Many PS Vita Devs Cancel Projects After Sudden PS Store Closure

That's appalling from Sony, this should have been communicated to developers much sooner than this

Don't go... ps vita..

If you're in a relationship with someone who treats you like Sony treated the PS Vita and the developers who kept it alive, call the police and then file a restraining order.

Wow, so sony didn't even bother to consult with developers about this closure?

Absolutely shocking behaviour. Its all got a whiff of the PS3 gen arrogance with Sony of late. A bit of the 'well, they are buying it anyway' vibes.

Sony needs to hire a new communication team at this point...

I said this on another thread. Shuttering the store is one thing. But not informing developers? Its outrageous. Those devs still porting games to vita are generally fairly small indie start ups who dont have the resources to waste on fruitless enterprises. Its a terrible approach and it doesn't bode well for future relations across the board. I am so disapointed

This is absolutely appalling from Sony. It's genuinely shocking to see such poor treatment of indie Devs. There have been a lot of bad signs about their attitude recently. I really hope they don't continue down this road.

Whatever way you look at it Sony have made an absolute arse of this.

I'm at a loss for words by how horribly Sony is handling this situation. They're potentially putting some developers' livelihoods at risk with this move. Did no one there seriously think about the ramifications of this? Unbelievable.

Thats all on Shue and Greg Rice since the first one is Head of Sony Indies and Rice Head of Playstation Creators

@IonMagus I doubt that. The people making these kinds of decisions are above their pay-grade.

Why sony is like this? Heck, collin moriarty from lilimo games (habroxia 2) just bought psvita devs kit and just around one week later, the vita store is closed! That's kind of malicious to let indie developers buy your vita devs kit and then close the vita store.

@RBMango They knew about this tho and are literally the Chefs of Indie and 3rd Party Relationship stuff lol

@get2sammyb they spent the entire 4theplayers era killing off as much communication with the players as possible. Any slogan Sony uses is a death knell. Play has no limits? Except ps3, 2 and 1.

Absurd to close down the storefront when several developers are actively making games for it. "Play has no limits".....now forget about the fact that its near impossible to buy a ps5, they have no intention on making another handheld, and now they are closing the storefront of the vita. Just terrible PR as usual from Sony unfortunately.

It's almost as if PlayStation are trying to self destruct so far this gen!
They had an absolute stormer last gen with PS4, couldn't really do no wrong.
Then we come to PS5 and they just seem to have lost the plot with decision making!

Honestly, this is all pretty on-brand for Sony as of late. Remember how, when they randomly implemented their new censorship policies to "match global standards," they refused to communicate clearly with smaller Japanese developers, who were left to wonder what they needed to change for their games to be approved, and they could only communicate with the America-based gatekeepers at completely unreasonable hours because of the time zone differences between the two regions?

I'd also like to point out that at least one game that was ready to be released on the Vita actually had to be canned because of how abruptly these changes were implemented.

Remember the NISA president a few years back saying Sony "doesn't care about small Japanese publishers?"

I'm not trying to re-litigate the censorship thing, but Sony's pattern of mistreating smaller publishers and indies has been going on for at least a few years now.

Yeah, now we're talking no FWPs here. Third parties on the game production side are expected to know about store closure deadlines for MANY months ahead - indeed, all the moreso if you're nonchalantly continuing to sell them devkits in the meantime. Ball legitimately dropped, and dropped hard. /)_-)

@jack22 as someone regularly using his NDS and PSP to this day, I fail to imagine Vita going anywhere anytime soon either.

Thats why hades didnt come to playtation.This is the worst sony as look for a very long time.i love me some indies games.and closing psvita.psp.and ps3 aint helping.sad to say.that im extremely disappointed at sony.word up son

PushSquare to become DontPushSquare and a anti-Sony site lmao

@playstation1995 Hades has an exclusive Deal with Nintendo, thats why they also market the physical Release. Game was also Epic-Store only at first since many Indie Devs try to get as much financial backing as possible

Pretty terrible by Sony. Their communication for the last few years has been awful now. I get the feeling they are getting a bit too big for their boots again. Compared to how Xbox have been going about stuff lately. It's night and day really. It's also making it hard to not make envious glances over to the other side.

I was hoping after it happened several times, the console hubris cycle would end. But it looks like it's just gonna keep happening. Sony's got a massive ego due to how well they've been doing and they're making horrible decisions. Meanwhile Microsoft's buying a ton of game studios including Bethesda, doing Gamepass, making moves that seems like they learned from the Xbox One, etc. Seems like either Mid-PS5 cycle or the next gen are going to go the way of the PS3.

