PlayStation Mobile has been dead for a good while now, but Sony’s more or less pulled the cord today. Originally intended to offer a curated content hub on PlayStation-certified phones and tablets, the platform holder quietly announced this morning that there’s a “possibility that content may not work correctly with devices that have been updated to Android OS version 4.4.3 or later”. In other words, it’s dead.
To make matters worse, if you update your handset, it sounds like you may lose access to the PlayStation Store, and subsequently the ability to download any titles that you may have already purchased. Of course, this sort of thing is always a possibility when a separate ecosystem exists within an external operating system, but that will come as scant consolation to the people that have invested money into the service.
Still, the manufacturer notes that by essentially killing PlayStation Mobile, it will now have more resources to invest into the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV. We suppose that that means that the part-time intern who was previously in charge of the Japanese giant’s smartphone push is now going to have a different set of tasks to learn. Variety is the spice of life and all that.
[source jp.playstation.com, via neogaf.com]
Comments 27
Invest in vita... ? Funeral costs. I do hope we start hearing better news about games being developed for the vita.
Getting much closer & closer to pulling the plug on Vita, its already happening in stages.
Even though my Xperia Z has Playstation Mobile, I download & play all of the games I have on the service via my Vita. You'd be surprised just how much better it is to do so
Only heard about PS Mobile for the first time when I saw the section in the PS Store on Vita.
Seems like nothing of value is lost? The idea of cross-platform development between Vita and Android on one framework was pretty interesting, but I imagine it must be hard to get proper performance and optimize for each platform when you have so many different hardware configurations. I mean going by the results, it's just loads of shovelware, even by mobile game standards the PSM games don't seem too special.
Better to just licence the best PS Mobile developers on PSVita where they have access to better tools like Unity. And I doubt it would ever take off as a 3rd party store on Android to take off when that market is already incredibly saturated, do we have any idea about sales on PS Mobile on mobile?
I think it was a common sense decision, it was decent attempt in concept, but it would always be hard to materialize from start.
And if they want to do mobile anyway, then I think just making cheap spin-offs like Ratchet & Clank: Before the Nexus as a way of brand for the AAA console releases promotion (like a lot of western publishers to basically) and release them on the Play Store is a better strategy. (Edit: and PSNow)
And yeah PSNow is probably going to replace it, probably a better strategy.
Sammy Barker, you do know the app is also on IOS, right? This, "possibility that content may not work correctly with devices that have been updated to Android OS version 4.4.3 or later,” doesn't mean that the PlayStation app as a whole is dead. Come on, man. That app hasn't been 'dead for a good while' either. I use it constantly and also my friends with PS4's do also.
@RawWilson1
PS Mobile is something completely different than the PlayStation App, there's some confusion here.
PS Mobile is not on iOS, only Android, and was basically a little framework engine to do cross-platform between PSVita & Android (that also doubled as its own app store for PS Mobile games on mobile), but it never really took off.
It only makes sense to drop support for PS Mobile, better license the best PS Mobile on PSVita games and continue improve the cross-platform development tools between PSVita & mobile, but drop the PlayStation app that serves as a secondary App Store / Play Store on mobile.
And this paves the way for PSNow, which could really take off as the de facto game streaming service if they play their cards right and have widespread support on mobile devices.
I didnt know this existed.
PlayStation Mobile did not offer (AFAIK) trophies, so I never used it, it was DoA as far as I am concerned.
@RawWilson1 As others have pointed out, that's PlayStation App, not PlayStation Mobile. Don't worry, it confuses me, too!
@RawWilson1 That app is still on Android too, you're talking about something completely else.
"Invest into the Vita" you mean invest into the PS4.
On the plus side, I was worried my game was going to be unplayable on phones and tablets due to the touch screen controls. It's hard enough with the stick and buttons Very soon to be released for free if anyone is interested.
@MoleZandor For PS Mobile?
@get2sammyb Yeah, just finished it.
@MoleZandor How do you feel about this news?
