PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita Will Continue Operations

929 0
PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita Will Continue Operations

Players will be able to continue to purchase games on PS3 and PS Vita.

Jim Ryan President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment

Recently, we notified players that PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita devices was planned to end this summer. 

Upon further reflection, however, it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here. So today I’m happy to say that we will be keeping the PlayStation Store operational for PS3 and PS Vita devices. PSP commerce functionality will retire on July 2, 2021 as planned. 

When we initially came to the decision to end purchasing support for PS3 and PS Vita, it was born out of a number of factors, including commerce support challenges for older devices and the ability for us to focus more of our resources on newer devices where a majority of our gamers are playing on. 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.

I’m glad that we can keep this piece of our history alive for gamers to enjoy, while we continue to create cutting-edge new game worlds for PS4, PS5, and the next generation of VR.

Thank you for sharing your feedback with us – we’re always listening and appreciate the support from our PlayStation community. 

playstation store

Comments are closed.

929 Comments

  • Spacerac
    April 19, 2021 at 1:29 pm PDT

    Way to go, Sony! Thanks for doing the right thing.

    • Spacerac
      April 19, 2021 at 2:48 pm PDT

      “When we initially came to the decision to end purchasing support for PS3 and PS Vita, it was born out of a number of factors, including commerce support challenges for older devices(…)”

      Honestly, I get it. I think most people wouldn’t bat an eye if you cut access directly from the platforms themselves. Just let us purchase from the computer, mobile website or PlayStation app and it’s all good. Integrate the items on the current store and we can download them to our systems later.

  • Azaaron
    April 19, 2021 at 1:29 pm PDT

    Oh my god, Thank you Jim! I still have many games to buy! I’m so happy to read this. You guys rock!!

  • superbasedgod456
    April 19, 2021 at 1:30 pm PDT

    You love to see it! I was just about to buy the devil summoner series too.

  • sejir_33
    April 19, 2021 at 1:31 pm PDT

    it is great news i was so sad while i heared that the vita store will be removed now i can enjoy the portable genuine piece of sony Thanks once again and hoping you the success

  • SSPikachu
    April 19, 2021 at 1:34 pm PDT

    That was nice of y’all considering nobody was still buying ps3 or vita games until they were going away. We appreciate it.

    • Spacerac
      April 19, 2021 at 2:48 pm PDT

      Yes we were.

    • JediKnight246
      April 21, 2021 at 3:32 pm PDT

      Demonstrably false. You might not be interested in games from older PlayStation consoles but plenty of other people are. Enough that the bad PR was enough to make Sony do a U-turn on closing these older stores down.

  • juan1993pipi
    April 19, 2021 at 1:35 pm PDT

    Gracias por no dejarnos atrás ya que play 3 es el padre de 4 y 5🥰🙏🔥🇨🇺

  • onsilverwings
    April 19, 2021 at 1:35 pm PDT

    It does feel that this was the best decision for everyone. I get that the costs to maintain the services will become significant in which case let us get these services on the PS4/5 platform. Add backwards compatibility so that you can retire the old services and give people the means to buy these games on your newer consoles. People will embrace the current and new tech especially if they can also play their old stuff.

  • CerMakAlot
    April 19, 2021 at 1:40 pm PDT

    This is the right move, but full backward compatibility on PS5 is what gamers want and Playstation needs to preserve its history. Make it happen, Jim!

  • zmanavar
    April 19, 2021 at 1:41 pm PDT

    Thank you, Jim!

  • GoldenComix
    April 19, 2021 at 1:43 pm PDT

    A great decision, thank you SONY

  • Nauto
    April 19, 2021 at 1:43 pm PDT

    I don’t even know why Sony think it was a good idea to shut those stores in the 1st place. Ever since Jim Ryan took over, everything went to an 180 turn, doing the opposite as to the previous head of Sony.

  • navonod18
    April 19, 2021 at 1:43 pm PDT

    Great news! Some of my favorite experiences during quarantine was playing classic games on PS Vita and PS TV.

  • aldo175
    April 19, 2021 at 1:44 pm PDT

    Parabéns Jim Ryan pela sua atitude de rever o erro que iria fazer fechando a loja…são milhares de ps3 que iria fechar as portas….valeu mesmo eu e o meu ps3 agradece sua força 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👊👊

  • Elvick_
    April 19, 2021 at 1:46 pm PDT

    I don’t trust you. At all with this. Add them back to the webstore (and while you’re at it redesign it so it isn’t terrible) and once again work with partners to do sales on PS3/Vita/PSP titles. As well as continue to adjust down pricing of old games (still some full priced PSP games).

