So you believe that the PS4/5/6 will all run on the same PSN that we have today?
No. I believe that people are using examples from the wild west of digital times when new services were a dime a dozen, licensing and other issues were an absolute mess, and the digital future was very uncertain.
Any digital storefront will need to have both items for sale and serving capabilities. If you're already building a new system, it's not particularly hard to import the older catalog and continue to serve. Why didn't MS do this? No idea. But a lot has changed since then. This import process will be done; if they create a new PSN next gen, for example, they're already going to have to import the PS4 catalog... at which point, they just pull them all [since it's just database entries and files - once you import some of the catalog you can just grab it all].
You guys can continue to live in fear that PSN is going down sometime in the near future, or that Sony is crazy and dumb enough to pull down content for absolutely no reason [for example, "they might stop selling ps3 and psp content!"]... but the tech behind storefronts and digital delivery is such that this simply doesn't make any sense whatsoever. There's no reason to do so. Zero.
What makes far more sense from Sony's standpoint is very different - something like they did with the PSP. Stop updating the PS3 firmware, take down the store that is on the ps3 itself, keeping just a download list. Allow people to also buy/dl from the web.
You do this because it's true you want to reduce the number of storefronts you need to maintain, especially on legacy hardware and for codebases that may be written in languages you don't want to support anymore. But that's why you shift the burden to the webstore [which you need to maintain anyway].
Really? You'd be surprised if they go down in your lifetime? Do you only plan to live for another 15 years or so? How long did the Xbox One servers last? 7 years? As several people have pointed out it wont be surprising at all for these servers to go *poof* once they basicaly become legacy consoles.
No, I plan on living much longer. But digital storefronts are something I actually work with, and while I'm not in the gaming industry, I'm not worried about Sony pulling the plug.
As for this idea that they'll just pull the plug on legacy systems, read above. It just doesn't make any sense. Point to the xbox all you want - -that's an odd case, early in the digital revolution. It is not viewed as the blueprint for how to move forward, it's viewed as something to avoid -- the major digital players want people to gain faith in going digital, not lose faith.
Those same servers that serve PS3 and PSP files serve PS4 files. There is no reason for them to 'poof' them. None at all.
But it's clear I'm in a thread centered on physical collecting, so whatever. like I said, I prefer vinyl to mp3s so I do understand where you're all coming from. But the fear, at this point, is misplaced. it's like worrying about disc rot -- sure, that used to be a thing. And I'm sure, given enough time, it will be a thing again. But it's not worth worrying about, and neither is Sony pulling the plug on 'legacy' digital content.
, even Gamegear games whenever i want. Some of those games are like 30 years old. Do you really think a digital copy of something i bought the last few years will still be playable that far down the line? Hell, even 15 years or so?