Gamers Lose Access to Digital Versions of PS Vita and PS3 Games
Something bad is happening in Sony's digital store. Many PS Vita and PS3 console users have lost access to old games they have purchased.
Sony had an unpleasant surprise for mayny gamers today. Users of PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita consoles are discovering that some of the digital versions of the games for these platforms are "out of date" and it is no longer possible to run them after downloading.
Gamers lose access to PS3 and PS Vita games - highlights
The issue only applies if the game is re-downloaded. If it was already present on the console, it still works without problems.
- One of the first people to discover this was Christopher Foose. He tried to play the PSOne Classics versions of Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger. He was surprised to discover that it was impossible to play after downloading them. The system informs him that the license for these games has expired, as it was valid until December 31, 1969.
- This ridiculous date was set recently, so either this is a bug or Sony is deliberately changing the dates to prevent access to older games.
- Initially, gamers assumed that the reason could be the recent release of a remaster, titled Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition. The theory is that Sony or Square Enix were trying to force the purchase of the remaster. However, it was quickly discovered that similar problems were occurring with other games, including Final Fantasy VI, Rune Factory Oceans, Final Fantasy Origins and Unit 13. One user even claims that by doing so he lost access to all PS Vita games..
- Some players are reporting that they have been able to get around the issue by renewing their PS Plus subscription.
- Sony has not commented on the issue as of yet.
This is all very disturbing. The PSOne Classics label enabled users to play a lot of classic games from the first PlayStation and losing access to them would be a badly received, not to mention what a terrible idea it is to deprive users of the ability to enjoy purchased products.
The abysmal quality of Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition
This is exacerbated by the fact that the aforementioned Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition turned out to be worse in some aspects than the original. According to the analysis by Digital Foundry the remaster has more compressed audio and the backgrounds look less attractive than those see in the original on CRT screens.
What's more, the new enhanced graphics mode is said to be very badly optimized. On PS5, animation can drop to 15 fps or less at some points (especially during battles). Interestingly, even on a powerful PC with a Nvidia GeForce Titan RTX GPU suffered from the same problems.
