Sony may be looking into bringing back some of its legacy PlayStation games in the future, and if it does, it’s a decision that longtime PlayStation fans would no doubt be happy to hear about. Some of PlayStation’s classic franchises are some of its most beloved. For a while, the company has focused on newer franchises and remasters of some of the more recent offerings, but many have remained untouched for the better part of a decade. If not longer.
While Sony hasn’t confirmed it’s planning on doing this, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hermen Hulst does appear to have hinted at the prospect. With that being said, legacy games returning is just speculation at this point. Nevertheless, it’s worth exploring the idea since Sony already seems to be doing just that.
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO hints at exploring legacy PlayStation games
As noted above Sony hasn’t given a confirmation. However, it has seemingly hinted at exploring the idea of bringing some of these older games back. In a recent interview with Japanese publication Famitsu, SIE CEO Hermen Hulst said that the company is always looking at bringing back classic games. “As part of our efforts to strengthen our portfolio, we continually explore opportunities to leverage our legacy IP as well as develop new franchises,” Hulst said.
That at the very least suggests that SIE is thinking about doing this, and seeing whether or not it would work. If it could, it would no doubt need to think about when the right time would be to make that decision.
Which game franchises might Sony decide to resurrect?
Unfortunately, Hulst doesn’t mention any legacy games by name. There are several, however, that haven’t really been “leveraged” in any way in quite some time. Socom, Ape Escape, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, and Syphon Filter to name a few. These are just some of the legacy PlayStation franchises that haven’t had any new releases in a while.
You could also add Killzone to that list. However, Guerilla Games has openly stated that the studio was “done with Killzone.” Technically, you could also count the recently released Killzone content added to Helldivers II as the franchise having been leveraged. There are also some other games that haven’t gotten new releases, but they have had either remasters or remakes. For example, PaRappa the Rapper got a remaster back in 2017. MediEvil also got a remake back in 2019.
In addition to speaking about legacy franchises, Hulst also recently spoke about AI in PlayStation’s future. Noting that it won’t replace humans in game development.
