23rd March 2021, 7:18 AM
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.
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.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)