Let's save PS Store for PS3, PS Vita and PSP. Update: PS3 and Vita Saved

[StraightVege]

Well... the platform is 15 years old (which frightens me to think about). I detest large corporations and fanboyism as much as anyone, but you had to expect a shutdown sooner rather than later. Nevertheless, you'd think Sony would have some kind of preservation plan—it's awfully sad to let so much interesting content just fade into the ether. At least some of my favorites are available on disc and PS Now, like Tokyo Jungle and Puppeteer.

[Se7en]

Reiterating “15 years old” argument and inevitability of shutting down stores for Sony legacy systems is a kind of fallacy. As anyone can see it’s still perfectly fine to purchase 35+ years old games on GOG / Steam. Nobody stops selling them just to save some pennies on servers to enhance the customer experience even further.

[Tiricy]

15 hours ago, SuperSmexy500 said:

I think the issue is that Sony just doesn't care. As long as they're still making bank, they just simply don't care. It's the same thing with Nintendo, loads of people have complained about the quality of the Joycons, there's been lawsuits over it, but people keep buying them so Nintendo couldn't care less. Microsoft might listen to their fans and customers sometimes, sure, but that's because they know they're in a more precarious position than Sony or Nintendo.

 

If the PS5 had flopped, then we probably wouldn't be in the position we are now. Sony are riding on the arrogant high of being trendy and making money. This is Sony at the end of the PS2 era all over again. I can only hope it comes back to bite them in the ass at the start of the PS6 and they're forced to eat humble pie again. But sadly, that's of course not going to save the PS3, PSP or Vita stores. I hope that whatever devs were still developing Vita games for them, completely unaware the store would soon be closing, refuse to to publish games on Sony's platforms on the future. I know that likely won't be the case, and I doubt Sony would care much if they do, but I feel like it's the developers, publishers and studios with the most control at the moment. As long as the PS5 is selling like hotcakes, Sony couldn't care less about what the rest of their consumer base might want.

I still play ps5, also i still play and i buy new games from ps3 and Psvita !! if Sony don't care about us!! we will not care about ps5 !! They wanna shutdown ps3 to grab players to ps5 !! Why?? it's my choice i play what i want ! not Sony what they want. Do you know ps3 store it's largest ps store !! there is a lot of games from ps1 and ps2 and psp also psvita with ps3 !! not like ps4 store or ps5 store it's worse store.

Tweet to stop closure PS store. hashtag #savepsstore

 

Edited March 31, 2021 by Tiricy

[Phoenixgaming1]

15 hours ago, Vytautas20 said:

 

Steam will be dead too. Valve is the most arrogant and money milking company you can ever find. Supporting them is the worst decision

Umm, what? Sorry, but you're dumb if you think that. Steam has grown rapidly in the past 6 years and is the biggest gaming marketplace for PC, As the exclusive and soul digital store for 95% of PC, I can't imagine how Steam will ever be shut down? It's not like PC gaming is dying, quite the opposite there are more people playing on PC now than ever. So unless somehow, everyone on PC decides to move somewhere else, which they won't and unless Steam stops becoming profitable, which it won't. Then please help me understand how the Steam marketplace will die?

Currently from numbers from 2020, PSN has 114 million active users and Steam has 120 million active users. And considering that the Steam store isn't tied to a system that'll eventually lose support from the manufacturer. It'll last for as long as the PC gaming community will last. And it's not going away any time soon. Steam has already outlived the PS3 store, and it'll outlive many more.

 

Edit: Also, if they're the "Most money milking company" then why wouldn't they have done something scummy like making a subscription to play online multiplayer with friends?

Edited March 31, 2021 by Phoenixgaming1

[Storfl_92]

10 hours ago, thefourfoldroot said:

But you didn’t buy it from Sony, they stopped making them. It’s like buying a Sony VHS player second hand and then complaining you can’t easily buy tapes for it any more.

Haha nice one...

2 hours ago, Se7en said:

Reiterating “15 years old” argument and inevitability of shutting down stores for Sony legacy systems is a kind of fallacy. As anyone can see it’s still perfectly fine to purchase 35+ years old games on GOG / Steam. Nobody stops selling them just to save some pennies on servers to enhance the customer experience even further.

Sony doesnt drop old games. Most of the classics are on ps now. And i bet you one thing. Sony does not throw away finished, digital games. They will re- release them in a couple of years and charge good money for them. You will have plenty of time to play them again. (if you have a Ps5 or Ps6 of course)

[JediKnight_327]

10 hours ago, thefourfoldroot said:

But you didn’t buy it from Sony, they stopped making them. It’s like buying a Sony VHS player second hand and then complaining you can’t easily buy tapes for it any more.

