Unconfirmed reports suggest that Sony is going to shut down the legacy PlayStation Stores for its PS3, PSP, and PS Vita devices. While these reports remain unconfirmed at the time of this writing, there is strong evidence that Sony will indeed be following through with that controversial decision, as the company has already removed the ability for players to make PlayStation Store purchases on these devices with their credit card information, and it has completely removed the web page versions of the stores.
Sony removing the PlayStation Store for PS3, PSP, and PS Vita will be a huge blow to video game preservation as well as retro gamers. There are many classic PS1 and PSP games that have extremely expensive physical versions, but are available at a much lower price on the PlayStation Store. If Sony does indeed shut down the PlayStation Store, this means that many classic games will be priced so high that they will be inaccessible to many people.
The legacy PlayStation Store being shut down will definitely upset some people and understandably so. But Sony could potentially spin the situation into a positive for the company. While there will still be those who are angry regardless, Sony could potentially entice those interested in some of the retro gamers on the PlayStation Store into signing up for its PlayStation Now subscription service.
For those unfamiliar with PlayStation Now, it is essentially the PlayStation equivalent of Xbox Game Pass, but it actually pre-dates Game Pass by a few years. PlayStation Now hasn’t caught on quite as well as Game Pass, as there was one point where it exclusively focused on streaming instead of letting players download games as well. Game Pass having day one releases has also likely played a big role in its success versus PlayStation Now. In any case, there are now are hundreds of games that fans can download using PlayStation Now across a variety of devices, including modern PlayStation platforms.
Sony could potentially give a big boost to PlayStation Now by adding more retro games to its library, specifically the games that will be lost when the PlayStation Store is eventually shut down for PSP, PS3, and PS Vita. As it stands, PlayStation Now offers some PS2 games, but it mainly focuses on PS3 and PS4 games. The addition of many more PS2 games combined with a bunch of PS1 games could very well convince some gamers to shell out the cash for the subscription service.
There is at least some evidence that Sony may have some plan in mind for these older games. A PlayStation patent suggests that Sony is looking into ways to add trophies to retro games, and trophy support could go a long way in making these retro games even more enticing to fans. The combination of trophies and making these older games available through PlayStation Now could be the deciding factor in people giving PlayStation Now a go and trying out some older games.
One of the main reasons why people are upset about the potential for the PlayStation Store on PSP, PS3, and PS Vita shutting down is that they will potentially lose access to all of the games that they purchased on those platforms. While they will still likely be able to play the games on the consoles themselves, they may not be able to re-download them. Some people have invested hundreds, if not thousands of dollars into these digital stores, and so it’s understandable that they would be upset.
These same people would likely not be happy if Sony told them that they could still access games they already own if they had a PlayStation Now subscription. However, Sony could still use the PlayStation Now framework to give players access to the retro games that they already own. For example, let’s say someone already owns the digital version of Vagrant Story and then the game is added to PlayStation Now. PlayStation Now subscribers could access the game like any other title on the service, but someone without PlayStation Now could be able to download the game and play it since they technically already own it on their PlayStation Network account anyway.
Whether or not any of this ever happens remains to be seen, but it could be a win-win situation for Sony. This way it can end support for legacy PlayStation Stores while still giving players access to the games they’ve purchased, which would go a long way in easing concerns about the situation. It could also help Sony boost its PlayStation Now subscription service, though there could be complications with the companies that own the rights to the games when trying to migrate them from the old PlayStation Store to the subscription service.
For now, fans should wait for an official announcement from Sony when it comes to the legacy PlayStation Stores.
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