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Now more than ever, publishers are looking at their old IP and seeing what they can remake, remaster, and emulate for modern consoles. And Sony has been releasing PS1, PS2, and PSP Classics on PS5 with PS Plus Premium! But a lot of people wonder why it takes so long for those games to come out? What's the issue? These are old games and the emulator shouldn't be a problem, right? Well that's only one part of the equation. Today I sit down with Bill Litshauer, the CEO of Implicit Conversions. This studio specializes in emulation technology, and they pitch to publishers that they can bring their old games back. But this is easier said than done! Here's what it takes to bring a classic game to PlayStation 5 & Nintendo Switch. And no, I tried inserting my CD's. No matter how many times I try, IT. DOES. NOT. WORK.

Good interview and hitting on some relevant points like whether all the work is financially viable at the end for these ports or not.

It would be so much nicer if console-level emulation was more openly available as well.

 

[LectureMaster]

Here's what it takes to bring a classic game to PlayStation 5 & Nintendo Switch. And no, I tried inserting my CD's. No matter how many times I try, IT. DOES. NOT. WORK.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Meanwhile you can play every game from the 80s through the ps3 era on a chinese handheld for like $200

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

I might be in the minority here, but I don't think they should try to put every game on every generation. I can see the case for some games getting the remake treatment, but why everything, every gen? That sounds more like a convenience for people who don't keep what they buy, or for those that just want to complain because they didn't bother buying a specific game they were otherwise interested in. If that's the case, why didn't they buy it? Why didn't they keep it?

 

[SScorpio]

I think Digital Eclipse are truly the GOAT in this area. Not only are they keeping the games alive, but creating digital museums exploring just what makes the games special.

 

[adamsapple]

Sony went the opposite way from PS2-3, which supported damn near full backwards compatibility to just supporting curated re-sells of "classics" for PS4/5.

 

[Montauk]

Why do you need to remake or remaster? What about just doing basic ports? Has everyone forgotten the word port?

 

[El Hee-Ho]

Why do you need to remake or remaster? What about just doing basic ports? Has everyone forgotten the word port?

It's easier to charge more if they use the word "remaster" instead.

 

[BennyBlanco]

I think Digital Eclipse are truly the GOAT in this area. Not only are they keeping the games alive, but creating digital museums exploring just what makes the games special.

I prefer Nightdive tbh but Digital Eclipse is great for the reason you mentioned. That Moron Kombat collection having terrible input lag was not a good look for them.

 

[LectureMaster]

Sony went the opposite way from PS2-3, which supported damn near full backwards compatibility to just supporting curated re-sells of "classics" for PS4/5.

Can't disagree with that. Xbox back compat is awesome. Played quite a lot old games on XBOX one that weren't available on PS4.

 

[adamsapple]

Why do you need to remake or remaster? What about just doing basic ports? Has everyone forgotten the word port?

Selling a port of a PS1 game as-is, without any enhancements, would be 1/ a tough sell and 2/ still require money/work to either create or license emulation software.

 

[Gaiff]

That's the big problem with console exclusives. If the publisher doesn't care about preserving the game, they end up on a dead platform.

 

[sainraja]

Meanwhile you can play every game from the 80s through the ps3 era on a chinese handheld for like $200

Well, they probably don't ask for permission from the many publishers/developers... so it is easier for them to do it and they likely won't be sued but a big company like Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft could be sued.

 

[Dacvak]

Great watch Adam. Thanks for posting!

 

[Montauk]

Selling a port of a PS1 game as-is, without any enhancements, would be 1/ a tough sell and 2/ still require money/work to either create or license emulation software.

I am just dying for more fairly basic ports with minor enhancements. There are games I just want at 1080/4k at 60 FPS on modern consoles. Like Dead Space 1. Sure you can buy the remake but it's just not the original game and infuriatingly they can't just bundle the original game with said enhancements as a nice extra and way of preserving the original game.

I'm so tired of all the substantial remasters and full remakes when many old games just need to one just run and two be 1080/4k/60.

The way this industry works is so frustrating. The Xbox BC and FPS Boost schemes have been great but FPS Boost is only available with limited titles.

I wish publishers would do more to properly preserve older games by making more basic ports of them on consoles.

 

[SScorpio]

I prefer Nightdive tbh but Digital Eclipse is great for the reason you mentioned. That Moron Kombat collection having terrible input lag was not a good look for them.

Nightdive is also fantastic, especially for just playing through their various releases. But I could always just play through the original versions, even if Nightdive tweaks some things. That's why I like the extras that tell a story.

 

[Montauk]

It's easier to charge more if they use the word "remaster" instead.

Oh, I know. I know their incentives.

But not everybody wants those remakes.

There is a market for the more basic 'enhanced' ports (just FPS and resolution bumps) and people would be willing to pay for those too.

