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Full Version: Sony PS3,PSP, and Vita stores shutting down for good
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Insiders have revealed anonymously that Sony intends to close down their online stores across all these older systems for good very soon.  "Play" apparently has limits after all.  This is a far bigger blow to collectors than the shutdown of the DSi and Wii stores, or the original XBox "store".

MS, for their part, probably isn't closing down their store this summer thanks to their desire to go "all in" on BC for their newer systems, and that includes still selling that DLC, but rest assured the writing's on the wall for them too, somewhere down the line.

If I were you, I'd get a good long list of all the games you ever wanted to get on those systems that are digital only and get them soon, or at least snatch up all the DLC you feel is worth getting.  Rest assured that while it's just the three stores this summer, the online service as a whole is going away for them soon after.  Remeber that Sony never charged for online play on the PS3.  If they aren't selling anyything on that online storefront, then online service is getting them absolutely nothing.  For my part?  I've been working towards moving my gaming onto PC whenever I can.  Mods and support from GOG (and flat out newer hardware) has gone a long way towards making PC versions the definitive versions of pretty much every game I had previously enjoyed console versions of.  (It's surprising what a little brute force can overcome when it comes to badly ported PS3 era games like the Batman Arkham series.)  That said, remember that there are still tons of exclusives.  For my part, I intend to focus on the Vita far more than I ever did before.  I have exactly two games for that thing and I intend to change that.  I also fully intend to turn my PS3 and Vita into "homebrew machines" and hack them.  I have no reason not to once their services go down, and the Vita memory card was always a rather pathetic format.  There's new solutions that stick an SD card into the cartridge slot of the system and that's what I am going with.
This isn't surprising at all, just unfortunate.  I probably should get some more games... not a lot though, because I only really want exclusives on Sony platforms and I have most of the interesting ones on these platofrms already.  I got some when Sony partially shut down the PS3/PSP/Vita web store what was it, last year, for example.   And for games with a physical release that's easily obtainable I'd often rather have that over a download.  Still, yeah, I probably will need to get some stuff, but not anywhere near as much as if it was a Nintendo platform being shut down (remember how much I bought on WiiWare bfore it closed...).

I will need to look up some lists and see what I've overlooked though, yeah.  Because I'm sure there are some.  And I agree about the Vita -- while for the PS3 I only care about exclusives and nothing else (and have like 150 games for the system anyway, about split between disc and digital), I actually like using the Vita and don't have nearly as much stuff for it as some other formats.  Vita storage space issues are part of that so I prefer buying physical, and most Vita games are multiplatform, but still I know there are definitely interesting Vita games I should get...

I also haven't homebrewed my Vita yet and keep meaning to because of how awful the Vita's memory card situation is.  After they shut down the service for it?  No excuses left after that.

Quote: MS, for their part, probably isn't closing down their store this summer thanks to their desire to go "all in" on BC for their newer systems, and that includes still selling that DLC, but rest assured the writing's on the wall for them too, somewhere down the line.
While it is possible Microsoft does this someday, I don't think it will be anytime soon.  I know that the Microsoft of the past did shut down services -- the original Xbox's online services and X360 Indie Games, specifically -- but the current MS seems quite committed to keeping everything they still have online up and running.

I guess I could see them someday shut off online on the 360 and only continue selling X360 games that are BC on the X1 and newer's newer version of Xbox Live, but unlike Sony there's zero indication that it will happen anytime soon.  Phil Spencer would need to be gone for one thing, he cares about that kind of thing in a way that Playstation's Jim Ryan quite vocally does not.
Keep in mind one thing I mentioned ABF.  MS are already planning, and have announced, that they are shutting down all online modes for all of the XBox 360's Halo games.  There's no particular reason for them to do this at all, except to "ease" everyone into a long term plan to shut down the rest of the XBox 360's online functionality including for other games.
Well, Sony confirmed it, this shutdown is real and will happen exactly on the schedule the leak said.  Shame on Sony.

I mean, yes, this means tha the PS3's online store will have outlasted the Wii's, but at least Nintendo gave a full year's notice before taking down purchasing.  Sony's given significantly less time than that.  And the PS3 has far more games with DLC and such than the Wii, so losing access to ingame purchases is a big problem for many more titles.

And that's not even getting to the poor Vita...


