Old Playstation Stores shutting down soon (rumor)

Dwarvenhobble

Is on the Gin
May 26, 2020
6,014
665
118
Ah, that's a bit of a bummer. Don't have a Vita, but I'm assuming Henkaku is some kind of custom firmware? Cuz if the store is going bye bye anyway, there's not much reason left to not jailbreak your Vita.
Yeh as far as I'm aware it is custom firmware.
 

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
11,225
5,681
118

This is on topic thanks to these types of things.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dwarvenhobble

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
Legacy
Escapist +
Apr 3, 2020
12,836
9,268
118
New problem apparently about to come up

So yeah, it was a pain, but dumping all my PS3 games was a good idea.

Expect issues like this to pop up more and more as time goes on. Someone mentioned before they prefer physical because those don't go away when the servers do, but the hardware those games run on will itself die. Maybe not soon, but eventually. Same for the physical media, actually. Discs and cartridges don't last forever either.
 

The Rogue Wolf

Stealthy Carnivore
Legacy
Nov 25, 2007
16,860
9,542
118
Stalking the Digital Tundra
Gender
✅

This is on topic thanks to these types of things.
Developers would rather force us to buy "remasters" of old games (probably for a higher price than the original) for what few games they deem profitable, and get us to forget that all the others even existed.
 

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
11,225
5,681
118
Developers would rather force us to buy "remasters" of old games (probably for a higher price than the original) for what few games they deem profitable, and get us to forget that all the others even existed.
You know I gotta be honest, I don't really mind buying updated versions of games that I really likes back in the day but flashed up a bit for new hardware. Like the Mass Effect Trilogy thing coming soon, I'm down to buy and replay those titles with some extra polish on them.

And I think for old games as well a remake is a nice way to regain games you used to love but experience them like new again.

I know it bothers a lot of people, but I actually really like it for the most part. So long as it's not fucked up like Warcraft 3 reforged.
 

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
Legacy
Escapist +
Apr 3, 2020
12,836
9,268
118
You know that timebomb issue in the PS3 Dwarvenhobble posted?

Also present in the PS4, except it's worse:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dwarvenhobble

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
11,225
5,681
118
You know that timebomb issue in the PS3 Dwarvenhobble posted?

Also present in the PS4, except it's worse:
It kills Disc playback? Yo that sounds like something I would hope gets patched out of the firmware because that's fucking dogshit.

How does that even work with playstations that have never connected to the internet?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dwarvenhobble

gorfias

Unrealistic but happy
Legacy
May 13, 2009
7,372
1,958
118
Country
USA
Hmmm, that's a shame, but not unexpected. It's naive to think those servers will be around forever. Tho suddenly having put in all that tedious work dumping backups of my PS3 and PSP games feels a lot more justified. I suspect that if the stores go down, the emulation/piracy community, cuz there's a fair amount of overlap after all, might set up a concerted effort to salvage as much as they can.

120 bucks for 64mb can be considered "not a bad price"? ... ok then ...
For it being proprietyary. I just got a 256 GB USB for $20 and used it to back up some important stuff. But I get it. Sony made it so you have to spend a fortune on small cards. These are OK at that price for what it is..
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,286
7,082
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
Never heard of Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker? That's quite an accomplishment.

Also, I'm fairly certain that there are other ways of getting games onto these devices.

If and when the stores close, I'd say it's fair game to search out that avenue of game collection.
As someone who really liked Peace Walker(More then 4 or V), I totally understand why. It was a PSP game to start that got ported to PS3(and nowhere else), it didn't get as much attention as the others and in some ways it's not as iconic as the others, even if it is a lot better put together then V is. It really doesn't help V feels a much bigger budget take on Peace Walker, except the story is gutted and all the characters are either boring or unlikable and instead of an interesting villain scheme from Hot Coldman you get Skullface ranting on about languages in a jeep for 5 minutes followed by an awkward silence.

God, why did Kojima got with V instead of 5? So they could do that stupid "V has come to" thing that comes up like once? V for Venom?
 