@get2sammyb As the biggest Sony fanboy is find it completely terrible you cant do that toowards the developers.

Wait.... The Vita hasn't been manufactured for a good while now.... Why are devs making games for it????

@get2sammyb Fans who genuinely care about PlayStation shouldn't be averse to calling them out on their s**t.

I wonder could we start a movement like the Snyder cut. #keeptheplaystationstoresalive 😂

@Jbuggydroid Because it still has quite a decent market out there, particularly in Japan.

what a dick move, "play has no limits" indeed!

@get2sammyb Eh, hoping for Sony to loose 3rd Party Support, which would mean the end of it, doesnt really sound like that but okay

@RBMango understand that but even physical media for the system was stopped back in 2019.

I mean with the Switch out there why would you waste money on a dead console.

The PS3 and PSP stores shuttering I can understand, but the Vita shuttering just seems like a desperate attempt by Sony to erase it from existence. It’s not like the PS5 is an adequate replacement for the Vita; if anything it’ll push people to the Switch as portability remains important for some people.

Or in my case the Vita being Sony’s only decent d-pad. I never buy 2D games on my PS4 if another option exists purely because of the split d-pad and the PS4’s inability to use non-Sony licensed 3rd party pads.

I still hope (in some vain) that Sony will give the Vita store a reprieve for now.

@IonMagus Then i can't play the new Sonic game on my PS5.

@get2sammyb I want it to burn them too with the hope they realise that this isn't the way to treat Devs. Sadly, I don't even think it will even register with the people who actually make these decisions. No right minded, player or Dev focussed person at Sony would approve this. But they aren't calling the shots unfortunately.

@Jbuggydroid Because as good as the Switch is there are many who prefer the Vita. Smaller form factor, better battery, better d-pad. It has a relatively small but dedicated following and many Indy games have found success on the Vita due to its fan base and their openness to communicate.

A console is only “dead” when the people playing it stop.

@FX102A it is dead. Just because people still play it doesn't mean it's not dead. It's no longer being made and not supported officially. I'm not seeing articles showing that selling a game on a vita makes crazy money for a dev.

Making a game for a system that is no longer supported or made anymore is a gamble. That well was gonna dry up. And it has now.

Still crappy for Sony not to communicate well on this tho. But I am not gonna be all like "oh no poor devs!".

@IonMagus. But hades came to the pc also.sony need to fixed its indie relationship and Japanese games.and need to buy bluepoint already.word up son

Just port all those cancelled games over to the switch.

I was holding out for a PS5, but after reading this I’m gonna just save my money. I only really wanted to try Demon’s Souls, anyway. I can live without one more game.

**** Sony

@get2sammyb I think a lot of the good people have been ousted by the not-so-good-only-there-for-the-profits types. And if everything goes sour for PS, they'll bog off with a golden handshake (I won't name names but we all know who they are)

I really am starting to consider which way to jump for next gen...

@Jbuggydroid I don't know how it is now, but the Vita had a devoted cult following that bought pretty much everything that released on it for years, which made it an attractive platform for independent developers whose games were roundly getting ignored on the bigger platforms.

It is absolutely on Sony to help communicate to third-parties and indies well ahead of time when they plan on shutting down a legacy platform.

@get2sammyb Sony seems to think it only needs bigger games on its platform anymore. Which is weird, since smaller developers helped to carry the PS4 early on, and, in general, Playstation has traditionally succeeded by offering a diverse software library. If nothing else, actively burning bridges at the start of a new console generation seems like a bad idea. Especially when Nintendo and especially Microsoft are going out of their way to woo these same small developers.

Unfortunately, some degree of blowback from third parties is probably going to be the only way this changes. These companies are only humbled by failure.

I want to feel bad for developers but I haven't been able to buy a Vita for about 3 years now. No one sells them, you can't buy their games anywhere, and you can't get the memory cards either nor accessories. This is in the US as maybe that's different elsewhere but spare me the outrage for a system that died at least 3 years ago. Same with 3DS, they are on about 1 year now of not being able to buy the system. When this happens, it's time to move on or if you are making games get it done NOW because your audience just vanished outside of long term players.

At this point i am glad i made Xbox my go to console for now on PlayStation for any worthwhile exclusive all though half there exclusive are timed exclusives anyway.

@Jbuggydroid It finished production about 2 years ago so while it is discontinued, it was still being supported. Bit like the FIFA games continued on the PS2 for years after it 'died'.

