Sony announced last month that the online stores for PS3, PSP and PS Vita would close later this year. It was upsetting news for PlayStation fans and game preservationists, but now at least we know which titles may be lost forever.
VGC undertook an analysis, and discovered that there are 138 digital PlayStation exclusives that are not available on other platforms. Once the PS3, PSP and PS Vita stores close, these games will be effectively inaccessible.
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On July 2, both the PS3 and PSP stores will close. The PS Vita store closure will follow on August 27. Sony has not taken any steps to allow players to purchase titles for these platforms in the future.
Interestingly, some of the soon-to-be-inaccessible games include first-party PlayStation exclusives. Sony helped develop Infamous: Festival of Blood, Tokyo Jungle and MotorStorm RC, among others.
Other notable titles seemingly dissipating into the ether include Echochrome II, Lumines Supernova, The Last Guy, Rain, Trash Panic, PixelJunk Racers, Murasaki Baby, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars and Super Stardust Delta. Other titles, such as Soul Sacrifice Delta on PS Vita, had digital-only releases in North America. However, English-language physical cartridges came out in Asian territories, and are available for import.
The good news is that users who have already bought games will still have access via their downloads lists. But once the stores officially close, piracy will likely increase on older PlayStation platforms. It's not something we condone, but it's hard to see an alternative.
Of course, even if these games are going away now, they could come back at a later date. Developers and publishers could always re-release these titles on other platforms, such as the Nintendo Switch, mobile devices, or even the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Sony's move is surprising, especially compared to the preservationist strategy that Microsoft has employed. Certain games from the original Xbox are playable on Xbox Series X, often with visual enhancements. That's not the case with PS5.
Sony's latest move might squander some of the goodwill that the company built up during the PS4 era. PS5 restocks are still near-impossible to find, and the latest store closures have done little to quell the demand for popular games.
The full list of games affected is below:
PS3
- Armageddon Riders
- Blast Factor
- Bomberman Ultra
- Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD
- Catan
- Comet Crash
- Crash Commando
- Datura
- Eat Them!
- Echochrome II
- Funky Lab Rat
- Hamster Ball
- High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition
- High Velocity Bowling
- Infamous: Festival of Blood
- Kung-Fu Live
- The Last Guy
- Legasista
- Linger in Shadows
- Lumines Supernova
- Magic Orbz
- Magus
- Novastrike
- PixelJunk 4am
- PixelJunk Racers
- Planet Minigolf
- Punisher: No Mercy
- Rain
- Savage Moon
- Spelunker HD
- Super Rub a Dub
- Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars
- Tales from Space: About a Blob
- Trash Panic
- Wakeboarding HD
PS Vita
- Battle Rockets
- Bodycheck
- Boss!
- Breakquest Extra Evolution
- Chronovolt
- Coconut Dodge Revitalised
- Die!Die!Die!
- Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable
- Ecolibrium
- Floating Cloud God Saves the Pilgrims HD!
- Flying Hamster HD
- Frobisher Says!
- Furmins
- The HD Adventures of Rotating Octopus Character
- Indoor Sports World
- Jungle Rumble Freedom Happiness and Bananas
- Kilka Card Gods
- Knobswitch
- Lemmings Touch
- Let’s Fish! Hooked On
- Licky The Lucky Lizard Lives Again
- Magical Beat
- Malicious Rebirth
- Maliya
- Men’s Room Mayhem
- Monsterbag
- Murasaki Baby
- Nekoburo Cats Block
- Ninja Usagimaru: Two Tails of Adventure
- Open Me!
- Orgarhythm
- Pinball Heroes Complete
- PlayStation Vita Cliff Diving
- PlayStation Vita Fireworks
- PlayStation Vita Table Soccer
- PulzAR
- Puzzle by Nikoli V Slitherlink
- Puzzle by Nikoli V Sudoku
- Reel Fishing Masters Challenge
- Ring Run Circus
- Run Like Hell!
- Sketchcross
- Sokoban Next
- Squares
- Stardrone Extreme
- Stranded a Mars Adventure
- Sumioni: Demon Arts
- Super Stardust Delta
- Surge Deluxe
- Table Ice Hockey
- Table Mini Golf
- Table Top Racing
- Table Top Tanks
- The Hungry Horde
- TXK
- Vitamin Z
- Z-Run
PS3 and PS Vita
- Bentley’s Hackpack
- Big Sky Infinity
- Deathmatch Village
- Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock
- Foosball 2012
- Germinator
- Gravity Crash
- Motorstorm RC
- Ms Germinator
- Murasaki Mist Akara’s Journey
- When Vikings Attack!
PSP
- 101-in-1 Megamix
- Ape Quest
- Armored Core: Last Raven Portable
- Armored Core: Silent Line Portable
- Armored Core 3 Portable
- Beats
- Black Rock Shooter – The Game
- Brandish: The Dark Revenant
- Carnage Heart EXA
- Cho Aniki Zero
- Cladun: This is an RPG!
- Creature Defense
- Crimson Room: Reverse
- Dissidia 012 Prologus: Final Fantasy
- Go! Puzzle
- Gravity Crash Portable
- Hot Shots Shorties Blue Pack
- Hot Shots Shorties Green Pack
- Hot Shots Shorties Red Pack
- Hot Shots Shorties Yellow Pack
- I am an Air Traffic Controller Airport Hero Tokyo
- Kurulin Fusion
- LocoRoco: Midnight Carnival
- NeoGeo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting
- No Heroes Allowed!
- Numblast
- Patchwork Heroes
- Piyotama
- Savage Moon: The Hera Campaign
- Super Stardust Portable
- Susume Tactics!
- Talkman Travel: Paris
- Talkman Travel: Rome
- Talkman Travel: Tokyo
- Thexder Neo