As for Microsoft, you're right about the Halo games, I had forgotten about that.  They clearly want people playing those games online to play on the Halo collection for X1/XS/PC instead.  Still, I do think everything actually BC on the X1/XS is safe going forwards.  This could change at some point in the future of course, we never know, but while it is checkered (also remember the Windows Life store being taken down some years back, which removed access to games people had bought on that store...) MS's track record is still better than Sony's or Nintendo's.
The 360 Halo games are BC, and they're being shut off.  As a reminder, what they're basically telling people is that if they want to keep playing those games for what a LOT of them bought them for in the first place (the online modes), they have to buy the games they already own a second time.  This is on top of the yearly fee for XBox Live which already went up in price and is destined to go up a second time fairly soon I expect.  MS is no saint here.  The signs are all there clear as crystal.  They're just hoping the sting is lessened with their attempt to force people onto new versions by only doing this one piece at a time.  Their argument when Gears of War games get their online modes stripped away?  "We already did it with Halo, this isn't new."
I don't think that turning off a games' online play is analogous to shutting down an online game store.  The two things are both bad, but one, shutting down a whole online gaming store, is much much worse than the other!

Like, sure, it'd be nice if the Halo games had online kept up forever for the people who like those games, but only games with purely user-side-based servers or that continue to draw significant numbers of players (and, in some way, revenues) stay online.  Most games get their servers sadly shut off eventually, but, often, are still available for purchase.  Again the two things are both unfortunate and frustrating, but they are NOT equally bad.  And doing one does not mean that you're going to do the other anytime soon.

Also, if a game has been re-released, as these Halo games have, shutting things down for older versions of the title is more understandable than just turning off servers for something which hasn't, or has sequels and such but not straight ports, such as for instance Mario Maker 1.  Making people move to your newer thing is annoying sure, but at least it keeps your older titles alive.  Sony is doing NONE of that; Playstation Now is no replacement for actual games!  Sony's actions here ares not comparable to what MS is doing.  It's comparable to the Microsoft of years past, perhaps, but not the one of the past generation.

(Of course I must admit that my dislike for the Halo games is probably also a factor in why I don't care about this all that much, I've never liked those games all that much anyway and if I really did want to play them online, well, the Halo collection on X1 is obviously the way to go, it's the same games in 4K120 and such!  For me in specific this shutdown's pretty meaningless, I have never played any of those Halo games online on the 360.  I do somewhat care in the abstract though of course.)
Quote:This is on top of the yearly fee for XBox Live which already went up in price and is destined to go up a second time fairly soon I expect. 


They announced a price hike recently and backed down after strong negative popular reactions.  The current Microsoft listens.
I'm not claiming they're equal.  They aren't equal.  What Sony's pulling is worse.  I'm saying keep MS in the back of you rmind.  They're eventually going to sunset the 360 store and their shutdown of online Halo modes is a taste of what's to come.

Just don't justify it.  Yes, there's LESS of a sting since there are new versions, but there's no reason whatsoever to shut off the online mode for the 360 Halo games alone, UNLESS it's meant as them "dipping their toe" into shutting off the rest.  Halo itself isn't the point ABF.  The message is.  The PATTERN is.  MS "backing off" the price hike after outrage cannot be reframed as somehow a good thing.  They shouldn't have done it in the first place.  I STILL can't renew a yearly subscription for their service without scrounging for unused codes off Amazon and the like.  It's possible for both Sony AND MS to be in the wrong in their own distinct ways.
When you buy an X360 game that is BC, though, it goes through the X360 version of XBL.  Why would MS remove all X360 XBL stuff when like half of its games can still be bought on their current console?  That's the biggest difference between Sony and MS, this shutdown isn't anything that runs on Sony's current platform.

That said yes I imagine 360 purchasing will get shut off at some point but it IS a pretty different situation because of the partial BC.

Quote: I STILL can't renew a yearly subscription for their service without scrounging for unused codes off Amazon and the like.
What, you didn't have it on auto-renew?  That made sense when you could regularly find cards to get it for less than $60, but that's not really happening anymore...

Quote:.  MS "backing off" the price hike after outrage cannot be reframed as somehow a good thing.
It's a good followup to a bad idea.  Yes, that MS tried that price hike isn't good, but that they backed down?  I don't think Sony would have backed down in that situation...
Oh, can I also add that Steam is a pretty major culprit on this front as well?  They have shut down Steam for all versions of Windows before Windows Vista, after all.   Or maybe it's Windows 7, I forget. But XP and earlier are definitely now shut down.  If you own Steam games for Windows XP or earlier and want to use them on a computer running that operating system because they run best there or to get the most authentic experience or what have you, you can't.  You'd better hope that the game runs outside of Steam or has a crack.  And they don't always.