For Fony to keep selling kits to devs and then can the store without any kind of sensible time frame seems borderline illegal.

@playstation1995 Hades was only on PC for a year since it was in early access. And stop talking so cringe lol

@TrueAssassin86x They are already coming to NS and PC, none of those Games are Vita only

@IonMagus
Lol thats his thing on this site i just ignore whatever he says

@IonMagus
You are anti Sony when you talk about bad stuff Sony does? Really?

This is a new level of recklessness even for Sony. They practically killed PSVR when they suddenly announced that no PS5 games were allowed to support their own peripheral. Between the lack of BC and lack of support for smaller Devs, Sony is practically waving customers over to MS & Nintendo. Sony needs new management, before it's too late.

Jeez Sony, both anti-consumer and anti-partnership practices here. Shameful.

this is tragic, wtf are Sony doing, literally still selling me PS vita 2 years ago, disgrace

@GamerDad66 Your last sentence was never more true.

@Murray Combined with recent comments on Era and the whole "hope it burns them" one wouldnt think that this is the owner of a PS site lol. Critique is very important but Doom Posting is an awful habit of this community

And this is why you should never Stan a company.

Terrible move by Sony to be doing this. You would think over there decisions over the PS3 store. A disgusting move by Sony over the treatment on vita games developers. But no it’s we’re concentrating on PS4 & PS5. So when we’re around the PS6 & PS7, I’m expecting Sony to do the same thing again. It’s the main reason I’ve stopped buying digital on Sony. My digital purchases are on the Xbox one s. Atleast with Xbox, there embracing & understanding how important our legacy games mean to us. Also imo the long run of gaming, I think Xbox will always let us play our games on whatever devices is out then, for Sony I can’t see them doing the same thing.

Very shady indeed and the way Sony revealed the shutdowns made it clear that shady was intentional. For something as significant as the shutdown of PS3/PSP/PS Vita stores, I'd expect a year's notice as well as the announcements being everywhere.

But what happened in the end was barely over 3 months for PS3/PSP and 5 months for PS Vita with the announcement being via an email and hidden away on the Europe support site. No post on the Playstation Blog, no social media posts, etc.

It's very clear that Sony is trying to use the Mariopocalypse as cover in the hope that this very shady move is buried.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/03/reminder_todays_the_day_-_mario_3d_all-stars_mario_bros_35_and_more_are_taken_down_for_good

@Grumblevolcano lol NO. They'd he stupid if they thought that the Mario news would overshadow this. It would get reported either way so. And this is just the start, Mario is over after tomorrow. The real closure has yet to come.

@IonMagi. Its coming to PlayStation anyway.i believe.word up son

The more I hear about how these enormous back catalogues are being completely de-listed and lost to time in such short notice makes me think sony must have an ace up their sleeve. There is no way they are going to just leave all that history in the dust! We know you got these emulators in R&D sony, just give em to us for cryin out loud!

This hubris is brought to you by the PlayStation 4's dominance in its category back in the day. For The Players indeed.

That aside, I'm eyeing a PlayStation Vita as a potential birthday present in May. I have a request for y'all. Can any Vita owner confirm if the PSP and PSOne Classic libraries are still available in the Vita store, as it stands? One more vessel for my library won't hurt, after owning a PSP Slim and a PSP Go.

(Handheld-wise, I still like to support Sony.)

@Netbean Emulators don't make Fony any money. The ones in charge only care about the almighty dollar, it seems.

@AlexSora89 Just checked mine and yes, they're on there. Heck even the Minis are on there still!

@sanderson72
Welp, the Vita just got more interesting. Thank you very much! ^^

It's an awful situation for the developers involved, and paints Sony in a bad light. A few months notice when there's still developers actively releasing games for the Vita is far too little notice.

Sony acting like developers have no other console to go to...

To commemorate this occasion, I shall jailbreak my PS3 this weekend. LOL

@get2sammyb Sammy, this article might support some of what you have said above concerning the cost in time and money for indie devs:

https://www.thegamer.com/meet-the-developers-who-are-about-to-lose-their-ps-vita-games-forever/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

@Grumblevolcano while i dont agree Sony are using the 'marioapocolypse' (great term btw) as cover, i completely agree concerning how it was communicated. I think long term customers deserved more than an email. Why not a blog post, or even better a video package celebrating some of the greatest moments from across thise generations to thank the loyal customers and recognise the importance of these consoles to the brand and its legacy

amazing how people come out of the woodwork for things when they are about to close! yet I bet no one spends anything close to worth keeping it open anymore.