Last edited:

Leg End

Romans 12:18
Oct 24, 2010
2,948
58
53
Country
United States
It was a PSP game to start that got ported to PS3(and nowhere else)
360 as well, and by extension the Xbone and Series systems with backwards compatibility. You don't get Transfarring. but good luck getting decent third party batteries for the PSP to even do that.
God, why did Kojima got with V instead of 5? So they could do that stupid "V has come to" thing that comes up like once? V for Venom?
That and the same shit with Peace sign that Peace Walker did. Peace Walker itself was almost 5 and I think was shown off as such really early on in promotion.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dalisclock

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
Legacy
Nov 18, 2010
8,738
5,910
118
Well the New Xbox is doing those stupid fucking extra harddrives for like 200 bucks because they have to be a special shape. So it's not anything really new from these console companies and there is an argument one could make about the console companies wanting you to use their shit because then they can make sure you aren't accidentally ruining your console for using some randomly formatted drive or device. Especially when you figure that consoles are used by kids and not tech savy people so the ease of them just buying the "playstation" card or whatever is just good marketing because it will end up protecting more people than you'd expect.
In Sony’s case they let you use a number of different SSD sizes and probably cover it in their ToS or warranty that if you screw up with trying to fit the wrong drive, it’s on the user and they can then sell them another replacement console. I wonder how many times something like that has happened. Seems kinda win:win for them as they give the choice but also get extra sales because the company isn’t liable for human stupidity.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CriticalGaming

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
11,225
5,681
118
In Sony’s case they let you use a number of different SSD sizes and probably cover it in their ToS or warranty that if you screw up with trying to fit the wrong drive, it’s on the user and they can then sell them another replacement console. I wonder how many times something like that has happened. Seems kinda win:win as you give the choice but also get extra sales because the company isn’t liable for human stupidity.
Yeah that is a big plus that Sony is at least giving people options.
 

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
Legacy
Nov 18, 2010
8,738
5,910
118
As someone who really liked Peace Walker(More then 4 or V), I totally understand why. It was a PSP game to start that got ported to PS3(and nowhere else), it didn't get as much attention as the others and in some ways it's not as iconic as the others, even if it is a lot better put together then V is. It really doesn't help V feels a much bigger budget take on Peace Walker, except the story is gutted and all the characters are either boring or unlikable and instead of an interesting villain scheme from Hot Coldman you get Skullface ranting on about languages in a jeep for 5 minutes followed by an awkward silence.

God, why did Kojima got with V instead of 5? So they could do that stupid "V has come to" thing that comes up like once? V for Venom?
It’s also a rudimentary symbol for peace, which is I guess supposed to be the fine print takeaway for the series and it just so happens to follow up...Peacewalker.

As an aside I know what you mean as being designed for a handheld, PW is basically a much more focused, efficiently designed kind of game that Kojima wanted to expand upon, but the mainline console entries just got wilder and wilder to pretty much mirror the budget afforded to them.

As another aside, in my return to MGSV it probably isn’t too much a coincidence that last night I got to the part where you find the AI pod from PW, and that it has also become my favorite part of the game’s story/plot/nanomachines/diné.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Dalisclock

09philj

Elite Member
Legacy
Mar 31, 2015
2,154
948
118
It kills Disc playback? Yo that sounds like something I would hope gets patched out of the firmware because that's fucking dogshit.

How does that even work with playstations that have never connected to the internet?
The PS4 relies on its internal CMOS battery, or a server connection, to maintain date/time information. If it ever loses both, it essentially bricks the console.
 

Schadrach

Elite Member
Legacy
Mar 20, 2010
2,170
421
88
Country
US
I'm worried for the day if/when Steam goes under.
All the more reason to use GOG. GOG is DRM-free and offers offline installers for their games, meaning you can download the files an keep yourself a local backup of anything purchased through them.

Don't have a Vita, but I'm assuming Henkaku is some kind of custom firmware?
Most third party software for Sony consoles is either CFW or home-brew that runs on CFW. It's not too hard to jailbreak a Vita on the upside, though it's harder than it is to jailbreak a PSP (because Sony's private key for PSP FW updates got leaked, which means that CFW for PSP is indistinguishable to the PSP from an official FW update).