 

The reason people dont complain about VHS is because you can still buy videos that came out on VHS on other formats and platforms.

That is not the case with hundreds of games which you will never be able to buy and play again on any other platform.

 

Sony is supposed to be an industry leader yet they're happy to see a ton of content lost forever.

[BrandedBerserk]

28 minutes ago, JediKnight_327 said:

 

The reason people dont complain about VHS is because you can still buy videos that came out on VHS on other formats and platforms.

That is not the case with hundreds of games which you will never be able to buy and play again on any other platform.

 

Sony is supposed to be an industry leader yet they're happy to see a ton of content lost forever.

 

You can technically still buy most games for em physically with the exception of dlcs and certain games that are only available on the store. What I find confusing about this whole thing is that the same crowd touting how the digital future is bleak are crying over a digital store being shut down. 

Edited March 31, 2021 by BrandedBerserk

[ladynadiad]

Honestly, I doubt the players can do shit.  They knew the players were pissed, they could see the reaction to the rumors and had plenty of time to change their minds to avoid backlash.  Sony has made it quite clear they have no plans to further continue supporting legacy digital content.  That is their decision and if you don't agree with it, then stop buying digital games and supporting these crappy practices.  Support physical releases and companies like Limited Run games instead.

 

And to be honest, I doubt the players can do much.  The devs who were wronged likely have far more of a chance there.  Depending on the circumstances some of those devs may even have grounds for legal action like a lawsuit.

[thefourfoldroot]

25 minutes ago, BrandedBerserk said:

 

You can technically still buy most games for em physically with the exception of dlcs and certain games that are only available on the store. What I find confusing about this whole thing is that the same crowd touting how the digital future is bleak are crying over a digital store being shut down. 

Exactly this. Games are still available physically in most cases.

 

it’s also not like videogames are an art form separate from their technology, are where changes to the method used is different but not superior, they improve as hardware improves to run and expand upon them. It may be the case that videogames narrative is reaching the level where it’s valid “art” separate from the gameplay (TLoU) for example, but for all of gaming history up to this point there have been almost no games worth preserving for their art and narrative alone, and thus no games better than what are being released now (possible exception of the likes of FFVII). 
 

It might be nice fir some code to be saved by museums, but I don’t want consoles to be more expensive just so I can play games again that are inferior to those being released now. If I wanted to do that I have several hundred games from c64 onwards up in my loft.

[pinkrobot_pb]

49 minutes ago, thefourfoldroot said:

it’s also not like videogames are an art form separate from their technology, are where changes to the method used is different but not superior, they improve as hardware improves to run and expand upon them. It may be the case that videogames narrative is reaching the level where it’s valid “art” separate from the gameplay (TLoU) for example, but for all of gaming history up to this point there have been almost no games worth preserving for their art and narrative alone, and thus no games better than what are being released now (possible exception of the likes of FFVII).

 

This is one of the biggest loads of horse shit I have read on these forums so far. The logical phallacies already make me want to punch a kitten, let alone the conclusion you seem to reach. Good game, well played.

Edited March 31, 2021 by pinkrobot_pb

[charxsetsuna]

1 hour ago, ladynadiad said:

Honestly, I doubt the players can do shit.  They knew the players were pissed, they could see the reaction to the rumors and had plenty of time to change their minds to avoid backlash.  Sony has made it quite clear they have no plans to further continue supporting legacy digital content.  That is their decision and if you don't agree with it, then stop buying digital games and supporting these crappy practices.  Support physical releases and companies like Limited Run games instead.

 

And to be honest, I doubt the players can do much.  The devs who were wronged likely have far more of a chance there.  Depending on the circumstances some of those devs may even have grounds for legal action like a lawsuit.

Yeah I agree, for example I think the dev who got given a dev kit only about a month ago actually stands a tiny chance of some sort of legal action or at the very least kicking up a big enough fuss. As opposed to us that stand no chance.

[thefourfoldroot]

1 hour ago, pinkrobot_pb said:

 

This is one of the biggest loads of horse shit I have read on these forums so far. The logical phallacies already make me want to punch a kitten, let alone the conclusion you seem to reach. Good game, well played.

Typically those calling for all games to be preserved didn’t grow up playing on the spectrum or c64 like I did. Most games are absolutely not worth preserving. Their being considered “art” is a very recent development only now starting to be realised. I stand by that. But feel free to give any counterpoints. Or just continue with the insults instead. Whatever.

