The unofficial word is Sony is planning to close the digital stores for older generations of hardware, including PSP, PS VITA & PS3.
Although it has not been made an official announcement yet, credible sources have suggested that Sony plans to close its stores for the PS3 and handheld devices, Vita and PSP.
No doubt part of the drive to move people to the PS5. Shutting down these digital stores is going to have an impact on many gamers. Not only are there still many tens of thousands of people regularly using the PS3 as their console of choice, but there’s also always a huge number of fans keen to keep their gaming nostalgia alive – with this news, PS3, PSP, and Vita fans are seeing their machines truly move to obsolescence.
With storage on these devices limited, many users rely on the store to re-download and replay games that have been deleted locally to make room for other titles. Once the storefront disappears, the content could be lost forever.
There is a strong level of support for gaming history in the world today, and as many exclusive games will be no longer available for easy access, the question becomes ‘where do they go?’. Are Sony planning to just let them become memories, or will we find some retro archive pop up for the current generation of consoles that revitalises the titles?
The source states that the PS3 and PSP will see their stores close on July 2nd 2021, with the PS Vita to follow on August 27th.