@get2sammyb On your comment about if you were a Dev, it would make you not want to make games for Playstation again, that is also one of my concerns. Its notable that Microsoft was able to pull together a 3 hour indie showcase, featuring previous playstation darlings such as Drinkbox studios, bringing their titles exclusively (albeit possibly timed) to Xbox. And the fact that indies are flocking to Nintendo in droves.

This whole situation reminds me of the article published here a couple of years ago:

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019/06/sony_thinks_playstation_is_too_big_to_ignore

It seems like that mindset is now coming home to roost, and its not a good look. No platform holder is too big too ignore. They rely firstly on their customers. Secondly, on their developers. The money follows those two crucial components. And the path being followed right now will do nothing but damage their bottom line in the long run, if they do not stop this hemorrhaging of good will that was built up at the tail end of the PS3, and throughout the life of PS4

@get2sammyb if Sony is doing this it is because it is a dead duck. I don't believe for one second Sony just dropped it out of nowhere on game makers sounds off to me.

That's not the company I've been a fan of since I can remember. A real shame.

I'll keep buying ps consoles for a number of reasons (mostly because I consider Nintendo and Microsoft worse), but I'm far from happy.

People who dismiss this as a business decision should consider just how much money Sony spends on advertising. This is having the opposite effect. It pushes people away. If I found PC more convenient, I'd seriously consider playing there exclusively.

@David187 remember when someone from Sony said only a few of their games made profit? Yet they kept making smaller titles. That's how you build good will.

@Rob_230 Sony has Indies MS does not have though so.... it goes back & forth & always has. did you see all the indie games in the last big showcase?

@naruball The Vita is dead & has been for a long time they must have been taking losses for years yet that goodwill means nothing now?

@get2sammyb @David187 Regardless of the money they were making (or not as the case may be, we really dont know how much they sell on those storefronts), 5 months warning is insufficient. Devs should have had a year minimum to plan.

And you have to imagine that the bad press from this far outweighs the potential savings Sony will make. Its not a good look for them right now. Its going to lead to devs questioning whether to put out content on PS4 now PS5 has released, and its going to make consumers question making that step into digital at a time Sony are selling a digital only console

@David187 @God_of_Nowt and? What does that have to do with what I said?

The point I was making is that Sony used to invest in projects that weren't profitable, because they were looking at the bigger picture. Now, they seemed to have changed, arguably, for the worse. They could have kept the online store of vita and ps3 alive and make a small loss. It can't be that expensive to keep the stores running, especially if some are still buying games there.

@naruball because Sony has been taking losses for years that is why it makes sense. the Vita Never took off. Sony still supported it. I can download all my games on PS3 & Vita still. Sony has been doing this a long time & has great partnerships. I think people are going off the deep end a bit here.

Such a shame its not like the vita is crap either its a great machine,more support from Sony and it couldve been a different story ,but when their first party devs aren't supporting it, how do they expect anyone else to.

@David187 I love how when something doesn’t matter to you; it must not matter at all. There is no way the Vita store was such a huge loss they they couldn’t afford to keep it up. Unless of course Sony’s in that dire straights, in which case something else is wrong and other changes need to be made.

They could have at least give everyone year’s notice but they handed out Devs kits for the Vita less than a month ago. Dev Kits!?!

That’s absurd.

@Ralizah The Vita's following is still super dedicated

In fact especially on places like Twitter and Reddit you'll find people showing off their systems or game collections

It may have been a financial failure but it got a retroactively pretty strong following especially thanks to the modding scene

PlayStation. It Only Does AAA Mega-Publisher Things.

This is truly PS3 all over again. Maybe worse. Their egregious behavior during PS3's era was down to a disastrous launch flippancy and highly questionable hardware decisions leading up to it. It took years to right that ship but they eventually managed, although it sounds like it was not profitably so until PS4. Just as the arrogance that manifested during PS2 didn't come back to bite them until PS3, the arrogance on display here won't bite them until PS6, or maybe later in the generation. Sure you can't find a PS5 on shelves now, but bad PR has a way of creeping up eventually, and on the internet, today's internet darling can be tomorrow's meme, and Playstation can go from the monopoly of gaming to that joke brand kid's parents used to play, the MySpace of gaming, in the space of a year. They're still acting like it's 2015 and they have no competitors. I'm wondering what their strategy is to take one the impeding cloud boom when you can play Assassin's Creed 15 on Luna free with your 2-day shipping subscription on Prime? Charge $90 for games, sell devs kits, then tell them we changed our minds, screw you?

