A small group at PlayStation is working hard to save the company’s gaming history. This team of just a few people, led by senior build engineer Garrett Fredley, is collecting and storing digital files from PlayStation’s 30-year history.
The team calls their project the “PlayStation Studios Vault.” News about this effort broke out in mid-March when Fredley gave a presentation at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2025, surprising many even some Sony executives who weren’t aware of the project.
“The PlayStation Studios Vault is our solution for bringing all of PlayStation’s rich 30-year history together in one place,” Fredley explained during his GDC presentation. “Not just backups, not just source code and source art, but everything that is ever related to a project you can possibly find: from documentation to audio assets, to prototype information, anything under the sun, even cultural artifacts, because, look, culture is part of the game development process.“
As pointed out by Resetera post, this “tiny” team had already saved more than 650 terabytes of data, which includes over 200 million files. Their collection features more than 1,000 PlayStation 5 game builds and files dating back to 1994, including the original Arc the Lad game.
Their presentation slide says they’ve secured 100% of all PlayStation Studios PS5 builds and created 10 functional, restorable build machine environments. Their cloud storage has been scaled up to hold 1 petabyte (1,000 terabytes) of data.
The Vault operates from two main server locations: one in Las Vegas, Nevada, and another in Liverpool, England. These locations allow for quick access to the files when needed.
North American studios like Insomniac Games and Bluepoint Games, along with Asia-Pacific studios such as Polyphony Digital, store their assets at the Las Vegas Staging Vault. European studios including Housemarque and Guerrilla Games use the Liverpool Staging Vault.
A small team of 3 at PlayStation has been quietly working on a massive preservation program of its games and history – with 650TB of files, 1000+ PS5 builds, and more already archived:https://t.co/Dx9h7qzSpO pic.twitter.com/Ncf6LdGHeI
— Ryan T. Brown 🎮🩷 (@Toadsanime) March 28, 2025
Fredley later clarified on X/Twitter that this preservation work goes beyond simply storing old game data. The team is also working to maintain “the ability to create new builds.” This means they’re saving not just the finished games but also the tools and components needed to rebuild them if necessary.
“Our team works to preserve the legacy of titles and their assets, from raw art and code to the behind-the-scenes documentation, prototypes, builds and the ability to create new builds,” Fredley explained.
One telling moment during the GDC talk showed how the preservation project is still gaining awareness even within Sony. An employee from Naughty Dog, one of Sony’s most respected game studios, expressed surprise after learning about the initiative. The employee promised to encourage Naughty Dog’s leadership to preserve all their games, highlighting how this project could inspire broader preservation efforts across Sony’s studios.
The gaming industry has responded positively to the preservation efforts. GOG, a company known for preservation efforts of classic games onto modern systems, congratulated Fredley, saying: “Amazing! Love to hear that you’re highlighting such an important topic—one that’s so close to our hearts.”
The game preservation group Does It Play also praised the effort while raising some concerns: “Glad to see more spotlights on the subject. Though a few important questions remain: How will PlayStation address the massive preservation issues in their current console? Most notably the soldered SSD and the online dependency for the detachable disc drive. Both will inevitably render the hardware unusable.”
Nonetheless, this preservation work is crucial in an industry where digital content can easily be lost as technology advances. By saving these files, PlayStation is ensuring that its gaming history remains accessible for future generations to study and appreciate.
Source: Game File
Discover more from Gaming Foodle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
