PlayStation Store switches Saudi Arabia and the UAE to riyals and dirhams, and stops new PS3 purchases there

Sony moved the Saudi and UAE stores off US dollars in a maintenance window from 5 to 8 October. New purchases from the PS3 store ended in both countries on 5 October.

AI-drafted from 3 sources. This story was written with AI from the outside reporting listed under Sources, and checked by automated tools before it went up. The originals have the full detail.

The PlayStation Store in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has been switching from US dollars to local money. Saudi accounts move to the Saudi riyal and UAE accounts to the UAE dirham, for prices, charges and receipts. The change was scheduled for a maintenance window from 5 to 8 October, during which purchases, payments and wallet top-ups were unavailable, as tbreak and Khaleej Times reported from Sony's customer notices. Sony did not give an exact time on 8 October for payments to return.

PS3 purchases end

The less noticed part of the change is that new purchases from the PS3 store stop in both countries from 5 October. The notices do not say whether games already bought on PS3 are affected, and Khaleej Times points out that they do not mention existing purchases at all.

What happens to wallets

Customers do not need to change anything on their accounts, according to the notices. For the UAE, tbreak reports that Sony's guide converts existing wallet funds at US$1 = AED 4.00, rounded up to the nearest value the store supports. That is a rate for wallet balances, not a promise that every game or subscription will cost exactly four times its old dollar price, and an earlier tbreak report notes that the notices do not say whether the underlying prices of games, add-ons or subscriptions will change. The Saudi conversion rate was not given in the coverage we read.

Other details from the UAE guide, per tbreak:

• Existing US dollar PlayStation gift cards stay valid, and cards redeemed after maintenance convert to dirhams at the same rate as wallet funds.
• Subscription renewals that fall due during maintenance go ahead, with payment taken once the work is done, and recurring costs may differ slightly after conversion.
• Parents who set monthly spending limits on child accounts have to set them again.
• Promotions pause for a short period.

We have not seen a report confirming the switch-over finished on schedule.

Sources

• UAE PlayStation Store: AED switch starts today (tbreak)
• PlayStation to introduce UAE dirham; payments to be temporarily disabled during update (Khaleej Times)
• PlayStation Store Saudi Arabia switches to Saudi Riyal (tbreak)

Image: tbreak