original Xbox has a battery in it that will leak and damage your system if you don't replace it. The Turbo Duo and Game Gear have lousy capacitors that need to be replaced. This isn't a new thing and isn't necessarily planned obsolescence, it's just that making a product that lasts for 50 years isn't a priority. The logic is more that they're making a product that will be available for maybe 8 years and if the product can last for 15 then the R&D guys did a good job.
The one element that makes physical media appealing though is that it's not all-or-nothing. Your system could fail but you might be able to fix it or find another one and all your games are still fine. With digital you can have games stored on a system's hard drive but if the hardware goes and the server to redownload the games is offline then everything is gone at once. The hope really is down to hackers. The game executables will be backed up somewhere and it's really just a matter of being able to get something to run it. I don't think too many games will become lost like some silent-era movie, at least not until streaming gaming is the norm and the users never have any files stored locally at all.
The future of playing your old games is unfortunately going to have to involve hacks and piracy, where as before you could just pop your old cartridges into the old system and everything was easy and legal.
pokepal148:
It looks like the PS3 is having server issues with the PSN store. I can't imagine how that happened, I mean Sony's servers are nothing if not reliable.
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/04/ps3_owners_facing_wide-spread_problems_downloading_games_ahead_of_ps_store_closure
broodwars:
--- Quote from: pokepal148 on April 03, 2021, 04:18:39 PM ---It looks like the PS3 is having server issues with the PSN store. I can't imagine how that happened, I mean Sony's servers are nothing if not reliable.
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/04/ps3_owners_facing_wide-spread_problems_downloading_games_ahead_of_ps_store_closure
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It's almost like, when you create a panic by announcing server shutdowns only a few months in advance, people panic and start flooding the servers.
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