- Sony has announced that PlayStation 3 and PS Vita storefronts will soon close down
- They will close next month in some regions and next year in the UK, US and Australia
- The news comes as the company announces the end of physical disc production in 2028
If today’s news that PlayStation will stop producing physical game discs in 2028 wasn’t bad enough, the company has also quietly announced that it will soon close its PS3 and PS Vita storefronts.
On the official PlayStation blog, the company claims that the decision was driven by the fact that these legacy systems are “no longer capable” of supporting “modern trading systems” and current payment processing standards.
“The PS3 and PS Vita represent an important era in our PlayStation history, so this was not an easy decision for us to make,” the post reads.
The shop fronts will not be dismantled immediately. It will be discontinued next month in Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua, then “additional Latin American and Middle Eastern countries” later in 2026.
For those in the US, UK and Australia, the PlayStation Store will go offline on PS3 and PS Vita in July 2027. That gives you about a year to make final digital purchases if you still have those consoles lying around.
Importantly, Sony at least says that “players will still be able to download previously purchased content” when the stores are offline for the “foreseeable future,” so it sounds like you won’t at least lose access to anything you’ve purchased.
Reactions to the news in the comments have been overwhelmingly negative, with one PlayStation fan writing that “This is why physical media matters. More and more proof that you’re just buying a license that can be taken away whenever companies feel like it.”
Another wrote: “Just taking everything away from us today huh?! How much money is enough for you guys to not make everything worse?”
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