 

[SScorpio]

I am just dying for more fairly basic ports with minor enhancements. There are games I just want at 1080/4k at 60 FPS on modern consoles. Like Dead Space 1. Sure you can buy the remake but it's just not the original game and infuriatingly they can't just bundle the original game with said enhancements as a nice extra and way of preserving the original game.

I'm so tired of all the substantial remasters and full remakes when many old games just need to one just run and two be 1080/4k/60.

The way this industry works is so frustrating. The Xbox BC and FPS Boost schemes have been great but FPS Boost is only available with limited titles.

I wish publishers would do more to properly preserve older games by making more basic ports of them on consoles.

You might want to look into the Steam Machine. PC gaming gives you exactly what you are asking for. The limitation with some games is framerates as unlocking it can break some games. But framegen going 30->60 or 60->120 can give you smoothness without changing the underlying code.

 

[Montauk]

I am just dying for more fairly basic ports with minor enhancements. There are games I just want at 1080/4k at 60 FPS on modern consoles. Like Dead Space 1. Sure you can buy the remake but it's just not the original game and infuriatingly they can't just bundle the original game with said enhancements as a nice extra and way of preserving the original game.

I'm so tired of all the substantial remasters and full remakes when many old games just need to one just run and two be 1080/4k/60.

The way this industry works is so frustrating. The Xbox BC and FPS Boost schemes have been great but FPS Boost is only available with limited titles.

I wish publishers would do more to properly preserve older games by making more basic ports of them on consoles.

Just in the last year I completed Mad Max for the first time, on my Series X. All it needed to feel modern enough, good enough, was a boost to a stable 60fps. It's still just 1080p but despite that the game just looks and plays fantastically. Honestly I just can't hack 720/30 (locked or unstable) these days, but I think games have looked great for a long time.

It would be silly to remake the game just to get it up to 4K/60. But if you asked me to pay a small fee (as in, much less than a new game) to get that 60 fps (imagining there is no FPS Boost) then I would pay that.

Would love to get Dead Space 1 at 1080/4k/60 on my Xbox but it's languishing in a laggy blurry 720p and unstable (?) 30 fps. It's just annoying.

 

[ReBurn]

I hate how PS classics map the start button to the touchpad instead of the normal start button. Is this who I'm supposed to blame for that? Because buddy I want to grind that axe.

 

[The_Mike]

That's the big problem with console exclusives. If the publisher doesn't care about preserving the game, they end up on a dead platform.

The vast majority of console exclusives throughout time can be played on a PC, so that's a very rare case thankfully

 

[Gaiff]

The vast majority of console exclusives throughout time can be played on a PC, so that's a very rare case thankfully

Yes, because of emulation, but a lot of PS3 games cannot be emulated properly or are incredibly demanding on the hardware.

 

[Mattyp]

Can't disagree with that. Xbox back compat is awesome. Played quite a lot old games on XBOX one that weren't available on PS4.

The next Xbox will be the last with a disc drive so will be day one purchase for me for that reason alone.

That said the series X is built like a brick shithouse and don't see it going wrong either for a good long time to keep playing all these classics.

Even people who misses out on the earlier Forza titles, no disc drive? To bad.

 

[SNG32]

Yes, because of emulation, but a lot of PS3 games cannot be emulated properly or are incredibly demanding on the hardware.

like what? A lot of ps3 games ran trash on original ps3 hardware. RPCS3 can play a lot of games if you have a cpu released after 2020.

 

[Gaiff]

like what? A lot of ps3 games ran trash on original ps3 hardware. RPCS3 can play a lot of games if you have hardware released after 2020.

inFAMOUS 2 for instance. Going above 720p messes up the faces and getting a stable 60fps requires a beefy CPU. Even my 13900K doesn't come all that close. GOW3 has sections where the fps drops into the 30s. A Crack in Time has many graphical bugs, and so on. RPCS3 is far, far, from being perfect. It can run better than the PS3, but at the expense of other issues.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

The next Xbox will be the last with a disc drive so will be day one purchase for me for that reason alone.

That said the series X is built like a brick shithouse and don't see it going wrong either for a good long time to keep playing all these classics.

Even people who misses out on the earlier Forza titles, no disc drive? To bad.

I don't think Magnus will have a disc drive.

 

[Durin]

This is an area where I do think an Xbox is nice, if you do the developer options for emulators outside Microsoft's own.

Also, where I think the Steam Machine will excel as a living room option if the price is right, since EmuDeck makes installing a fleet of emulators and managing them way easier to setup.

The PS1, PS2, and PSP Classics stuff is nice, but the drip feed pace sucks, and some of the emulation isn't great. I just want most of the collection on new devices I own regularly, instead of having to keep everything out.

