At the time, PlayStation’s radical measure generated rejection in social networks. Users were heard.
A few months ago Sony Interactive Entertainment made a decision that much of the gaming community considered radical. Closing the PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita devices left millions of users around the world stranded. However, from the executive body of the company, they thought, at the time, that it was the right thing to do. But now, after a thorough analysis, they have decided to reverse the decision and video games for the old consoles will remain in the company’s virtual stores.
The company published on the PlayStation blog a statement signed by Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. In it, they detail that the functionality of the PSP, which gave us so many emotions accompanying us anywhere, will finally say goodbye after the first half of this year.
“It is clear that we made the wrong decision here. So today (April 19) I am pleased to say that we will keep the PlayStation Store operational for PS3 and PS Vita devices. The PSP commerce functionality will be retired on July 2, 2021, as planned,” reads part of the missive on the aforementioned portal.
The reasons for keeping the PlayStation Store
Ryan explains in the same statement that at the time closing the PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita users had several positive projects to replace. In a world where technology advances at the speed of sound, the idea they had was to strengthen video games and offerings on the latest consoles. Likewise, they stressed that maintaining support for older programs represented an expense that they saw as unnecessary at the time.
However, the response they saw in the public’s behavior was quite the opposite. People continue to play the classics on the mentioned platforms. Therefore, they decided that this was not the time to leave users behind.
When we initially decided to end the purchase of PS3 and PS Vita support, it was born out of many factors, including the challenges of commercial support for older devices. Plus the ability to focus more of our resources on newer devices where a majority of our gamers are still playing. We now see that many of you are incredibly passionate about being able to continue to buy 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.
Finally, they express that users who enjoy the classics will coexist with those who focus on enjoying the PS4 and PS5 consoles. They also emphasize that they are a company that listens to what their users have to say. They emphasize that this is how the relationship between user and company can move forward healthily.
