Sony has always had a rather odd stance when it comes to game preservation but it looks to be taking things more seriously ahead of PlayStation Plus’s revamp. Garrett Fredley, who has worked as a Software Engineer for Electronic Arts and Phoenix Labs, has recently joined PlayStation as a Senior Build Engineer for its “newly created Game Preservation team” as per LinkedIn (via ResetEra).
Fredley thanked Mike Bishop for bringing him on board as an initial hire, adding “Let’s go and ensure our industry’s history isn’t forgotten!” Bishop has worked at PlayStation Studios as a Global QA Manager for the Engineering Operations team since January 2017. The exact scope of the Game Preservation team is unknown but given how retro titles heavily factor into the new PlayStation Plus tiers, it’s not all that unexpected.
Whether this leads to features like native PS3 emulation on the PS5 remains to be seen so stay tuned. In the meantime, the new PlayStation Plus launches on May 23rd for Asia, June 13th for the Americas and June 22nd for Europe.