Sony plans to permanently close the PlayStation 3, Vita and PlayStation Portable Stores beginning in July, according to a report from The Gamer. An official announcement is expected to come later this month.s
Sony will shutter the PSP and PS3 stores on July 2, while the PS Vita store would close on Aug. 27. Once the stores are closed, digital copies or DLC will not be available to purchase for any of these systems.
This means thousands of games, many of them awesome SEGA titles, will be unplayable on their original systems.
Sony released the PS3 in November 2006, which SEGA supported with such “great” titles like Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Sony released the PSP in March 2005, and SEGA released some actual quality titles like Crush, Valkyria Chronicles II, OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, After Burner: Black Falcon, Phantasy Star Portable 1 and 2 and SEGA Rally Evo, to name a few.
Sony’s last foray in the handheld space was the Vita, which released in December 2011. SEGA didn’t support it with as many games as it did with the PSP, but it did release some good games like Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f.
While there are certainly “unofficial” ways to continue to play these games into the future, I can’t help but feel a bit of sadness with these stores finally closing down. It feels like the final nail has been put in that generation’s coffin.
