Sony walks back on PS3, Vita store closures

Sony has walked back on plans to close the digital storefronts for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita later this summer.

In a press release posted on the official PlayStation Blog, CEO Jim Ryan admitted the company had made a mistake by by shuttering these stores. He noted that the stores will remain open until further notice. However plans to shut down the PSP store on July 2nd will go forward.

“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,” Ryan said in the release.

Initially, Sony Interactive Entertainment had planned to shutter the digital storefronts for the PS3 and PS Vita on July 2nd and August 27th respectively. However, the move was widely condemned by both developers and PlayStation fans alike. Several studios that are still making games for the Vita said they hadn’t received prior notification about the closure. Indeed Sony was still selling development kits for the handheld as recently as December. Fans meanwhile expressed concerns that many digital only releases would be rendered completely unavailable without resorting to piracy.

Further aggravating the issue was news of the CBOMB issue, which blocks off access to digital and some physical releases, should both the internal clock battery die, and the console is unable to connect to Sony DRM servers. Effectively rendering the system a paperweight. The problem affects the PS3, PS4, and PS5 systems. Many feared that this would result in an absolute nightmare for games preservation.

Keeping the stores open is certainly a step in the right direction. Especially with Jim Ryan himself making the statement. Ryan has notoriously gone on record saying that he doesn’t understand why people would want to play older games instead of newer stuff. So this represents a softening of the company’s attitude on preserving their classic back catalogue. Something which has been downright abysmal in recent years.

The news has also stirred up speculation that Sony may finally be working on a more permanent solution to making old games run on newer hardware. Similar to what rival Xbox has done. While we’ve received no official word, or even rumours, in that regard, it is nice to see a major games company actually listen to their fans.