PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita Will Continue Operations

Dear Jim Ryan and the upper management at Sony.

Upon reflection of my short comment, I want to share the following. I still hold true my gratitude for keeping open the PS3 and Vita stores for the foreseeable future. This comes with an authentic acceptance that I know little about maintaining a online digital store but believing that I understand enough that the upkeep must be more costly when those stores are locked to systems that are relegated to the past. A good number of those systems may be at a garage sale or at a used section of a game store or in a closet somewhere. So, it is a treat, to an extent,, that you still let those of us who still use PS3 and Vita systems to consider new purchases of games we missed or games we are not interested in but would like to get for a younger gamer in our family. I for one have passed down my PS3 to my 7yr-old son, who as of this writing has finished all 3 original Ratchet and Clank games and loves them more than the Mario 3D All-star game I got him for the holidays. When I heard the store was closing I jumped the gun and bought the Sly games just in case they were something of interest for my son to play months or years from now. But I digressed.

The obvious answers that we gamers have requested (with varying degrees of understanding of how this could actually be accomplished)is to move those games to a single unified store and have PS5 be fully backwards compatible. Again, we request with varying degrees of understanding on how this could be done or if it could be done. We, nonetheless, request you try. It may turn out that we don’t need all these old games and that you may be absolutely right. I, however, think it would serve as and build good will to explain to us why it can’t happen or if it can, to have you share a bit of the roadmap to get you to it being a reality. We ask you communicate with us. Speaking of…

The announcement that Sony would be closing the PS3, Vita and PSP was indeed a concern but to a good number of us it went beyond just cutting off ties to the past. It was a signal, among many others that Sony feels cold and distant, as well as sterile. That it is forgetting the past that shaped it. We also worry that the new focus of Sony portrayed by reports seem to be entirely focused on over depending on what works at the risk of franchise fatigue. This is a shame because the company has done great things that sometimes get overlooked or forgotten quickly within social media. The Play at Home initiative is being overshadowed by the Bend studio story. The good selection of free of charge games each month on Plus gets overlooked because we read or hear stories on how studios get shattered or reassigned (which I’m sure happens all the time in the industry in general).

Meanwhile, Sony is quiet. Shows a trailer here and there and then silence.

Anyway, know that we gamers watch, play and listen enough to care. Even if we don’t have stocks in Sony as a corporation. We hope that management do their best and always jump at the chance to share a bit of what goes on inside and how they plan to keep us invested.

My best.

Looking forward to playing on the PS5 when I can finally get my hands on one.