@get2sammyb It's not great, but I could tell it wasn't very big anyway. Personally I see it as both a relief and a waste of my time trying to optimise the game for 3 different resolutions. I would much rather have been able to just target the Vita in the first place, but I was told that it had to work on all the platforms. Then the last few weeks I had seen games on there that say they were not compatible. I thought they had just relaxed the rules. I will probably use Unity for my next game anyway. Probably a sequel, now featuring graphics.
@MoleZandor Isn't Unity only on Vita (as in, not on PSMobile), so your next game will only be PSVita?
Sorry that I said that a lot of PS Mobile games were shovelware by the way, I apologize. It was quite a disrespectful statement from me. I'm probably quite ignorant when it comes to this stuff, since I'm not a developer or something.
Ultimately there should be room for all kind of games and more diversity and more choice can never be a bad thing.
Good luck with the launch of your game and good luck with the sequel.
Well at least I can still access it on my Xperia Play (still the Gingerbread man runs), but aw. Oh well, hopefully they'll support Vita more.....though they'll probably kill that of soon as well
@AVahne The PSVita has the software to last me for years anyway. But what do you mean with "killing off the Vita"? I think it's getting quite a lot of games each month.
It's just too good. Not only the best next-gen system between all consoles and handhelds, but just one of the very best gaming platforms ever conceived. It's just dumb that all the press hypes up those two next-gen consoles just because the console war gets them clicks.
The melancholy about the PSVita is starting to get really annoying imo.
And yes I know and I agree SCE has done a bad job at advertising it and their marketing strategy with it was terrible and to get some random C-tier CoD game seemed like a desperate attempt to get some sales.
But I can say that the device itself is fantastic, the games are pretty fantastic, the backwards compatibility is fantastic, the OS & system software and GUI is fantastic. So I'm grateful for that. And they've done a good job at courting the indie development community for it, there a lot of upcoming games that have my attention.
I'm not kidding by the way.
Maybe I'll even buy a PS4 as an accessory for my PSVita for Remote Play. (and it is not the other way around!! Vita is my main game system now!).
I think between indie games, japanese games, remote play, PSNow, PS1 / PSP compatibility, occassionally some PS2 ports, occassionally some games from western publisher, and the occasional Pub Fund or first-party / 2nd party SCE game the PSVita is going to get support over the coming years just fine.
@Cyrso
Really hope people will stop incorrectly using the term "next-gen" someday....
But anyway, I agree that the Vita is a great gaming platform. Has plenty of games, especially if you love Japanese stuff.
Just too bad that most Muricans and other westerners have the mentality that portables should only play small games and that big games should only be played on bigger screens with a full controller (or mouse/keyboard). Which is part of the reason why there's so much doom and gloom. There is far too much close-mindedness in the gaming community.
@AVahne Yes, I agree.
Most people really don't seem to value the versatility & portability & ease of pick up and play of a great handheld device like the PSVita, much. Vita versions of games that are also on PC and console are often, downplayed unfortunately. While for some people who want to play those games on the go or just on a portable device, the Vita versions could be the superior ones.
@Cyrso Yeah, the Vita's legitimately an awesome little device. Its situation is such a shame, but I'm not letting that stop me from enjoying it.
@Cyrso Thank you Cyrso, They have released a unity plug in for psm so that you can make the game on unity and export it through playstation mobile. While much of the stuff on there probably is "shovelware". It still takes peoples time and effort to make. My game has taken me around a year to be ready to a standard I am happy with, and due to the nature of the platform I have decided to release it for free. I would rather more people played it and enjoyed it than I would making a small amount of money from it.
I just bought the ps vita two days ago and it is definitely something to invest in. Especially if you own a ps4 and ps3. Great bit of kit.
"the part-time intern", LOL!! That's funny Sammy.
@SimonAdebisi Or any news for that matter. One can alway maintain hope I suppose, but I'm beginning to lose faith. Tales of Hearts R is still coming, that's a start, right?
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