Platinum Games creative director Hideki Kamiya talked about the difficulty gamers face when wanting to play some of the company’s older games. But noted that it of course is not limited to their games but also titles from other developers games.
This is mostly due to not being able to access them as they are not supported on the console manufacturers newest console. He feels that console manufacturers and game developers should have a responsibility to preserve games so that customers can easily access their classic games on their current system.
Microsoft does a fairly good job of this with their Xbox series of consoles, but Nintendo and Sony quite simply don’t.
Game preservation
As a collector, what do you make of the recent explosion in retro game prices? It’s been alleged that market manipulation could be behind some recent million-dollar auctions.
Kamiya:
As a collector myself, I understand the lure of wanting to have that game in the sealed package. People want the value of that package and not necessarily of the game itself. But as a fan, it’s a problem if somebody wants to play a game but they can’t get it because it’s being traded in these ridiculous marketplaces.
And the responsibility for keeping those games available belongs to the company that owns the IP.
If people want to play a classic game and they can’t, because it’s not available on new platforms and can’t be found in its original form either, that’s like a threat… it’s holding game culture back.
The people who own the rights to these games should be actively making moves to preserve game culture and making games available to everyone who wants to play them.
Sounds a lot like something I have been saying for quite some time myself; https://www.nintendoreporters.com/en/editorials/general/nintendo-network-id-to-a-higher-level/
Nintendo is making small steps with Nintendo Switch Online but … well they could be doing more in that regard to say the least.