I suspect that if the stores go down, the emulation/piracy community, cuz there's a fair amount of overlap after all, might set up a concerted effort to salvage as much as they can.
Much if not all of it is already saved, though storage requirements get progressively harsher with each generation. You can fit every Atari 2600 game ever made on a floppy disc, every NES or SNES game on a CD, PSP UMDs typically held around 1GB each, while the current Switch E Shop (don't have a number for how many/how large are any physical only releases) requires a ridiculous amount of storage (like, US only end of 2020 in compressed format clocking in at 5.66TB). Google actually changed their policies for shared team drives because people were replicating complete game collections for PS3 and later consoles and it was becoming a problem.
 

CriticalGaming

Elite Member
Legacy
Dec 28, 2017
11,225
5,681
118
The PS4 relies on its internal CMOS battery, or a server connection, to maintain date/time information. If it ever loses both, it essentially bricks the console.
So long as the battery works then the console is good then? I wonder how hard those would be to replace.
 

Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
Legacy
Escapist +
Apr 3, 2020
12,836
9,268
118
Most third party software for Sony consoles is either CFW or home-brew that runs on CFW. It's not too hard to jailbreak a Vita on the upside, though it's harder than it is to jailbreak a PSP (because Sony's private key for PSP FW updates got leaked, which means that CFW for PSP is indistinguishable to the PSP from an official FW update).

Much if not all of it is already saved, though storage requirements get progressively harsher with each generation. You can fit every Atari 2600 game ever made on a floppy disc, every NES or SNES game on a CD, PSP UMDs typically held around 1GB each, while the current Switch E Shop (don't have a number for how many/how large are any physical only releases) requires a ridiculous amount of storage (like, US only end of 2020 in compressed format clocking in at 5.66TB). Google actually changed their policies for shared team drives because people were replicating complete game collections for PS3 and later consoles and it was becoming a problem.
Yeh, I know. I'm a bit of an emulation enthusiast and have spent a significant amount of time and effort dumping my own games, including PSP and PS3. So I'm familiar with CFW. But don't have a Vita, so I'm not in the know about its particulars. But yeah, I know a lot has already been saved. As mentioned, there's a fair bit of overlap between the piracy and emulation scenes. But there's still gaps, more obscure games and a lot of DLCs. Hence my hope the community will try to fill in those gaps. Which will eat up a lot of storage. I should know, my console game backups takes up about 2TB. Almost twice that if I include pc games. And as you said, that's only a fraction of what is out there.
So long as the battery works then the console is good then? I wonder how hard those would be to replace.
Replace a cmos battery? Easy. Cheap too. Couple bucks gets you a new battery from the nearest gas station or wherever you can get batteries, and they last a good while. But this battery powers the internal clock of the console. The moment you remove the battery to replace it, that clock loses power, stops working. Putting in a new battery will probably get it to run again, but the time you spent replacing will not update by itself. So the next time you boot up your PS4 it will notice the time is wrong and try to fix this by calling home to Sony to authenticate.

But when the console can't call home anymore, the time stays wrong. Which does not seem like it matters much, but it does. Because trophies require an up to date clock to work, while trophies working is in turn a requirement for games to work. And pretty much all PS4 games have trophies, whether digital, or physical.

This is why the PS4 becomes a timebomb the moment Sony turns off the PS4 servers. From then on, all PS4s remaining lifespan becomes whatever the cmos battery's remaining lifespan is. Unless Sony releases an end-of-life firmware update that removes that requirement. Or you have the skills to replace the battery without breaking the circuit as 09philj said, or you know how to hack the clock.
I wonder if PS5's have the same requirement within.
Chances are good that yes, it does. It's a quick, easy and cheap solution. Hence why it's used so much. Technically, the same can happen to any pc, because those also have one of those batteries on the motherboard. But it's not as big a problem there, because pc being what it is, there are simply more avenues to fix it.