PlayStation Will Continue To Support PS3, PS Vita Stores, PSP Still Closing Down

The PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita isn’t going away after all. 

In a post on the PlayStation Blog on April 19th, PlayStation president and CEO, Jim Ryan announced that the company’s decision to close the PlayStation Store on the aforementioned consoles has been reversed. 

“It’s clear we have made the wrong decision here,” admitted Ryan. “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.”

As such players will still be able to purchase games on both PS3 and PS Vita beyond their previously announced closure dates of July 2nd 2021 and August 27th 2021. The PSP, meanwhile, will have its Store access revoked on July 2nd as previously planned. However, it is worth noting that these games can be played using a PS Vita.

Ryan had previously come under fire for comments on older games, asking “why would anybody play this?” in reference to older Gran Turismo titles in a 2017 interview with Time. Earlier in the same piece, PlayStation’s president and CEO also questioned the need for backwards compatibility. These statements concerned PlayStation fans at the time, and these quotes were often echoed following the PlayStation Store shutdown announcement last month.

“We’re always listening,” states Ryan in his closing statement, and player feedback certainly played a part in this decision. 

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Following the first announcement, I wrote a list of the PS3 games you had to play before the store was shut down. Despite the company's change of heart, you should still read it. There’s a PSP / Vita one on the way too, so look out for that as well!