 

[adamsapple]

I really wanna know what game the dude is talking about in the video where the Japanese head of the original project died under 'mysterious circumstances' and the Publisher just doesn't want to touch the IP for some reason, even though these guys think that game would do pretty well in the current market.

 

[Montauk]

You might want to look into the Steam Machine. PC gaming gives you exactly what you are asking for. The limitation with some games is framerates as unlocking it can break some games. But framegen going 30->60 or 60->120 can give you smoothness without changing the underlying code.

Yes, I guess I should be looking at getting a new PC. I forgot about PC frame gen because my last gaming PC (that I only recently stopped using for non-gaming stuff) was so old that it didn't have those modern GPU features.

I am aware of the problems you mention with increased frame rates breaking some games and the need to go into the code to make more substantial changes.

I'm just really frustrated that there isn't a culture within publishers of wanting to update and preserve older game, I wish they would recognise their obligations to the medium and also that there is a market for more basic enhanced ports.

I am curious about the Steam Machine but I think if I got I'd just be anxious that I should have just gone for something much more powerful, seeing as everyone is complaining about the spec.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[SNG32]

inFAMOUS 2 for instance. Going above 720p messes up the faces and getting a stable 60fps requires a beefy CPU. Even my 13900K doesn't come all that close. GOW3 has sections where the fps drops into the 30s. A Crack in Time has many graphical bugs, and so on. RPCS3 is far, far, from being perfect. It can run better than the PS3, but at the expense of other issues.

You know infamous 2 ran at 30 fps on original ps3 and would still drop even god of war 3 these are 30 fps games on orignal hardware any extra fps you get is bonus.

 

[Gaiff]

You know infamous 2 ran at 30 fps on original ps3 and would still drop even god of war 3 these are 30 fps games on orignal hardware any extra fps you get is bonus.

"It can run better than the PS3, but at the expense of other issues."

I said as much. inFAMOUS 2 has graphical bugs, such as faces becoming messed up at above 720p or lighting issues at any resolution. PS3 emulation still has a lot of work to do, because even outside of the performance, the stability and graphical problems are plentiful.

 

[SScorpio]

Yes, I guess I should be looking at getting a new PC. I forgot about PC frame gen because my last gaming PC (that I only recently stopped using for non-gaming stuff) was so old that it didn't have those modern GPU features.

I am aware of the problems you mention with increased frame rates breaking some games and the need to go into the code to make more substantial changes.

I'm just really frustrated that there isn't a culture within publishers of wanting to update and preserve older game, I wish they would recognise their obligations to the medium and also that there is a market for more basic enhanced ports.

I am curious about the Steam Machine but I think if I got I'd just be anxious that I should have just gone for something much more powerful, seeing as everyone is complaining about the spec.

Thanks for your reply.

The main issue is just seeing it as a lack of a way to make money. When Steam first started taking off with third parties, the sales were wild where studios were putting their entire back catalogs in a bundle for $40 or so because once a game got to be out for 2-3 years. It was essentially written off. We see how that's no longer the case with games that are over a decade old still selling well. WB actually still does that. That Mad Max from your other post? It's been down to $1.80 on official stores. The PC release supported 60 & 120fps at launch as well as ultra wide resolutions.

It will really depend on what the Steam Machine's final price ends up being. You of course could get something more expensive, but do you really need more? If you stick with old games or indies, it's way more than enough. I switched from a big power hungry desktop to a Mini PC as my main PC and game just fine on it. I still have the other system around for when I want to play something modern that will stress the mini PC. But for what I've been playing it's great and is roughly 1/2 what the Steam Machine's GPU performance will be.

If you care about preservation, I recommend buying at least a few titles from GOG each year to help keep them funded and to support their mission. They've have made a pledge not just making games available now, but to keep updating them for future systems as well. And outside of their efforts, there's a passionate community of fans helping to keep any game you can think of available to play.

If you've never used a Steam Deck, SteamOS itself is interesting. Many old games run just fine on it out of the box, while you have to get fan patches downloaded to get them up and running on modern Windows.

 

[PauloRoberto]

Truth be told... LOTS of classic or even timeless games... aren't as timeless as our memory wants us to remember.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Well some of them would sell more if they didn't censor stuff that was in the original games. That's one of the reasons why some of these remasters don't sell

 

[Grildon Tundy]

At 5 minutes in, he mentions that in the dev/pub revenue sharing agreement, it's a risk that the publisher might not perform the proper QA. I would've thought that the devs would be responsible for QA.

Noteworthy to me that they will do research for Youtube video essays with high engagement on the games they're interested in remastering as proof that people are interested.

Really interesting video with info I wasn't aware of. Thanks, OP!