It's classic Sony though. Playstation has escaped the classic Sony-isms their hardware departments have always existed in until now, with Ryan the yes-man climbing his way to the top. This is how even their TV division almost went bankrupt. "Because we're Sony. People will have no choice." And then Samsung and LG appeared. The same dinosaurs that were convinced minidisc would catch on if they just piled them in stores and kept the price at $300 forever must be running the company still. And it doesn't help that they promoted CFOs from all aspects of the company into leadership positions. CFOs do not belong in leadership positions. Ever. Their objectives are at cross purposes with the maintenance and growth of the organization.

@David187 There are some of us concerned by the store closure not because we actively buy a ton on the store, but because we already bought a lot from the store and fear it marks a time limit of being able to access that content as well, though that isn't immediate. If they're going to rip the rug out with minimal notice on purchasing, and on devs while they're actively producing products, that tells us with certainty they're more than willing to do the same to retrieving what you own as well. That's something that should be of significant concern to anyone with a stake in those stores - meaning basically all of us. The bubble of illusion that Sony will maintain access to our products in good faith has been burst. Sony showed their cards. And that's to say nothing of what they're doing to developers that pay a pretty penny to participate in their system and stake their survival on it, quite literally in some cases. If this were Apple, the internet would be in meltdown. But even Apple hasn't managed to pull a stunt like that.

@naruball 100% agreed.

Jesus what a way to end a console's life

Did Sony seriously not inform developers still intending on making games about the Store's closure? It shouldn't have even been this soon to begin with imo

Stop making games for PS Vita and starts making games for PS5. That thing is beyond dead now.

@Rob_230 "Its going to lead to devs questioning whether to put out content on PS4 now PS5 has released"

Not at the moment, certainly, with probably getting close to 120 million PS4s being out there vs what, 7m PS5s? Financial madness not to support the PS4 for the foreseeable and that's why all the big hitting games are still catering for the PS4, plus the PS4 is still a current model.
The Vita never took off in the same numbers (thanks in part to devs being pulled onto the PS4!) but still managed about 16 million units (estimated) so hopefully we might still get some cross buys that allow a Vita port to exist.

@mousieone I never said that I have a different opinion! I own 100s of digital PS3 & Vita games I can still access them. between CEX & cash converters they will have nearly every game as well on disc & memory card so it lives on that way. the games I own are still available online!

@TheFrenchiestFry warning yes or at least stop selling those dev kits. I mean seriously would that have been so hard.

@David187 the issue in my opinion is the deplorable behavior towards the Vita Devs. Not sending out a dev kit or at least giving the Vita a year or longer. It’s not the death of the store, which is annoying for sure, that upsets me but your statement lacked a general regard for the indie devs actively working on their projects. That does matter :/ but I appreciate the clarification.

Good Lord, it's as if every other morning now I'm waking up to a new headline as to how Jim Ryan continues ruining PlayStation. When, oh when will this downward spiral end?

This is absolutely appalling. At least in the case of the PSP and PS3, no one was still making games for them. But I knew for a fact it was way too soon to close the Vita's store, and the fact that Sony is doing it now is really only a testament to just how badly they want to wash their hands of the system. In any case, I can only imagine how much bad will this entire scenario will engender towards indie developers. I mean, if Sony just starts missing out on games, things like this will definitely be the reason why.

I think I hear Microsoft laughing:

https://kotaku.com/xbox-cloud-gaming-adds-a-bunch-of-older-xbox-games-1846590473

@Rob_230 As noted,Sony do have some good people in management, eg: Shuhei Yoshida etc.,but agree there's seemingly people above them dictating a AAA/profit-first strategy above all else.
Agree it's a bit of a concern with devs like Drinkbox,&/or others (Hades),have been signing up for timed exclusives on Switch/XB (Gamepass),etc., & if there's a PS version it's months later if ever.
Likewise,the invite-only system to participate in PSN sales is resulting in the same titles getting cycled through sales, whilst other small indies have gone years since their last PSN sale,or in some instances,never had one...but have had multiple ones on Eshop/Steam/XB etc.
That's not to say Sony doesn't get some indie exclusives,but it's clearly not a focus. As for AAA,I'd wish Sony had paid Rockstar for a RDR/Undead Nightmare port instead of Online DLC,but clearly they regard mtx revenue as more important.
Closing the legacy stores will save them $$ on tracking old dev accounts,but the lack of notice to devs & giving PS4 (& potential PS5),owners lacklustre support like the ps2 classics on ps4 titles is sending the wrong message about confidently investing in their digital shopfront.
Combined with their silent social team's interactivity on the PS blog,it's not helping perceptions,especially when they continue to stay silent & let these things continue unacknowledged.

