One of the biggest examples of Sony backtracking is on its earlier announcement to close down the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita digital storefronts. In case you missed it, earlier this year Sony announced that it was going to close down the digital storefronts for its legacy consoles, the PS3, PS Vita, and PSP. Then a few weeks later, Sony changed its mind. While Sony did confirm that it was still going to push through the closure of the PSP digital storefront, it seemed to have learned enough not to make its extensive PS3 and Vita library inaccessible just yet.
Sony Continues to Learn From Its Earlier Mistakes
Sony’s initial decision to close down the storefronts for the older consoles was met with a lot of criticism. It increased discussion on the importance of backward compatibility and made gamers fear that they’d no longer be able to buy these PS3 games, among others, as well as these Resident Evil titles. Even though Sony did later change its mind, the fact that it said “PSP commerce functionality will retire on July 2nd, 2021, as planned”, still made PSP owners worry. Now that the closure is coming, it seems as if Sony has had a change of heart. According to new information that Kotaku spotted on the US and UK PlayStation websites, players don’t need to worry about not being able to purchase digital games for the PSP. Sony will still make PSP games available through the PS Vita and PS3 stores. Because these storefronts aren’t going to shut down as planned, you can still download and buy PSP games there. Unfortunately, this workaround isn’t perfect, as starting on July 6, owners won’t be able to search for games using the PSP console. In-game purchases for the PSP games will also cease. It remains unclear what made Sony change its mind - even though there are limitations, still being able to purchase PlayStation Portable games after the closure of its official storefront warrants more public dissemination. Who knows? Maybe Sony plans on making an announcement soon. Sony Interactive Entertainment’s CEO Jim Ryan isn’t exactly one to be afraid to admit that the company makes a “wrong decision” now and then. In any case, this is cause for celebration. Here’s to hoping that Sony keeps on threading this particular path and that we don’t have to worry about losing access to games on the company’s consoles going forward.