[Lance_87]

4 hours ago, Phoenixgaming1 said:

Umm, what? Sorry, but you're dumb if you think that. Steam has grown rapidly in the past 6 years and is the biggest gaming marketplace for PC, As the exclusive and soul digital store for 95% of PC, I can't imagine how Steam will ever be shut down? It's not like PC gaming is dying, quite the opposite there are more people playing on PC now than ever. So unless somehow, everyone on PC decides to move somewhere else, which they won't and unless Steam stops becoming profitable, which it won't. Then please help me understand how the Steam marketplace will die?

Currently from numbers from 2020, PSN has 114 million active users and Steam has 120 million active users. And considering that the Steam store isn't tied to a system that'll eventually lose support from the manufacturer. It'll last for as long as the PC gaming community will last. And it's not going away any time soon. Steam has already outlived the PS3 store, and it'll outlive many more.

 

Edit: Also, if they're the "Most money milking company" then why wouldn't they have done something scummy like making a subscription to play online multiplayer with friends?

 

Steam has like 23k games, it's probably more than all modern consoles combined lmao. But too much shovelware, visual novels, parodies of simulators...

[baboon_overlord]

14 hours ago, thefourfoldroot said:

But you didn’t buy it from Sony, they stopped making them. It’s like buying a Sony VHS player second hand and then complaining you can’t easily buy tapes for it any more.

Steam doesn't make PCs either, so you are missing the point. I'm talking about video game stores, not hardware.

 

According to Wikipedia data, 87m PS3s were sold. That's a massive install base, and stopping sales and marketing of games for these devices when you have a monopoly on digital content for is just stupid.

 

It also doesn't justify the very small window we have to buy the rest of what we want, especially given that they aren't going to be doing one last sale and the world's economy is in the shitter.

Edited March 31, 2021 by baboon_overlord

[pavelbagirov]

#savepsstore

[DrBloodmoney]

#saveblockbuster

#savebetamax

#saveminidisc

#savehorsedrawncarriages

 

 

It’s not gonna happen, dude.

 

The minority who are annoyed by this (of which I am one) make up a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the Sony userbase - and the reason I know that is specifically because Sony are a business. They wouldn’t be closing the store functionality if it was still generating revenue.
If it isn’t, then that just proves how small a contingent we really are.

 

We can go all ‘King Canute’ if we want, but no amount of hashtags or petitions will make the tide roll out.

[Crispy_Oglop]

@Lord_BenWon -Your intentions are admirable and I do agree them shutting it down so suddenly is frustrating. I am also still adamant that they are consistently missing opportunities with the handheld market. But I really think you are approaching all this from the wrong direction.

 

Focus on the games themselves and only the games. If you want to boycott Sony - pressure them around areas of broader back catalogue access on the PS4/PS5 and hold them accountable to that. The important issue isn't to save the PS Store - it's to make sure that Sony have plans in place to provide access to legacy games and that they are investing in game preservation.

 

Game preservation and back catalogue access is a huge huge issue with virtually no regulation and it's something hardly anyone talks about, this is the cause people should be putting their energy into, not a now ancient console that has been on it's last legs for a while from an infrastructure point of view.

 

Forget about the act of shutting the PS3 Storefront down or trying to preserve the gateway to those games via the PS3. It's shitty, but it objectively won't change, no matter how many boycotts or complaints people throw. They clearly want to sunset some of their much older equipment, and it's difficult to begrudge them entirely considering how old the PS3 is now. Forget about the tech, it's completely unimportant, focus on the games and how accountable Sony is to access and preservation.

[rwd1997]

since they are closing the store they could do a clean up store sale or something like that, with good deals in pretty much every game in the store, so people could have a last chance to buy the games they want with a fair price

[turniplord]

The problem is, it's a similar situation to Backwards Compatability. There is a vocal minority who are trying to get the attention of Sony, asking them to keep the store open because they want to buy games on these older devices. But, Sony has the stats, they can see just how many people are actually using the PS3 and Vita and how much they're spending on new games.

I'd imagine that at this point, two generations on from when those consoles came out, the stores are making a very, very small amount of money compared to the upkeep and, if it's to be believed, holding back the new store due to how it would need to be integrated.

It is sad to see it go, just like how it was sad to see the PS4 drop PS1 support and the later PS3's dropping the PS2 support. But, again, Sony will have seen the actual number of people using their new console to play legacy titles, resulting in them not bothering to allow it due to the small number of people who actually used it back then.

