PS3, Vita and PSP stores to be shut down

You have probably heard the news that Sony will be shutting down the physical stores for the PS3, Vita and PSP.

Now on the PS3 I mainly purchased physical media, but a lot of those games require instant updating before they will play. And some refuse unless a connection to check for updates is active.

On PSP I never purchased a single digital game, only ever owning physical discs for the few I owned. I had a chip modded PSP right from the beginning so have to admit the PSP store was never used.

But with Vita I never bought a physical game. All digital purchases and I still play some of them somethings.

So the big question is, if you own digital copies of games on any of these systems, when the stores close later this year you won't be able to buy any new games but will you still be able to download/update those that you already own?

I'm hoping it will be like Steam. Even when games get removed and their store pages varnish you can still download them via your library.

This highlights what we have been saying for years. With retro games we have librarys of their complete catalogues for historical archive and to now revisit and play. But what and how can we try to preserve games for newer systems that are heading further and further to bring digital only. In fact on the PS4 I own hundreds of games digitally, and only a handful on physical disc. In not so worried in this regard because of the PS5 being backwards compatible. Plus if Sony are only just retiring the PS3 store now, that system ended it's production 8 years ago, so not such an issue at the moment.

Originally Posted by Harrison:
So the big question is, if you own digital copies of games on any of these systems, when the stores close later this year you won't be able to buy any new games but will you still be able to download/update those that you already own?

I strongly hope so, as you know I sold my almost brand new Vita some time ago, should have kept it, and some days ago I bought a used white slim model from eBay. I had quite many games for it, all of them digital. So I guess the moment I get the console, I immediately start downloading everything before it's too late.

As for PS3, I didn't really care for it at first, but now that you mention that you cannot update your existing games anymore, makes me think. I just reinstalled a new CFW and I wiped the disk clean. I have around 400 games on my external disk, none of them have been started, thus not updated yet as it was just recently when I did it. Do I have to start now every single game to update it before it's too late? I know that there are other workarounds, just download an update package file and install it via package installer, but that would be extremely time consuming.

That's the problem. Sony have announced they are shutting the stores, but they haven't yet stated how this will affect existing purchased, downloads or updates.

I've received an official announcement from Sony now. We won't be able to purchase anything new, but we will still be able to download existing owned games and content from the device's library/list.

But with cross platform releases, especially those offered on PSPlus that offered a game for PS3 and Vita/PSP you will need to download the games to each device to add them into the device's local owned games list. So if it's only been downloaded to PS3 it will need to also be downloaded to Vita to keep it on that device.

Here's the original announcement:

Originally Posted by :
We are closing PlayStation™Store on PlayStation®3 on 2 July 2021 and on PlayStation®Vita devices on 27 August 2021. Additionally, the remaining purchase functionality for PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) will also retire on 2 July 2021. After thoughtful consideration, we decided to make these changes in an effort to focus our resources for PlayStation Store on PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®5, which will enable us to enhance the customer experience even further. We thank you for your support on these platforms throughout the years.

What does this mean for you?
You will no longer be able to purchase PS3, PS Vita and PSP digital content, including games and video content.

You will also no longer be able to make in-game purchases through games on PS3, PS Vita and PSP.

While the PSP storefront was previously closed in 2016, the remaining PSP purchase functionality (e.g. in-game purchases) will now be fully retired.

What about content you already own?
• You will still be able to download your owned PS3, PS Vita, and PSP content, including games and video content.
• You can download your owned content onto your PS3, PS Vita, or PSP by accessing the Download List on the respective device.
• If you have purchased a PS3/PS Vita cross-buy bundle and have only downloaded either the PS3 or PS Vita version, you will need to download the other version prior to the closure of PlayStation™Store on the relevant device.
• Video content that you own can be streamed on PS3, PS4 or PS5 through the My Videos app, or on mobile devices through the PlayStation™Video app.
• You will still be able to re-download and play game titles you have claimed through PlayStation®Plus as long as you remain a member of the service.

I don't care so much about PS3, as everything I have is downloaded, I just would need updates for those games.

In a complete reversal Sony have announced they will not be closing the PS3 and Vita stores. The PSP store will however still be closing in July. But consider the PSP has enjoyed quite an amazing length of support.

Full announcement on the Playstation Blog here "PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita Will Continue Operations – PlayStation.Blog" https://blog.playstation.com/2021/04...perations/amp/

I do appreciate when a company changes its decision about things like that, I suppose it's just delaying the inevitable, but

I think their initial reasoning was to end the old and move forward, thinking with the PS3 and Vita now 2 generations old support could be dropped. But they hadn't realised how many people actually still use them. There are a lot of PS3 games unavailable on PS4/5, with no forward compatibility to play them on either newer system.

This is in contrast to Xbox where backwards compatibility supports a large portion of all Xbox generations. But Xbox has always been x86 based so compatibility isn't such a problem, whereas each Playstation has contained unique hardware, which at the time created a great system, but makes backwards compatibility a nightmate. At least now with PS4 and PS5 they do share similar hardware so compatibility is good.