Sony to Close PS3, PS Vita & PSP Stores

End of an era

Sony closing PS3, PS Vita and PSP Stores

Sony is closing the PlayStation Stores on the PS3, PS Vita and PlayStation Portable consoles in the coming months. An email has been sent out to affected users detailing the dates of the store closures and what you will and won’t lose access to.

We are closing PlayStation™Store on PlayStation®3 on 2 July 2021 and on PlayStation®Vita devices on 27 August 2021. Additionally, the remaining purchase functionality for PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) will also retire on 2 July 2021.

In the email sent out to PlayStation Network (PSN) users, sony said that the decision to close the older online stores was so that they could focus their resources on the PS4 & PS5 PlayStation Stores.

After thoughtful consideration, we decided to make these changes in an effort to focus our resources for PlayStation Store on PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®5, which will enable us to enhance the customer experience even further.

Once the stores close, you won’t be able to buy any digital games or content for the PS3, PS Vita & PSP. You also won’t be able to make any in-game purchases in games on these platforms.

However, you will still be able to download digital games & content that you have previously bought on PS3, Vita or PSP. You will also still be able to redeem game voucher codes and PS Plus vouchers after the stores are closed but, you won’t be able to redeem PSN wallet fund vouchers. Any PSN wallet funds that you have in your account will still be there but you will only be able to use the funds to buy PS4 or PS5 games.

You can find out more about the PlayStation Store closures on playstation.com

The closure of the PS3, PS Vita & PSP PlayStation Stores was pretty much an inevitability. With an install base of over 120 million for the PS4 and the launch of the PS5, the older consoles were clearly not seeing much usage. And Sony probably didn’t see enough revenue from these older PS Stores to justify the costs of keeping them open.