    Since you changed the webstore and made it obvious you don’t care about your own platform and ecosystem or those who invest in it, I’ve not played much of anything on PlayStation. I haven’t bought games, cancelled PS Now and PS+. What’s the point? You’ll just throw it out eventually and make it impossible to access content (as is currently the case for PS Vita, PSP, and PS3 titles given the way that the download lists work there, it was more manageable through the webstore…).

    You don’t care about your own legacy. Which is ironic given that you released Astro’s Playroom a celebration of the PlayStation legacy.

    Instead of spending money on PlayStation, I’ve spent money on PC. Where I can actually access old games and play them [mostly] on new hardware. Why should I trust PlayStation at all? You care about things like metacritic ratings when making games. That’s so out of touch and silly. I loved PlayStation for not just games like Uncharted, the first Last of Us, but by and large more so because of things like LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway, Gravity Rush, The Legend of Dragoon, Ape Escape, Astro. And it seems you don’t even care about smaller titles anymore. About creativity. I fear for Media Molecule and Pixelopus future if they don’t put out some lame third person action game with a heavy focus on narrative which seems to be the only thing that you ever promote.

    Sales are ultimately the job of the publisher to achievement. Not the developer. If they provide a good product, as they often have, if you fail to sell it it’s on you. Puppeteer died because of you, not it’s quality. Wipeout died because of you, not it’s quality.

    I guess the days of providing a wide array of small and large titles is gone from PlayStation. Along with caring about anything that actually matters.

    • Elvick_
      April 19, 2021 at 1:51 pm PDT

      Also of note about the inaccessibility of PS3/PSP/Vita games is the fact the PS Store on both PS Vita and PS3 have tons of errors.

      PS3 will crash, if you’re lucky. Sometimes it will freeze your entire system.

      PS Vita will have constant errors and tons of content doesn’t appear on it for some reason and was only accessible via the webstore.

      Taking away the access of the webstore made them not workable.

      Probably by design to justify removing it. Only the optics of erasing decades (PSone/PS2 classics included) from digital services looks really bad. Particularly against Xbox who is trying to actually do something to ensure games work going forward. And caring more about it and doing it more effectively.

      Get it together. My goodness. People want backwards compatability and there’s no reason PS5 can’t play a PSone or PS2 game.

      I’m not tech savvy enough to say PS3 could be done, I don’t know I know the cell was a weird one and hard to emulate but at some point you can’t just keep pretending it can’t be done. And you never could pretend PSone and PS2 couldn’t. those were both done on PS3 initially (MGS4 bundle had emulated PS2 b/c). And even when you ditched PS2, all PS3’s still played PSone games. PSP and Vita could play the digital games. PS5 sure can.

      Put in the work.

  • BatRastard1974
    April 19, 2021 at 1:46 pm PDT

    While this is a welcome decision, it is also imperative that SCE releases an official firmware update that disables the CMOS battery time bomb on ALL end-of-life hardware as well as the PS4 and PS5 once they reach EOL stage …

    Furthermore, if SCE ever manufactures a PS5 Slim model, the CMOS battery MUST be as accessible and replaceable as hard drives and controllers. CR2025 batteries are as common as dirt in all PC motherboards and sound bar remotes, and ever since SEGA burned me on the Dreamcast with a hard soldered CMOS battery, the last thing I want to do is to financially reward any company that traffics in such short sightedness with my business. No console on Earth should require a complete tear down to the bare motherboard just to replace a $4 battery …

    • Justice_Han
      April 19, 2021 at 1:56 pm PDT

      +1 Exactly. We should always be able to play titles we actually OWN.

    • cosmokeeper
      April 19, 2021 at 11:06 pm PDT

      These are also my thoughts exactly. Firmware updates that solves these issues are extremely important right now and should be Sony’s main focus in a concerted effort to preserve digital and physical gaming history.

    • JediKnight246
      April 21, 2021 at 3:39 pm PDT

      Exactly. CMOS batteries should be easy to replace for users with no technical knowledge whatsoever. A launch PS2 requires the entire console to be taken apart to replace the CMOS battery, something the average user is not going to be doing no matter what. Part of the point of a console is not having to do things like that.