Month after month it's feeling a little less like the Sony I loved. No wonder the community's turning against Jim Ryan.

When you miss the point entirely.

@Shepherd_Tallon https://www.thegamer.com/meet-the-developers-who-are-about-to-lose-their-ps-vita-games-forever/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

I still ask myself why Sony is cutting its own branch? Do they really want us to go to Microsoft? What game do they play?

I will celebrate the day Jim Ryan is no longer leading PlayStation, he is Sony’s Don Mattrick

@PSoneboi Why don't you feel bad for the Devs??? There is a huge dedicated fanbase crying out for new Vita games and they were catering to them. Smalls teams making games for a passionate audience that would buy their products. And Sony have just shot those Devs in the **** and made sure that most of those games won't reach their intended audience. It's so anti-consumer and anti-indie it's shocking and inexcusable.

@Jbuggydroid I bought a blue japanese Vita this january and I LOVE it.

Since then I purchased a dozen of fantastic PSP exclusive rpgs (digital) and about 15 exclusive Vita games (physical).

As a trophy enthusiast, I also really like the cross-buy option. It is a fantastic value for stackable trophies.

I also really like that I can play a lot of my bought PS1 classic from my PS3 on the go.

The only bad thing about the Vita is the memory card but with the closure I'm glad I invested in an additional 32 GO card to go with the 8 GO that came with the console.

@BloodNinja Same thing for me. I will skip PS5 entirely and play new releases on PC.

I have a ton of PS4, PS3, PS2 and Vita games to play anyway. If Sony do not care about their past, I'm not going to care about their future. Jim Ryan can go ***** himself.

@PSoneboi You can very easily buy new and used Vita consoles and games on Ebay and Amazon and most local video games stores have an online shop nowadays. I bought a Vita and 15 games this year and I'm in Canada (so basically the same as the US).

You also have american shops like Lukiegames that sell rarer stuff for a decent price.

You even have online shops like PlayAsia for importing without a hassle japanese or region 3 games.

You suck at searching.

@__jamiie Because this platform has been dead for years. You can’t even buy a Vita outside of eBay. Steam and other platforms exist which do allow small devs to make games and those aren’t dead. Read the room, when you decide to make a game so you pick the one platform that the fewest people have access to or do you try to go where people are actually playing? I mean I do feel bad but also I don’t because games for Vita should have stopped years ago when Sony stopped selling them. I can’t play your game if I can’t buy the system. Once they are eBay only it’s time to move on.

@Turbodream Umbasa!!

@PSoneboi I think you need to read the room. Developers who have spent time, effort and money getting their games on Vita are now being told that there's a clock ticking or they'll lose everything they've worked so hard for. That's not fair and I don't see why you think it's acceptable. Regardless of where you can buy a Vita at this point, there are millions of existing owners who would have access to their new game. That's on Sony and it's indefensible.

@Turbodream I never said you couldn’t buy one but when they aren’t sold at major retailers that means the platform has lost support as they are no longer being manufactured officially. In the US we have GameStop, Walmart and Target as the big 3 and Vita has been sold there for at least 3 yrs. 3DS almost a year now so that’s the next one that is now officially dead. Ebay and small game shops that sell second hand items don’t count here. PlayAsia is a little different but you are still buying a Vita that was manufactured years ago, nothing new anymore.

@__jamiie The clock was ticking years ago, not now out of the blue. When a company stops manufacturing something, support for it goes with it. It’s a gamble at any point after that.

@PSoneboi PSP, PS3 and PSVita at the same time doesn't strike me as all platforms being treated the same. Nobody is still making games for PSP. Nobody is still making PS3 games. People are making games for Vita. Sony agreed to allow developers to make games for Vita without giving them any warning that they were about to close the store. They took their licensing money and allowed them to work their arses off to be stabbed in the back. Why don't you see that as wrong?? 99% of people on this site are PlayStation fans and 99% of them disagree with you and your opinion. Try to read the room better. What Sony has done is wrong.

@__jamiie Name a game or developer that is impacted. If you can I’ll take the loss here and apologize. I’m not interested in this fight as I just don’t care because I don’t see any developers out crying about it or complaining anywhere. I’ll agree if there are then yes Sony should have given them fair warning upfront when they took their money.

