In devastating news for gamers everywhere, PlayStations are going to become considerably less functional. Kind of, when it comes to PlayStation consoles of a certain age.
Specifically, Sony has confirmed that come July, online stores for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable will be shutting down. The following month, the PlayStation Vita store will be following suit.
What’s that mean? Well, by the time winter has arrived, PlayStation — the brand — won’t have any truly mobile hardware.
It’s not exactly new news. In fact, the website The Gamer announced the scoop on March 22. However, Sony has officially confirmed the news, on its PlayStation support site, no less.
It’s also not exactly surprising news. Especially when you consider the PS3 went out of production in 2017; the Portable was discontinued in 2014, and the Vita was shut down in March 2019.
Don’t worry, if you’ve already purchased games or video content, the support page notes you’ll still be able to re-download and play them — across all three devices. Old redemption codes? They’re the same, as well as PS Plus games you’ve previously claimed as part of an active subscription.
This is good news — kind of, with all things considered — because following The Gamer’s report, there was speculation abound that store closures would spell the end of access to certain games.
Essentially, you can’t buy new digital games and content — unless the games have cross-buy support, according to The Verge.
Sony isn’t big on mobile gaming it seems, not having shown any inclination for competing in the domain — especially as smartphones and tablets dominate the market.
As for the PlayStation home consoles? Yeah, they’re fine — Sony might be turning bananas into controllers, there are new PS5 VR controllers…and, well, you should know about the PS5 by now.
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