After recently announcing that the PlayStation 3, PS Vita and PSP online stores would all be closed this July, Sony has backtracked on its original plan, with the PS3 and PS Vita stores set to remain open. Although the PSP’s online storefront will still close on July 2, the other consoles’ stores will no longer be closed, meaning that players will still be able to purchase some digital-only games. Speaking in a PlayStation Blog post, Jim Ryan admitted that “we made the wrong decision here,” after Sony faced significant community backlash over the store closures.
Speaking further, Ryan explained the initial reasoning behind Sony closing down online storefronts: “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.” Ryan acknowledged that the large reaction of fans to the news prompted the company to change their mind, saying that “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.”
Although the PSP’s store will still close down as scheduled, this change of heart from Sony may help to reconcile the company with fans after various recent controversies, including mismanagement of first-party studios and claims that the company is only focused on releasing blockbuster titles.