@PSoneboi Maybe take the time to read the article next time before making an ass of yourself. You have a developper's name and two cancelled games mentioned in the article. So go ahead, apologize: (from the article)

"For developers like Lillymo Games – the makers of Habroxia 2 – this has resulted in the cancellation of its next title. Other releases like Thief’s Roulette and Lazr have been canned."

Also, you are a liar. You wrote " I never said you couldn’t buy one" to my reply to your comment saying this: "I haven't been able to buy a Vita for about 3 years now. No one sells them, you can't buy their games anywhere, and you can't get the memory cards either nor accessories." Saying you can't buy them anywhere then commenting later you can't buy them anywhere but on Ebay when you saw my comment...you are still wrong.

Dude, just stop, it's getting ridiculous.

@Turbodream Fair enough I didn’t catch that in the article and that’s 100% on me, but I meant it about buying one. If I can’t get it at retail then I can’t get it. After market was never what I meant but I should have made that clear. I’ll finish with that I agree it stinks but also don’t count on any system being available once it stops being manufactured. Devs should be very wary of making games on old platforms. I do think Sony should be held liable here for not giving a heads up as they should have shut down the development window for Vita the year after they stopped making them. Same with 3DS now, I wouldn’t make any game for that system at this point. Hopefully they can recover.

And how many times have Sony said that they will push for indie Devs and look after indie Devs. Yet when a new console comes out they don't and it's triple A until a few years in then it's we support indie more. Sony rep and Comms is a joke as of late

Cant believe developers were actually still spending time making games for the vita.

I loved it back in the day, recently pulled it out to play persona 4 and vannilawares games before aegis rim. Always intended to buy persona 2 and 3 plus a couple other but this announcement made me realise, I would be just doing it for the sake of it, realistically I dont need to buy games on a outdated machine.

@Turbodream lol hand cannon janky yeah sony should just ignore ROI for crap like this. I knew the games getting cancelled would be crappy forgettable indies...but yep utterly disgraceful move from sony.

The machine os dead sony made a move it was upsetting for an hour but Dead console get shut down, nintendo do it from time to time as well its just the way digital storefronts work, and likely always will as technology move past old code etc.

Now a vita emulator on the ps5 would be a good offer, then all these pointless games your upset about could still be sold without porting, or to much extra work.

@PSoneboi "Because this platform has been dead for years. You can’t even buy a Vita outside of eBay. Steam and other platforms exist which do allow small devs to make games and those aren’t dead."

You fail to understand that releasing an indie game on Steam is not the best idea, because it has insane competition and it gets lost if it doesn't stand out for some reason. On psvita, even with its tiny userbase, it gets a spotlight and it can even sell better there.
Seriously, see how many games are constantly released on Steam and tell me how likely it is that they all get noticed and stand a chance at being successful.

@PSoneboi @Turbodream beat me to it. Read the article before making stupid comments.

@__jamiie I’m so glad the community here is so nice. I don’t usually comment because if you get something etc the wolves come for you, name call you, and are totally unable to have decent and civil discussions. None of you have disappointed.

@naruball oh I do understand that, Switch has now become the same thing too. Definitely not saying it is better etc. I am surprised there is a base buying games at all though on Vita, I’d love to see numbers for game purchases on Vita over the past year, be very interesting to see.

@PSoneboi You responded to people and started shutting down their points without reading the article and therefore missing the whole point of the article. Don't start playing the 'picked on card' just because you were wrong and others pointed it out.

@__jamiie I mad a post, people then responded to me. I only came back as most of the points I made weren’t related to the article but an overall view of the issue of making games on a dead platform. Then, several people made their pints but were very rude. Not sure why the first response wasn’t hey it’s mentioned in the article? I would have been fine with that. Calling me as add or stupid was uncalled for. I didn’t resort to anything like that. If all you have is name calling then you have nothing. I admitted I didn’t see the part about devs but I still got called stupid and am ass. So being polite got me nothing. But I’m still going to be polite because I believe in civil discourse. However, I doubt I’ll bother giving an opinion anytime soon as I’d rather not deal with people being so rude. I’ve got better things to do then defend something I have nothing vested in.

@PSoneboi Well said.

@PSoneboi Fair enough point. I know we can't realistically expect support for a good amount of years nowadays with all the consumerism and planned obsolescence pushed our way. It just stinks to see another example of the fact that everything and everyone is disposable, including customers and developpers.

To think that the Nintendo of a bygone era offered support (new pieces and repair) for the Famicom (released in 1983) until october 2007...

