Update: 20/04/2021- In an announcement made yesterday via Sony’s Official Blog, Jim Ryan,
“Recently, we notified players that PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita devices was planned to end this summer.” It states, before continuing.
“Upon further reflection, however, it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here. So today I’m happy to say that we will be keeping the PlayStation Store operational for PS3 and PS Vita devices.”
The company is still continuing with plans to close the PlayStation Portable digital storefront on July 2, 2021. Also, it has yet to address the now multiple reports confirming issues around the CMOS batteries in PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and now PlayStation 5 consoles that prevent users accessing digital and PS4 disk games should servers shut down long term.
Original Post –
In the wake of Sony’s announcement of its planned PS3, PSP console store closures on July 2, PSVITA closure on August 27, and the closing of the associated online stores for those consoles last month, many PS3, PSP and PSVITA owners have been rushing to download their game libraries.
Games website VGC has identified 138 digital exclusive titles that will vanish completely once the stores are closed. Notable titles include Ape Quest, Super Stardust Portable, Black Rock Shooter – The Game on PSP, Frobisher Says!, Murasaki Baby, Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable on PSVITA. For PS3, Rain, Tokyo Jungle, Infamous: Festival of Blood.
It appears also that ahead of the announced closures Sony hadn’t notified a number of indie developers still working on upcoming titles for the PSVITA, causing projects to be cancelled or rushed to ensure any sales.
Another issue pointed out as a consequence of these announcements has been the possible issues around long-term access to games post store closures and server shut-downs. YouTuber HikikomoriMedia has released a trilogy of videos looking into some of the possible issues that users and owners might face in the long term, including worrying DRM settings that may even cause PS4 disk media to no longer be usable.
Many users have been reporting a number of issues surrounding this, being hit with a multitude of error messages, and disconnects. PS3 error code 80029509 and PS3 error code 80029721 are appearing for many PS3 users when attempting to download titles.
We looked into downloading items on PS3, both in user download lists and in-store downloads list we ran into these error messages for a vast number of titles. The few things we could download tended to be game demos and trial editions, along with some spotty bits of game DLC.
There were also issues assigning a console as a home console, doing so also caused error messages.
The store on PS3 also has seen a number of technical issues. While navigating the store we noticed that titles bought previously were showing up with full store price. Clicking into these items showed the usually expected options, except for the buy/download option. Pressing up from other menu items did select an invisible menu though, which allowed us to be able to buy games again.
There is a possible workaround for some of these issues involving turning on 2-step verification via the Official PlayStation website will apparently prevent some error messages being seen by some users, although we have yet been unable to confirm or deny this.
Sony has yet to comments on these issues, but if there are any more developments we shall update this story.