PlayStation has dramatically U-turned on its decision to shut down the PlayStation 3 and Vita digital stores, following fan criticism.
In a statement issued this evening, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan admitted “it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here”.
The PSP store will still close on 2nd July this year as planned.
PlayStation’s decision to drop support for digital PS3 and Vita game purchases was met with significant criticism from fans concerned over the impact it would have on game preservation. Eurogamer collated a list of classics which would be lost for good – and it’s a debate which will likely still continue for PSP.
And for Vita, the decision impacted developers still creating games for Sony’s aging handheld – either because they were due out only weeks before the device’s previously planned store shutdown, or because they looked to have run out of time to be finished at all.
Here’s Ryan’s statement from today in full:
“Recently, we notified players that PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita devices was planned to end this summer.
“Upon further reflection, however, it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here. So today I’m happy to say that we will be keeping the PlayStation Store operational for PS3 and PS Vita devices. PSP commerce functionality will retire on July 2, 2021 as planned.
“When we initially came to the decision to end purchasing support for PS3 and PS Vita, it was born out of a number of factors, including commerce support challenges for older devices and the ability for us to focus more of our resources on newer devices where a majority of our gamers are playing on. We see now that many of you are incredibly passionate about being able to continue purchasing classic games on PS3 and PS Vita for the foreseeable future, so I’m glad we were able to find a solution to continue operations.
“I’m glad that we can keep this piece of our history alive for gamers to enjoy, while we continue to create cutting-edge new game worlds for PS4, PS5, and the next generation of VR.
“Thank you for sharing your feedback with us – we’re always listening and appreciate the support from our PlayStation community.”
