Sony will reportedly shut down the PlayStation Stores for PS3, Vita, and PSP this summer.
That's according to The Gamer, which cites a "source familiar with the situation" in a new story on the closures. The PS3 and PSP stores will apparently remain online until July 2, 2021, with the Vita store a little way behind them with an August 27 deadline.
Sony hasn't confirmed these store closures, so don't run out and buy a bunch of external hard drives or SD cards just yet. The Gamer reports that Sony plans to announce the end of its legacy stores at the end of this month, so at most, you might want to think about what digital games you're still missing from the libraries of these systems. If there's anything you always wanted to play but never got around to, you may need to download it sometime soon.
All three consoles are home to many legacy PlayStation games, many of which aren't currently available on PS4 and PS5, so they're still reasonably valuable platforms. The PS3 offers a solid collection of PS2 and PS1 games, and the Vita has a nice PS1 lineup of its own plus a top-shelf selection of indie games.
Historically, once console storefronts close, users are no longer able to download digital games or game updates on those consoles, so if true, this news could affect much more than just digital ownership. Again, the specifics and timeline are still unofficial, so for now just hope for the best while preparing for the worst. We've reached out to Sony for comment and will update our reporting if we hear back.
Sony is moving wholesale into the new console generation: last December, the company discontinued direct PS4 Pro sales, and earlier this year, it halted production of several PS4 models in Japan.
