PlayStation boss reverses decision to end PlayStation 3 and Vita stores

Sony Interactive Entertainment will not close the digital stores for PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Vita. This is a reversal of the plans the company announced earlier this month. Sony will close the PlayStation Portable digital store on July 2, though.

“It’s clear that we made the wrong decision here,” Sony Interactive Entertainment chief executive officer Jim Ryan said. “So today I’m happy to say that we will be keeping the PlayStation Store operational for PS3 and PS Vita devices.”

As part of this backpedaling, Ryan said that Sony originally made a pragmatic decision without considering the emotional side of things for PlayStation fans.

“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 explained. “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.”

Sony and Ryan have faced criticism from a vocal group of people who believe that PlayStation typically does not do right by its older games. This, at least, is part of a response to those complaints.

“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,” said Ryan.

This move is reminiscent of Microsoft’s reversal of a price increase for Xbox Live Gold — a move the company undid within 12 hours.