In a show that fan outcry can make a difference to big tech companies, Sony have announced on the official PlayStation blog that the online stores on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita will not be closing for the foreseeable future.
Last week Sony rocked the PlayStation fan base when it said that the ability to purchase new games on PlayStation 3, PSP and PlayStation Vita would come to an end in July. Gamers across the globe rushed to purchase games to add to their collections, before it would be too late and quickly made it known to Sony that they weren’t happy about this.
Jim Ryan who is the President of Sony Interactive Entertainment had the following to say in the PlayStation blog today:
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
The PlayStation 3/Wii/Xbox 360 generation of consoles was the first where downloadable games became a big thing and the prospect that players would soon start to lose access to this era of gaming has raised serious concerns on the subject of game preservation.
It’s much easier for people to archive old films/TV shows and books, but video games being an interactive medium that relies on specific hardware has long been on gamers and collectors radar as a medium that needs better future proofing.
Video game companies are often reluctant to see older games continually remain available as they will often allow older games to fade away to concentrate on selling new games. There is also a lot of money in rereleasing select old games either for nostalgia or as HD remakes.
As an example The Last of Us was originally a PlayStation 3 game, but was given an upgraded rerelease on PS4. It was then in the news again last week with talk of a remake, which would make it an example of a game released on three consecutive generations. Nintendo have released the original Super Mario Bros countless times, and over the last year controversially put out the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection as a limited release.
In the case of PlayStation consoles it’s been highlighted recently that CMOS batteries in PlayStation 3 and 4 consoles may eventually go wrong and as things stand, if they stop working and Sony shut down the ability to connect the machines to the internet players would not longer be able to access their games which they have downloaded onto their consoles.
Despite Sony’s backtracking on the PS3 and Vita, they have confirmed that the online store for the PSP will still close. Considering there were many more PSPs sold compared to Vita’s it’ll be interesting to see if PSP fans let this rest.
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