The vocal side of the argument will be, I imagine, tiny compared to those who are buying the new consoles and playing PS4 and 5 games, rather than booting up their Vita or PS3 and playing that. That's why I don't personally think you'll make any difference or change their minds, they're moving forwards, even though it means sacrificing years worth of older games. 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

29 minutes ago, rwd1997 said:

since they are closing the store they could do a clean up store sale or something like that, with good deals in pretty much every game in the store, so people could have a last chance to buy the games they want with a fair price

 

They could, but I doubt they would.

 

For, as I see it, 3 reasons:

 

1. They don't need to - people who feel compelled to buy dlc and stuff for trophy purposes or the likes, will feel compelled to do it whether they are full price or not, so - if you are a publisher or Sony - why not keep them at full price?

 

2. It's not like a physical, brick and mortar retailer closing down, where they need to get rid of inventory. There is no 'leftover' stock, and no costs involved with divesting themselves of it.

 

3. If they did do a massive sale, it would draw in more people.

Maybe a lot of people.

That would then give the 'anti-closure lobby' a bunch of ammunition - they could use the increased traffic and sales figures to make a much stronger case for keeping the store open, and could potentially make that more of a public-facing story - i.e. through the games press or twitter and the-likes.

That would eventually either make Sony look even worse when they close it anyway, or, if they theoretically did cave in to the pressure and kept it open for longer, it would both cost them more money (when the sales inevitably dropped back down to the trickle it is currently - clearly not enough to cover the costs of keeping that functionality live), and make them look worse - they would get the negative press for announcing the closure, even more negative press for flip-flopping and u-turning, and then a third round of negative press when, 6 months down the line, they had to announce the closure all over again.

Edited March 31, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[thefourfoldroot]

1 hour ago, baboon_overlord said:

Steam doesn't make PCs either, so you are missing the point. I'm talking about video game stores, not hardware.

 

According to Wikipedia data, 87m PS3s were sold. That's a massive install base, and stopping sales and marketing of games for these devices when you have a monopoly on digital content for is just stupid.

 

It also doesn't justify the very small window we have to buy the rest of what we want, especially given that they aren't going to be doing one last sale and the world's economy is in the shitter.

87m sold sure. I had 2. They are packed away. 87m sold doesn’t mean 87m active users, or anywhere close two generations on. I’m sure that if Sony were selling enough PS3 (and VITA) games to justify the cost and opportunity costs of running it then they would keep running it. That’s obvious, no?

 

And barely any games have been released for these system in a long time, especially PS3, meaning if you don’t have it by now you never really wanted it. If Sony were still manufacturing these devices I’d take your point that they didnt give enough notice to new buyers, but they stopped manufacturing ages ago. They can’t anticipate and legislate for you buying a second hand device last week.

Edited March 31, 2021 by thefourfoldroot

[JediKnight_327]

4 hours ago, BrandedBerserk said:

 

You can technically still buy most games for em physically with the exception of dlcs and certain games that are only available on the store. What I find confusing about this whole thing is that the same crowd touting how the digital future is bleak are crying over a digital store being shut down. 

 

Yes, that is why I said hundreds of games and not thousands of games.

Again, no-one is crying about the shitty laggy store being shut down, the problem is that there is no alternative for purchasing that content.

[exsentry]

23 hours ago, ExHaseo said:

This is hilarious. There is no "saving" the store. They started taking it down a long time ago. They've been quietly delisting games and they've already gotten rid of the web store completely.

 

There's also no reason to keep an online store up from two generations ago. It's been about 4 years since the official end of the PS3. That's 4 years people have had to buy whatever they wanted. If you didn't do that, then that's on you. This was inevitable. Even the Wii shop got taken down, and that was a far more popular than the PS3. Every console stops getting supported eventually. Unless it gets rolled into the next gen like the Xbox did and now the PS5 has, there's no reason to keep spending money for a storefront that isn't making money. 

 

Stop crying about something that no one cared about until they said it was going away.  Just accept that things end, and be more prepared for when it happens again.

 

I'm not sure what all the outrage is about either. It's been open for about 13-14 years now...what would have been an appropriate time close it? As well, the PS3 store has been quite a bare cupboard for awhile now. I was on there last month looking for some niche titles, but the majority of the games on there are essentially the ones that land in "PS3 Classics" red boxes, which you can almost buy a physical copy for a few bucks, or games that have been remastered.