  • FeralFlame
    April 19, 2021 at 1:46 pm PDT

    Please keep PSP store online too

  • the_sopranos99
    April 19, 2021 at 1:48 pm PDT

    Sony should reopen the the servers for all original ps3 online campaign and all modes that these games were given. Asap give the power to the players they way its supposed to be.

  • eppog
    April 19, 2021 at 1:49 pm PDT

    Best news of the year so far! Love my PSX, PS2, PS3, PSP, VITA and PS5. Thank you Jim, thank you Sony!

  • trevorliveson
    April 19, 2021 at 1:51 pm PDT

    Wonderful news, thank you.

    I guess if we’re being cynical we can see this as ‘Sony forced to backtrack’ – but the way I see it, even if that’s the case, I’d prefer to have a Sony that will step back from a bad decision when the community pushes back, than a Sony who will stubbornly stick with a bad decision to everyone’s detriment.

    • Elvick_
      April 19, 2021 at 1:52 pm PDT

      *laughs in webstore not including any of these games*

      They’ve already kept that bad decision that’s to everyone’s detriment. And they’ve still not allowed PSone or PS2 b/c despite it being possible. Which is to everyone’s detriment.

  • Justice_Han
    April 19, 2021 at 1:52 pm PDT

    Good damage control Jim, but you still have a long way to go. Especially after you called legacy titles that MADE PlayStation, “ancient”.

    • Justice_Han
      April 19, 2021 at 1:55 pm PDT

      Also, bring back the sales for those stores while you’re at it. We haven’t had a sale for years…

  • KEYBLADExSAGE
    April 19, 2021 at 1:53 pm PDT

    Thank you, Jim Ryan. This personally means a great deal to me.

  • cosmokeeper
    April 19, 2021 at 1:53 pm PDT

    This is the best news of a decision reversal in a long long time! I am immensely grateful to see the PS 3 and PS Vita stores enduring and while it sure is sad to see the PSP games go at least they don’t have as much DLC content, DLC trophies etc. like PS 3 and PS Vita.

    It’s still not a perfect solution since digital and physical game preservation efforts are equally important, regardless of how old a console or its games are. However it’s very reassuring that you finally listened to your fans @Sony @PlayStation! Continue to do so please!

  • guardedname
    April 19, 2021 at 1:54 pm PDT

    Make them backwards compatible lol. Then we wouldn’t lose that history at all.

  • AussieRanmaFan
    April 19, 2021 at 1:54 pm PDT

    Will we still be able to purchase PSP games through the PS3 and Vita storefronts? The Vita’s backwards compatibility with digital PSP games was such a nice feature. It’s back catalog of games was huge and an excellent way of getting into PSP games. And certain PSP and PSone games have become extremely expensive to acquire physically. Persona 2 fetches over $600 on ebay, on the PS Store I got both Persona 2 and 3 for less than $80.

    Speaking of which, I noticed that certain Vita and PSone games were delisted from the PAL PlayStation Store shortly after the announcement. GaiaSeed and the Arc The Lad trilogy are my favourite examples. Will these be reinstated to the store?

  • bytehigh
    April 19, 2021 at 1:54 pm PDT

    Jim, thanks for listening. Happy to buy into the current gen consoles but also we’re not done with the PS3 or Vita yet!

  • BadFlounder
    April 19, 2021 at 1:55 pm PDT

    Great to hear, but Jim Ryan is still a huge problem for PlayStation Nation. He ONLY cares about profit margins and will sell PlayStation’s history right down the river in order to make a short term profit. Just look at how he is trying his best to put PlayStation games on PC! Absolutely shameful. Been a fan of PlayStation since the beginning but I will sell my two PS5 consoles and move to Xbox/PC if Jim Ryan puts games like Gran Turismo on PC. Respect and listen to your passionate loyal PlayStation fans, Jim!

  • Thaddeus13
    April 19, 2021 at 1:56 pm PDT

    I figured they would be forced to backtrack this most terrible of decisions.

    Now if only we can get them to push out updates to address the battery issue, which is really a licensing issue. Just let us own the games we bought. This drives me nuts every time internet goes out and I can’t play my games 15 minutes later, because we share between two ps4’s.

    Oh yeah… also to reverse course on shanking all their japanese developers and letting MS buy every major game studio, come up with a real competitor for the game pass, and backward compatibility for ps1 and ps2 (see ‘real competitor for the game pass).

