PS3, PSP and PS Vita store closure takes 120 games down with it

PS3, PSP and PS Vita store closure takes 120 games down with information technology

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When Sony appear that it would be close stores for PS3, PSP and PS Vita later on this year, the number of potential games to be affected was out of focus. A new breakdown shows that hundreds of digital-just games volition exist permanently out of reach for PlayStation gamers thanks to the closure.

According to an analysis by VGC, 2,000 digital-only games will be inaccessible for PlayStation gamers later this year. Luckily, most of these games are available on other platforms, like Xbox Series 10, Nintendo Switch and PC. Unfortunately, there are 120 games that were exclusively released on PS3, PSP and PS Vita digitally, meaning that these games could be snapped out of existence entirely.

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The analysis is non perfect, by VGC's ain admission. Sony had, without alert, airtight the spider web storefronts, making it incommunicable to browse the digital catalogue on a computer. Therefore, VGC had to employ other sources, like information from PlayStation Trophies and other reports, to become some kind of count.

Here's a breakdown of the number of digital only games for each organisation:

Around 630 digital-only Vita games
Around 730 digital-merely PS3 (PSN) games
A modest number of digital-only PSP games
293 PlayStation Minis
336 PS2 Classics
Around 260 PS1 Classics (specially on PSP and Vita)

Once more, the to a higher place count should but be seen as estimates. For example, the 630-or-so PS Vita games is based on a count from 2017, and does not include the slow trickle of indie titles that have come out for Sony'southward cult-handheld since then. Actually, there are yet indie developers making games for Vita, who weren't tipped off of the closure past Sony leading to much sadness.

The PS3 games, which make upward 730 in total via PlayStation Trophies, practice not account for any games that may have been delisted over the terminal 15 years. Even then, the number shouldn't be likewise far off.

The PlayStation store was a boon to classic gamers who wanted to experience games from the PS1 and PS2 era, but who had trouble finding physical discs. Discs can be difficult to come up by for some games, making the few discs that practise exist prohibitively expensive. (Some of the rarest games, as compiled by GameRant, can hands sell for over $100 on eBay.) What'southward more, the issue of "disc rot" ways that physical versions of these games may become totally unplayable over time.

And then there's the instance of the 120 games that were simply digitally released on PS3, PSP or PS Vita. These games will exist lost forever, making it a potential nightmare for game preservationists. Some of these games include Infamous: Festival of Claret, Echochrome II, Lumines Supernova, The Concluding Guy, Pelting, Trash Panic, Pain, PixelJunk Racers, Tokyo Jungle, TxK and MotorStorm RC.

Sony has not announced any sort of broad astern compatibility with PS5.

There is Sony's PlayStation Now game streaming service, which will continue to accept some of the PS3 games being removed. But the games on that service could alter at any time.

Sony and Nintendo accept taken the opposite arroyo to Microsoft, which not only offers enhanced backward compatibility on Xbox Series X and South, but has made a commitment to preserving older games. Remember though, Microsoft is a software giant that also has its Azure cloud platform. Because the amount of data Microsoft manages for the largest companies in the world, a few Xbox games floating around is nothing.

That'south opposed to Sony or Nintendo, which do not have elaborate server systems at the level of Amazon or Microsoft. Keeping these servers active costs resources, money which could be better spent on PS4 and PS5 server maintenance.

For those that have been holding off on buying certain games, information technology's probably best to download them soon. The closures will go into effect on July ii for PS3 and PSP and August 27 for PS Vita.

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Imad Khan is news editor at Tom's Guide, helping direct the day's breaking coverage. Prior to working at the site, Imad was a full-time freelancer, with bylines at the New York Times, the Washington Post and ESPN. Outside of work, you tin find him sitting blankly in front of a Give-and-take certificate trying badly to write the first pages of a new book.