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.
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.
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.
Ahead of the PlayStation 5's launch next month, Sony is reportedly making some big changes to the way the PlayStation Store works. Apparently, the company has been sending out emails to developers saying that later this month, games for the PlayStation 3, PSP, and PlayStation Vita will be inaccessible through the PlayStation Store for web and mobile. Just as well, it seems PlayStation 4 apps, themes, and avatars are leaving the web and mobile implementations of the store as well.
It's no secret that Sony has officially pulled the plug on its last gaming handheld but that was really only as far as production of the PlayStation Vita and its cartridges go. One would expect the console to continue working with existing games though some Vita-related servers to eventually fold. Unfortunately for players of Killzone: Mercenary, that happened without warning even when those official servers were actually run by Sony itself.
It might be doing terribly on smartphones but Sony is, fortunately, doing well in most of its other businesses. Its PlayStation, under the Sony Interactive Entertainment company, remains one of the top two (or three) gaming systems in the world and it could get an infusion of new interest and profits with the expected launch of the PlayStation 5. That may not be the only thing that Sony is preparing for, however, as hints of a new gaming device may be on the way thanks to a patent for a gaming cartridge.
If you've been following the gaming world, you've probably already heard the bad news: the PlayStation Vita has officially been discontinued. We first caught wind of Sony's plans a couple of weeks ago, when it updated the listings for the two remaining PS Vita models to say that production would be ending soon. Then, over the weekend - only a short time after those updated listings were discovered - Sony finally pulled the plug.
The writing has been on the wall for months but the ax has finally fallen. PS Vita mortuus est! Sony has officially ceased the production of its remaining gaming handheld console after months of winding down everything connected to it. And with no plans for a successor of any kind, Sony has practically surrendered that market to Nintendo as the Switch continues to outsell, or at least out-hype, both Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One.
Sony has revealed the free PlayStation Plus games for March and the list of free games is a fair bit shorter than we're used to seeing. That's because Sony has ended support for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita beginning in March. Though PS3 and PS Vita users can still subscribe to PlayStation Plus and receive other benefits, they'll no longer receive free games each month.
It's time to pour one out for the PlayStation Vita, because its days are officially numbered. Sony of Japan has updated its listings for the two remaining PS Vita models to say that shipments of both will be ending soon. It appears, then, that Sony is preparing to pull the plug on production at some point in the next couple of months.