    You know… I’m starting to really wonder if the ‘fire Jim Ryan’ crowd may not have a point, after thinking this through.

  • SpooNManX
    April 19, 2021 at 1:57 pm PDT

    Very good. Part A complete.
    NOW PLEASE UPDATE THE PS3 AND PS4 SYSTEMS TO REMOVE THE CMOS TIMEBOMBS. So we can continue playing them in the future. Thanks!

  • scalliano
    April 19, 2021 at 1:58 pm PDT

    Fantastic news, Jim.

    So… about that backwards-compatibility..? ;)

  • Qmanator
    April 19, 2021 at 2:00 pm PDT

    First, thank you very much, sir.

    Second, please make sure in the future we have complete backward compatibility with PS1 onwards, I went a fully digital customer and psplus subscriber almost since the service started I love PS3 games and I still have a gargantuan backlog in PS3 and still want to buy more PS3 games as well.

    I enjoy trophy hunting it would be a shame not being able to keep popping PS3 trophies in the PS6.

    I believe going full digital would be respected by Sony making a console capable of playing my full digital catalog.

    I was convinced that PS5 would be backward compatible at least PS3 onwards, I dreamt I could play PS3, PS4 and PS5 games in a single console.

    Please make this dream comes true with the PS6

  • coggle316
    April 19, 2021 at 2:02 pm PDT

    If you don’t have a PS3 or older how can we play them unless you make and I hate saying it but something like game pass

  • CB7Tuner91
    April 19, 2021 at 2:03 pm PDT

    Thank you for this. Best news to come from Sony in awhile. Yall need to start communicating more like this.

  • Tunaxlux
    April 19, 2021 at 2:04 pm PDT

    Thank you Jim for listening to the community. We love the PlayStation history of games, it would be great if you could also bring those classics to the PlayStation 5, so more people would be able to play them. They are still worth experiencing, for both old and new players.

  • chrishindo
    April 19, 2021 at 2:04 pm PDT

    My day just got a hell of a lot better!

  • MightyCrow
    April 19, 2021 at 2:05 pm PDT

    Well done Playstation! I am more likely to buy a PS5 now.

    • Skookie30
      April 19, 2021 at 2:11 pm PDT

      I still wouldn’t buy a ps5 unless they remove the censorship policy that force Devs to censored games even though the PEGI and ESRB and other rating boards given that game a pass with a rating.

  • Justice_Han
    April 19, 2021 at 2:05 pm PDT

    Like someone said on YouTube: The fact that they even considered to shut down those stores in the first place shows how much they care about the community.

  • NotoriousZIB
    April 19, 2021 at 2:05 pm PDT

    “I’m glad that we can keep this piece of our history alive for gamers to enjoy, while we continue to create cutting-edge new game worlds for PS4, PS5, and the next generation of VR.”

    Regarding keeping pieces of history alive, people who care about game preservation, and just holding on to and enjoying their collection on original hardware are concerned about the fact that if the CMOS battery in Playstation consoles dies, upon replacing it, the system would need to communicate with servers to play digital games on PS3, and allegedly, both digital AND physical games on PS4 and PS5.

    No one would expect any company to provide servers indefinitely, but in the event that legacy consoles have their online servers completely shutdown, would you pledge to ensure that end of life patches are released to disable the need for those consoles to re-establish themselves with the servers after a CMOS replacement?

    Thank you,

    -NotoriousZIB

  • Skookie30
    April 19, 2021 at 2:07 pm PDT

    You see That wasn’t so bad to do a U-turn SCEE. it called common sense listening to the consumers (gamers) like me and many others nothing wrong with that, it a pity the PSP still had to die but we still can get PSP games back right.

    and it such a pity that you can’t do a simple U-turn regarding your censorship policy Jim. that many gamers (consumers) and Devs are not happy about.

    • Masamune-XIII
      April 19, 2021 at 3:01 pm PDT

      The censorship policy is what made me want to get a Switch instead of a PS5 in the first place. I play on PS because I love Japanese games, but if you scare off all the Japanese developers, it just becomes another Xbox… so what’s the point in getting one?

  • JAZZ_DL76
    April 19, 2021 at 2:08 pm PDT

    Thanks a million. After the decisions to close Sony Japan Studio, and PS Vita and PS3 stores, I thought the PlayStation I knew was dead. This is the right decision if Sony does not want to lose some of its loyal users. Now is the time to bring back the offers in these stores, then users will buy more games !!!