 

Moreover, the majority of PS customers are now PS5 and PS4. From a business standpoint, it makes no sense to keep it open and maintain it when no new media or games are being uploaded it to. Sure, I still use my PS3, but me and most others in these forums are hardcore and niche gamers, and unfortunately large businesses don't cater to the lowest common denominator if it's not financially beneficial...it's not disrespectful, it's just smart business sense. However, I am a little more open to the ire on the PS Vita store though. For one, there's no upgraded replacement for a Sony handheld like a Vita 2 and secondly the physical copies of games are rare and expensive (especially JRPGs), but the again Vita was practically DOA making it surprising it has lasted this long.

 

Some advice going forward:

 

1. Anyone still collecting trophies (i.e., completionists) on both the PS3/Vita, I'd hurry it up before they remove the online functionality completely as you won't be able to sync trophies.

 

2. Starting looking for more physical PS4 titles now, especially the less mainstream ones along with the "limited release" physical copies of some indie games.

 

3. Depending how much of a collector you are, look towards buying physical PS5 games as well as it may be all digital in about 10 years. Nowadays most physical games don't even have instruction booklets and have shitty box art, so the writing is on the wall that publishers are not taking physical copies as serious as they use to.

Edited March 31, 2021 by pathtoninja

[Raidou Kuzunoha XIV]

8 hours ago, Tiricy said:

I still play ps5, also i still play and i buy new games from ps3 and Psvita !! if Sony don't care about us!! we will not care about ps5 !! They wanna shutdown ps3 to grab players to ps5 !! Why?? it's my choice i play what i want ! not Sony what they want. Do you know ps3 store it's largest ps store !! there is a lot of games from ps1 and ps2 and psp also psvita with ps3 !! not like ps4 store or ps5 store it's worse store.

Tweet to stop closure PS store. hashtag #savepsstore

 

 

Of course it's your choice what you want to play, just as it's Sony's choice to close the storefronts for these consoles. I'm not happy about the decision either but trying to get a hashtag trending isn't going to save the stores sadly. Yes, we're going to lose a lot of games across several generations (well, at least the cheaper, digital versions of PS1/PS2 and PSP games anyway), but thankfully, at the very least, many of them are already backed up for preservation sake by fans, and are still being backed up by we speak. It'd be nice if they ported a lot of these games to the newer consoles but at the very least, Sony don't seem to care about PS1 games any more, and certainly not PSP or Vita.

 

5 hours ago, ladynadiad said:

Honestly, I doubt the players can do shit.  They knew the players were pissed, they could see the reaction to the rumors and had plenty of time to change their minds to avoid backlash.  Sony has made it quite clear they have no plans to further continue supporting legacy digital content.  That is their decision and if you don't agree with it, then stop buying digital games and supporting these crappy practices.  Support physical releases and companies like Limited Run games instead.

 

And to be honest, I doubt the players can do much.  The devs who were wronged likely have far more of a chance there.  Depending on the circumstances some of those devs may even have grounds for legal action like a lawsuit.

 

And that's really the crux of it, if Sony was going to backpedal on this decision, they would have already done so when they saw how people reacted to the rumours. The sad thing is, many people don't care about the storefronts closing, people have moved on from the PS3/Vita, or never had either to begin with. Some people may be sad to see them go but otherwise aren't really affected. This doesn't even really affect me if I'm honest, I already bought everything I want digitally on those platforms as of a year ago now. I'm more pissed about the fact so many games are going to be lost to purchase legally because of this, and I fear how long it will be until these consoles have all their online functionality ceased. Wasn't expecting them to announce the stores closing permanently so soon after the webstore redesign, wouldn't surprise me at this point if the PS3 and Vita aren't able to connect to PSN and re-download purchases a year or two from now, I just hope that won't be the case, but Sony has been killing off a lot of its features and storefronts left and right recently.

 

I mentioned it in the other thread, but I almost hope Limited Run gets the rights to produce some physical PS3 games that are otherwise stuck being digital after this, Sony is apparently still producing PS3 discs.

 

I honestly hope those devs just refuse to publish their games on Sony platforms in the future, if nothing else. There's clearly no mutual respect from Sony's side, it's absolutely disgraceful they weren't informed of anything.

[The_Mighty_Ducks]

Sony stops sales on legacy titles. 

 

Then thinks "Looking at the stats and there's not that many people who buy from the legacy stores. What's the point of keeping it running? We got the PS4 and the new PS5, no one plays the PS3 or Vita." 

 

This is what I think. 

They need to have 1 last final sale.