IN THE NEWS: Sony Reverses Decision on PS3/Vita Stores

Never forget that we all have a voice as gamers. This is not to say that every thing we raise our voices on will be addressed. But in some cases, the voices of the gaming public will be heard. Take the case of PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita owners, who received news earlier this year of Sony’s intent to close down its digital platforms for both systems before the fall. Needless to say, the gaming community was not pleased with Sony’s decision and there were no shortage of posts, YouTube videos, and editorials on the topic. This past week, those gamers were able to experience the fruits of their labor.

Earlier this week, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan released a statement that indicated that Sony was reversing course on its decision to shut down the digital stores. Ryan pointed out that the decision was made “upon further reflection” and referred to the company’s initial stance as the “wrong decision.” So in the meantime, the PS3 and Vita stores are safe. But this is not the case for PSP owners, as the store on the platform will still shut down this summer.

This development is especially huge for PS3 owners. I’m not diminishing the effect for the Vita, but the PS3 allows for backward compatibility for original PlayStation games. And depending on the model of your PS3, it may be compatible with PS2 games too. As a result, the PS3 serves as a source of gaming preservation and can also potentially be used as an all-in-one gaming resource for PS1 through PS3 titles.

Not only am I extremely happy for the gamers, but I am also thrilled for the developers such as Lillymo, who were caught off guard by Sony’s original store closure announcement. Now developers who had considered canceling or rushing their projects forward before the original deadline can breathe a sigh of relief. It will be interesting to see which companies continue development and which have decided to simply move on.

It would be nice to see PlayStation and Nintendo consoles being built with full backward compatibility in mind in the future. The beauty of PC gaming is that, for the most part, you can play our older games even on the latest Windows 10. I play Battlefield 2 and the original Star Wars Battlefront II regularly. Both of those games are inching closer and closer to becoming 20 years old. My same system that I’m using for a newer game such as Hitman 3 is the one I’m also using to play those older titles.

Perhaps the fact that Windows and Xbox are under the same parent umbrella of Microsoft may be why the Xbox Series X/S is far ahead of their competitors when it comes to backward compatibility support. Not only does that console support Xbox One games, but also a growing library of original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles as well. In essence, there could be a day that the Xbox Series X/S is your one-stop shop for everything Xbox since its inception. That’s pretty exciting. How cool would it be if Nintendo Switch owners were able to play Wii U, Wii, 3DS, DS, and Gameboy Advance games on their systems? But the Switch wasn’t built with that type of compatibility in mind.

Are any of you PS3, Vita, PSP owners. If so, what do you think of the recent news? Have a safe weekend.

-TVGA
admin@videogamersadvocate.com