In response to the mounting backlash over Sony’s plan for depreciating technology, it seems that they are changing their minds once again. After it was reported that many online PlayStation stores for the PS3 and Vita would come offline, the worry of gaming preservation was ever so clear. As Sony has recently been receiving lots of bad press for the PS4 and PS5 CMOS death, preserving the online experience is crucial to their image. Whilst it was just announced a few weeks ago that the online stores would come offline for PSP, Vita, and PS3, Sony is changing their minds in the name of keeping history alive even as they transition to the PS5. In a statement made to the PlayStation blog, Jim Ryan stated their commitment to older technology by keeping the PlayStation Vita and PS3 online stores functional for the time being.
PS Store Update: Players will be able to continue to purchase games on PS3 and PS Vita: https://t.co/hLTznJeiML pic.twitter.com/5Idy1Modcb
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) April 19, 2021
While Sony is still going to discontinue support for the PSP online store, their stance change brings lots of relief. Finally, no longer is there a time limit for developers to produce ports of their games for effectively no payment. While the effect this has on the games that had to cancel or stopped port development completely is yet to be seen. There’s also no telling when Sony might decide to change their minds again and take off their service in just a few more years when the technology will be even more dated than it is today. Despite these titles still existing on subscription services like PS now, having the downloadable versions more accessible and longer is a positive change many gaming enthusiasts understand.
