A pair of iconic Metal Gear Solid games are about to vanish from digital storefronts. Konami has announced that it will be delisting Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater from various digital stores beginning today, with several different versions disappearing. The good news is that these removals should only be temporary, as Konami plans to bring them back in the future.
With the launch of the PlayStation 5, it is expected that Sony would eventually try to push its older gaming systems out of the picture. That almost happened this year, but the company relented and allowed some venerable consoles to continue the status quo. That's not to say that it's willing to spend resources on maintaining those well-aged PlayStation systems. It seems that the company has discovered a strategy to push the PS3 and the PS Vita into obsolescence by making it extremely difficult to purchase games and DLCs moving forward.
It's been a troubled year for LittleBigPlanet servers already, and now it looks like things are getting worse. The servers for the classic LittleBigPlanet games have been offline for much of the year, frustrating those looking to play classic games on PS3 and LittleBigPlanet 3 on PlayStation 4. Today, Sony brought the LittleBigPlanet servers back online, but they're missing support for a bunch of games in the franchise.
These days, it isn't very often that the PS3 and Xbox 360 make their way into the news, but today both have because of Konami. The company announced today that it will be ending the online multiplayer service for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain in the future. Thankfully, those who are affected have a long time before those online services are taken down entirely.
Following leaks that apparently revealed the release date for Assassin's Creed Valhalla: The Siege of Paris, today Ubisoft revealed the actual date for the expansion. In addition to announcing the release date for The Siege of Paris - which is the second expansion for Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Ubisoft also detailed the more immediate Season 3 update, which is heading to the game later this week.
It's almost hard to believe, but Grand Theft Auto Online for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is still going strong to this day. The times they are a-changin', though, with Rockstar today announcing that it will shut down the PS3 and Xbox One versions of GTA Online by the end of the year. In addition, online support is ending for two other Rockstar games on PS3 and Xbox One: LA Noire and Max Payne 3.
Back in March, Sony revealed its plans to shut down the digital PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita storefronts this summer. The announcement received a lot of pushback from gamers, and today, Sony announced that it's making an about-face - the PS3 and PS Vita stores won't be shutting down this summer as originally announced, and will instead stay online so users can continue to purchase games and other media for those platforms.
Slowly but surely, Sony has been shutting down functionality related to PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation Portable, and later on this year, the company is going to be taking a very big step toward sunsetting those platforms for good. Sony has announced the dates it will close the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, along with revealing with it will end remaining purchase functionality for PSP.
When you purchase an older PlayStation, you do so with the understanding that it won't always have the same software support as it has now. You'll still be able to play the games you have on disk and the games you've downloaded, but new digital games are not forever. A rumor this week suggests that Sony PlayStation 3 will join the ranks of 1 and 2 with "no digital games store available."
It's not unusual for games or updates to be delayed, though there's always hope that things will eventually push through, sooner or later. Ubisoft may have just dashed those hopes, at least for players of Watch Dogs: Legion on PCs. After already delaying a promised online multiplayer by months, the game developer just announced that PC gamers will have to wait indefinitely for the feature to land. If it ever will, that is.
Sony revealed today that some big changes are coming to the PlayStation Store later this year. Nothing will change about how you buy games through the PlayStation Store, but this summer, you'll lose the option to purchase movies and TV shows through it. That goes for rentals too, so it seems that Sony is making a clean break from movies and TV shows altogether.
Late last week, we heard a report that claimed some major changes were on the way to the PlayStation Store. According to that report, Sony planned to stop selling PS3, PS Vita, and PSP games through the mobile and web implementations of the Store. Just as well, Sony would also stop PS4 apps, themes, and avatars through those channels as well.