  • Sandmanzero
    April 19, 2021 at 2:08 pm PDT

    Why are people thanking Sony after finding out they have the ability to render products we purchased useless by design?

  • brighten2000
    April 19, 2021 at 2:09 pm PDT

    Thank You Sony for listening to us, i was scared that i won’t be able to buy anything after the closure date, but now that’s not gonna happen, and I’m very happy that you guys are keeping it up for everyone like me to enjoy, I’ve been playing ps3 games since 2010, and I’m never gonna get rid of my ps3 slim at all, and I bought my vita off amazon a few months ago, and I’m still looking forward to playing more vita games in the future, so once again, thank you Sony, looking forward to more new PlayStation games,

  • gengpan
    April 19, 2021 at 2:10 pm PDT

    The whole case together with the comos battery issue, make me decide not to buy playstation in the future. That is risky. So far nintendo looks doing ok on this. At least I can use the console even store is closed.

  • con2xrl
    April 19, 2021 at 2:16 pm PDT

    First of all, thank you for reversing your decision on this. It may not be the best decision financially speaking I’m sure but I think the games industry as a whole should be trying harder to preserve this stuff for history. The music and movie industry have found ways to keep the majority of their works online at this point albeit not using the best implementation in my opinion. Regardless, they have succeeded for the most part to keep some older works alive. Undoubtedly, games as a medium are much more complicated in comparison but there are lot of talented people out there who can tackle this.

  • RustyTachikoma
    April 19, 2021 at 2:16 pm PDT

    The fact is that it was a decision made with no path to preserve these platforms libraries. And even now there isn’t one. All being done is delaying a problem and kicking the can down the road.
    Also, I would rather Sony address the issue of PS4s essentially becoming paperweights whenever PSN support is pulled. It may take one year or it may take decades but it will happen. I have a yet to activate 25th anniversary PS4 that will most likely be a paperweight then.
    With retro gaming as popular as it’s ever been, with people digging out their old NES and Genesis/MegaDrive from their parent’s attics, Sony’s whole approach to its portfolio seems completely tone deaf to me. All this makes me as a PS5 owner is not to spend one more cent in the ecosystem and completely move to PC. Because at least there I know there’s a higher chance my library will still be available the longest, in an official capacity or not.

    • Elvick_
      April 19, 2021 at 2:28 pm PDT

      100% how I feel and I’ve bought countless games on PS over the years. Physically and (regretfully, particularly now) digitally.

      They’re just going to ditch these stores when people are more likely to agree with Ryan’s toxic attitude that they’re “ancient” games not worth playing.

      So why invest anything further into it?

  • dryorkiebar
    April 19, 2021 at 2:17 pm PDT

    This is nice

  • racingsnail
    April 19, 2021 at 2:25 pm PDT

    Thank you, NEVER forget where you’ve come from Sony. Many of us still love to play classic games and preventing future generations from playing ps3 digital only content is extremely shortsighted. We need a backwards comparability path with the ps3.

  • matrix191
    April 19, 2021 at 2:26 pm PDT

    Thank you. This is great news.
    I never bitched about it because I didn’t think anything could be done, but this is the right move.
    Now to fix the CMOS battery issues…

  • Light_Petals
    April 19, 2021 at 2:29 pm PDT

    Just adding my two cents here. Thank you for not shutting down the PS3 and Vita stores! I used to own a PS3 but haven’t for some time now, and I’d really love to have access to the games I purchased back then to play on my PS5. I’m really glad you’re not shutting down the storefront for PS3 and Vita, but is there some way you could allow the PS3 games to be played on PS4/5? Thank you.

  • snooperman77
    April 19, 2021 at 2:30 pm PDT

    Well this is a step in the right direction. However I am deeply concerned about your CMOS battery issue and how that will effect our ability to play digital and physical games. I implore you to fix this gross oversight and anti consumerism. We paid good money for our games. Please fix this issue via firmware on the ps3, ps4 and ps5. I don’t care for trophies I rather have that function turned off and have all my games playable then to have a paper weight in future years. Please think about what you are doing. Do not be greedy we will buy remasters of games regardless of the fact if we have them on older consoles. Don’t do a Don Mattrick! Thank you.

  • sly_coopre
    April 19, 2021 at 2:30 pm PDT

    YAAAY!!! I ABSOLUTELY love my Ps Vita.

Trending Stories

Please enter your date of birth.

Date of birth fields