 

[March Climber]

I am just dying for more fairly basic ports with minor enhancements. There are games I just want at 1080/4k at 60 FPS on modern consoles.

You are essentially describing the "PS1/PS2 on PS5" experience. They don't even call them remasters in the store page, just the name of the game.

 

[RedC]

It will be interesting to see what games will be released with their PS3 emulator they're working on.

 

[ScHlAuChi]

It will be interesting to see what games will be released with their PS3 emulator they're working on.

Dont wait for it, it will never happen....
And no they arent working with Sony - thats all I can say....

 

[IAmRei]

selling nostalgia sometimes good cash grab, and company sometimes want to add little to their bank.
although we might agree, the game it self is worth to play again because their legend status, or the games actually great games and need to be ported for people who doesn't like to do emulation hassle or doesn't want to find good old disc/cart which often cranked up price wise. The emulation in PC is not much hassle save for some, but i can understand why console is not as easy as most think.

 

[Mattyp]

I don't think Magnus will have a disc drive.

I think at the price point they're 'targetting' if the leaks are real I don't see it not having one. They'll want to sell it on being the all in one of all previous gens, steam games, cheeky PS5 game preview thrown in as well.

If it doesn't Ill get a series X on discontinue and leave it boxed.

 

[Panajev2001a]

At 5 minutes in, he mentions that in the dev/pub revenue sharing agreement, it's a risk that the publisher might not perform the proper QA. I would've thought that the devs would be responsible for QA.

Noteworthy to me that they will do research for Youtube video essays with high engagement on the games they're interested in remastering as proof that people are interested.

Really interesting video with info I wasn't aware of. Thanks, OP!

These videos are important as there are way too many uninformed pundits that see open source emulators and think it is trivial to do as a business.

 

[Three]

Meanwhile you can play every game from the 80s through the ps3 era on a chinese handheld for like $200

That's what happens when you have complete disregard for copyright and licensing though. Something the legitimate manufacturers don't want to do here.

 

[Bernkastel]

Sony went the opposite way from PS2-3, which supported damn near full backwards compatibility to just supporting curated re-sells of "classics" for PS4/5.

Do I have to remind you that there are more PS2 classics than OG Xbox BC?

 

[Bernkastel]

Meanwhile you can play every game from the 80s through the ps3 era on a chinese handheld for like $200

You need AVX512 CPU to have good PS3 emulation.

 

[The_Mike]

Yes, because of emulation, but a lot of PS3 games cannot be emulated properly or are incredibly demanding on the hardware.

...yet.

PS3 emulation is still in it's early stages. There's a majority already that can be played, the progression seems to go very fast at the moment

 

[asdasdasdbb]

I think at the price point they're 'targetting' if the leaks are real I don't see it not having one.

There's no angle for them making money off of including a drive, though. Not worth the headache.

 

[adamsapple]

Do I have to remind you that there are more PS2 classics than OG Xbox BC?

Cool.

You don't have to re-buy owned OG Xbox games to be able to play them tho, unlike the PS2 classics.

 

[Bernkastel]

Cool.

You don't have to re-buy owned OG Xbox games to be able to play them tho, unlike the PS2 classics.

Inserting a disc and the game gets downloaded from the Interent in a unhackable console that forces you to have a Microsoft account is as much of a DRM as buying a game digitally. Physical games are supposed to be DRM free, and whatever Xbox is doing is as much of a DRM as Playstation classics. Buying a PS2 game digitally is cheaper than getting a used Physical copy on eBay.

Seriously, most people didn't even have a OG Xbox. And most that did are not on Xbox anymore.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Sony went the opposite way from PS2-3, which supported damn near full backwards compatibility to just supporting curated re-sells of "classics" for PS4/5.

Xbox doesn't support full libraries either, why? Licensing.

There was a change in licensing practices which impacted everyone. MS just chose one route over another at the time.

 

[adamsapple]

Inserting a disc and the game gets downloaded from the Interent in a unhackable console that forces you to have a Microsoft account is as much of a DRM as buying a game digitally. Physical games are supposed to be DRM free, and whatever Xbox is doing is as much of a DRM as Playstation classics. Buying a PS2 game digitally is cheaper than getting a used Physical copy on eBay.

Re-buying something because that's the only option you have is not DRM, what a weird and absurd thing to say.

The compatible OG Xbox games have been available digitally across generations as well and it benefits people who already own them to be able to play them on the current gen from their original purchase.

And for the PS3/360 gen, there's only one of them that supports actual back compat.

Xbox doesn't support full libraries either, why? Licensing.

There was a change in licensing practices which impacted everyone. MS just chose one route over another at the time.

You're right, neither supports full libraries but between the two, though at least Xbox lets you replay a decent portion of your original purchases.

PS3 games being relegated to cloud streaming on the Premium PS+ tier only is a travesty.