Sony finally confirmed the closure of the PlayStation 3, PSP, and PS Vita stores yesterday. Of the three, the Vita store is staying open the longest, closing on August 27. While Sony told some developers of the closures, not all of them got the memo that was sent out. The result is several games have now been cancelled for the handheld, while others are being frantically rushed to the finish line to make them available before the store is closed forever.
According to Waypoint reporter Patrick Klepek, the memo forewarned developers of the store closure and confirmed they could still release games and other content on those platforms before they were shut down. As players were told yesterday, there would be a loophole that would allow any PS3/Vita games that were cross-buy with PS4/PS5 games to still be purchased and played after the closure date. Game codes could also still be redeemed after the store had closed, but developers would not be allowed to sell any of them. Finally, and rather strangely, Sony will continue to make PS3 discs so there will always be the option to release future PS3 games at retail, unlike the Vita where physical cartridges were discontinued back in 2018.
The store closure deadline has come too soon for some developers, especially as they weren’t told about the closure before the news was released publicly. Lillymo Games, developer of Twin Breaker, Habroxia, and Perils of Baking, told players they were “finding out at the same time we are.” As a result, Lillymo’s next game has been cancelled on Vita because “the store will be closed before our next game is ready.” Habroxia 2 will be their final Vita release.
The Domaginarium is also having to cancel games, having already released The Dreamlands: Aisling’s Quest and Color Slayer on the Vita. Two of their upcoming dungeon crawlers are “more-than-half-done” so they are working “really hard to finish them and go through certification before the deadline.” This means they’ll be released in late July or early August. All of their other projects would take longer than three months to finish them, so they have been cancelled for the Vita. They also confirmed developers will no longer be able to patch their games after August, meaning there will no longer be any active support for any PS Vita titles.
Other developers have been left counting the extremely limited amount of time their new games will be available. Scourgebringer will still be arriving on the Vita on April 22, being available for purchase for just 128 days before it disappears completely. Tikipod will also be bringing their “biggest Vita game” out in April, although details on this title are scarce. Will you be grabbing any of these games before the Vita store shuts completely?
