Rumour: PSN Online Stores for PS3, PSP, and PS Vita Closing Down This Summer (Updated)

Update: Sony has officially confirmed that the PS3 and PS Vita PSN stores are scheduled to close through an announcement on the company’s website. As the rumour predicted, the PS3 store will close on July 2nd, and the Vita store on August 27th. While the PSN store was already made inaccessible from a PSP since March 2016, all remaining purchasing functionality for the handheld will also shut down on July 2nd. Although users will no longer be able to make new digital purchases for any of these consoles, they will still be able to redownload purchases they have already made. Sony has included an FAQ on the announcement page detailing the specifics of this shutdown. 

According to a report from The Gamer, the PlayStation Network online stores for the PS3, PSP, and PS Vita are closing down in the summer. The PS3 and PSP stores are allegedly closing on July 2nd, while the PS Vita store will be shut down on August 27th.

The PS3 PSN store opened in November 2006 with the launch of the console and is the longest-running version of the service. The PSP’s model arrived later in October of 2008. The PS Vita store opened in December 2011, also simultaneously with the release of the handheld. This means that it would be only 10 years since the launch of the Vita’s PSN store until this prospective closure.

With the shutting down of these services, no new games or DLC will be purchasable, making certain games and content completely unobtainable as they were only sold digitally. For example, the final story chapter of the cult action game Asura’s Wrath that was only available as DLC will be inaccessible. This may also cause issues for games that were sold physically but required downloading the game itself from PSN to actually play, such as the HD remasters for the PSP entries in the God of War series released as part of the God of War Saga collection.

Not only is this an issue for the preservation of digital content, but it will also likely have an impact on the availability of certain physical games too. The loss of an easily downloadable version of certain games could lead to rising prices on the second-hand market for games that had shorter production runs.

What do you think about the potential closing of these PSN stores? Are there any games you don’t want to miss your last chance to pick up? Let us know in the comments.