(It'd be neat to be able to play Half-LIfe 2 again sometime on my Windows ME computer... stupid Valve!)
Again, we both agree right now MS isn't as bad as Sony in this regard, right now.  I don't care.  I've long since stopped caring about whether one bad thing is worse than another bad thing.

I didn't forget that MS was planning to remove the entire concept of owning physical games a generation ago.  Sony did that little "this is how you share a game with someone on PS4" stunt, and if they hadn't done that, do you honestly believe that MS would have backed down?  No, it took a massive stunt like THAT.  That's how this always goes.  One or the other does some terrible thing, or ATTEMPTS to do so.
Sony has pulled back their decision, by 2/3.  The Vita and PS3 stores will shamble onward while PSP will die on schedule.  Fortunately, the PSP has very few "digital exclusives" so completing that particular list will go easier for me.  Further, that thing's been hacked so thoroughly that I've been able to acquire delisted DLC rather well.  This should also sooth the developers who haven't even released the final Vita games yet.  Seriously, what a low blow that was.  Another positive is this should push back whatever MS's sunsetting plans were for the 360 now that they've seen how upset people got.

However, just like with any "we realize we made a mistake" reversal, I don't accept their incencere apology.  They only reversed it because of backlash.  They'll attempt it again in a year or two sure as thundercats, and it wasn't even a complete reversal.  What they should do is remove all the DRM from the console and make it "open" just before shutting off the stores.  Why the heck not?  They're not making any money off of it.  They've openly stated they don't care about profitting off those system's game sales any more, so just... make it easy for us to do what we have to do (allegedly), since they don't get a dime either way.  At that point, NOT opening up the platform is just spiteful.

Oh, and please PLEASE patch that outstanding internal clock issue going all the way from PS3 to PS5.  I honestly don't care if someone is able to abuse the clock to keep their PSPlus gifted copy of Abe's Odyssey running way past when they cancel their subscription, and neither should you at this point.  Secondly, I don't care if someone falsely reports when they got an achievement.  Who does?
It's surprising that Sony backed down on this so easily.  I know there was a bunch of blowback, but still it's a bit surprising.  I don't really believe their apology either, they're just trying to get people less mad at them and I'm sure they will try again.  And yeah, they're still killing the PSP, huh.  I presume that you will still be able to buy crossbuy titles, which most digital PSP titles are (PS1 Classics and PS Minis), so yeah that's not many PSP digital exclusives that will be going away.  I may get a few more but it's not a long list.  It's still unfortunate and not great, but looks less bad compared to shutting down all three at once.


Meanwhile though, my main reaction thought is that I wish Nintendo as this reactive to their fans!  Their shutdowns of the Wii and DSi estores went exactly as planned regardless of some fan unhappiness, after all.  Too bad...
(20th April 2021, 6:21 AM)A Black Falcon Wrote: [ -> ]It's surprising that Sony backed down on this so easily.  I know there was a bunch of blowback, but still it's a bit surprising.  I don't really believe their apology either, they're just trying to get people less mad at them and I'm sure they will try again.  And yeah, they're still killing the PSP, huh.  I presume that you will still be able to buy crossbuy titles, which most digital PSP titles are (PS1 Classics and PS Minis), so yeah that's not many PSP digital exclusives that will be going away.  I may get a few more but it's not a long list.  It's still unfortunate and not great, but looks less bad compared to shutting down all three at once.


Meanwhile though, my main reaction thought is that I wish Nintendo as this reactive to their fans!  Their shutdowns of the Wii and DSi estores went exactly as planned regardless of some fan unhappiness, after all.  Too bad...
Being as fair to Nintendo as I'm willing to be, they gave YEARS of warning compared to Sony's cageyness about it until just a couple months before three major stores went down at once.  It isn't a difference in kind, but a difference in scale.

And yes, my DSi and Wii are both hacked now.  I did manage to get most of the stuff I was interested in.  Also, I'm afraid "PS Minis" left the store already long before this and went largely unnoticed by mainstream gaming press.
Some PS Minis are still up, at least.  Some others well might have gone down but not all of them.

Also yeah a year's warning is certainly a lot better than just a few months, but the Wii's the same age as the PS3 and its store purchasing was disabled well before this attempt at turning off the PS3.  And as far as I'm concerned there are a lot more WiiWare/Wii VC games worth playing than digital PS3 ones. :p
You'd have more of a point on the quality of Wiiware except that where you're concerned, it's worth it to pick up Superman 64 CIB.

I will say this.  It's nice to see more and more of those online-exclusive titles on PS3 and Vita get ported to Switch.  It makes the sting lessen a little.