After making it official that the digital storefronts of legacy systems of PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 would shut down in March this year, Sony has reversed its decision citing strong criticism.
The company made it very clear that it will be shutting down the digital storefronts for both consoles making it impossible for gamers around the globe to buy and download games for their respective consoles. Cut to now, Jim Ryan, President and the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment made it clear that it had made a wrong decision and will not be closing the doors of the two legacy consoles.
PlayStation 3 & PS Vita storefronts will continue to operate
According to Ryan’s blog post, both the digital storefronts will continue to operate for the foreseeable future. Users will be able to buy and download games for both PS3 and PS Vita without any hassle. For those uninitiated, PlayStation 3 and PS Vita have standalone digital storefronts unlike the PlayStation Store for games for PS4 and PS5. Ryan added that he is glad that they were able to find a solution to keep the storefront’s operations.
Unlike Xbox consoles which support backward compatibility for ages, Sony PlayStation is not that good at backward compatibility. The latest PlayStation 5 is only compatible with a handful of the games available on PlayStation 4. Sony was also criticized for its move to plug the plugs on two of its legacy systems that would wipe out an entire game library available for these consoles only. Some of the users even criticized the company for not respecting its history.
Ryan made it clear in an interview with Time that backward compatibility is one of the most requested features on PlayStation consoles, however, it is also one of the least used. He added that he attends an event in Gran Turismo to see people playing games ranging from PS1 to PS4 where the games from the early generations i.e. PS1 and PS2 looked too ancient. Perhaps Ryan underestimated the backward compatibility feature that Microsoft offers its users with as explained before.
Anyways, the storefront for both PlayStation 3 and PS Vita is operational until the near future while the PSP’s store will be officially shut down on July 2nd, 2021, as originally planned.