*Sorry if people (me included) are abrasive it's just that it's a very emotional situation (for me at least) and sometimes it's difficult to judge if people are intentionally omitting facts or not.

@Mince By your logic you should not buy a PS5 because it is already technologically outdated lol.

What's the most important is the software, not the hardware. If it was the other way around, Nintendo would be long dead and Sega would still be in the console market (Dreamcast was Xbox before Xbox).

Anyways, the point is the precipitated Vita store closure is a very bad PR move. It shows a very clear lack of respect for indie developpers.

The 3 stores closures are also very bad for video games preservation / history. Emulation isn't perfect.

@naruball Seriously see how many actually steam gamers there are compared to vita.

Beside maybe its time they started releasing on the switch instead, you know the current gen console that incredibly popular with indie gamers.

Sarcasm aside, i get your point but really between switch and steam I think they should get enough coverage, If the games worth playing. At least compared to the vita anyway. I always assumed its just devs who are big fans of the vita and releasing for their fan base.

@Turbodream I dont think you can compare ps vita to ps5, beside the ps5 has not even reached its full potential yet, we still have metahuman tech and more to come to its games.

Other than that I don't disagree with you, to an extent. Game preservation, well I have already been considering how unhappy I would be if or when Nintendo do this to the switch. I really hope for switch 2s and 3s (lol) switch backwards compatibility.

That said i stand the fact the games upcoming don't look like much, this has prompted me to dust of the old vita and replay some forgot about backlogs!!

@Mince I was rather comparing PS5 to an up-to-date PC. Modern consoles are basically pcs anyways lol.

Yes, Switch is a better option than Vita but you would be surprised at the hardcore fan base for the Vita. It is still very active on the Internet.

Anyways, I would love a PS Vita 2 to compete with the Switch 3.

The Switch 2 is basically the Switch Pro that is coming soon. It is supposed to be as powerful as a base PS4. I'm tempted.

@Turbodream No worry, I definitely should have saw the dev in the article and that's on me too. I do hate to see it happen. As I have got older I've come to accept that games to me will be experiences I'll remember as I know so many just won't be playable forever which does suck. Just be sure and enjoy the heck out of what you got now and cherish them while you can.

@Mince again. It doesn't matter how many switch or steam gamers there are. How is your game going to stand out when there are thousands to choose from?

How hard is this concept for you to understand?

@naruball Quite simple, by being worth the Recognition! All games have time on the new release page, most even have long periods of time on te coming soon section, this is ample for news articles sites to find the games worth reporting on.

How do you not understand this!!!

@naruball the considerable extra users should hen lead to more sales than vita could ever provide, as long as the game is worth it, haand cannon janky for example has no chnace ever.

@Mince Let's be logical. The attach rate for Playstation machines is the highest of the big three.

The Switch has the highest attach rate for Nintendo BUT most of it is limited to 1st party games.

Remember that Sony/ Nintendo/ Microsoft/ Valve all take the same 30% of sales as fees for using their stores. So, if I'm an indie developper I do want to put out my game on the most popular platforms (PS4 and Switch) AND on the platforms with the highest attach rate ratio (PS4 and PS Vita).

PC market is way oversaturated though. That's why indies are on consoles (because it's often more profitable).

@Turbodream Attached-rate, tie ratios for a outdated machine like vita, shouldn't really be considered, the data is outdated. I bought almost or maybe even more than hundred vita games. That said like the majority of users like myself have since Probably moved along to new consoles. Sure some will hold out, I wven still play on mine, but attached rates probs not the best metric to use these days.

So what makes you think the vita still has such a active base, especially these day.

Considering its @ 24 for software and tie-ratio, much lower than your claiming.

https://www.vgchartz.com/analysis/platform_totals/Software/Global/

@Mince It's relatively active for a discontinued console. Just looks at reddit or youtube. Sony canned the Vita like it was a flop like the Virtual Boy or the Wii U. It's not.

Your numbers are probably more up-to-date than mine. My main point is still correct though. Playstation attracts a more hardcore crowd than Nintendo. They buy more games and buy more games from 3rd party developers.

Anyways, it was fun to discuss with you but like you did with the Vita, I will be moving on with that conversation. I'm long overdue for a long vacation from anything related to Sony. Will be gaming on PC for a long while then back to my backlog.

@Turbodream Im playing trails of cold steep 3 then 4 after playing 1/2 on the vita years ago, coincidentally.

@Mince I'm currently playing the 1st trails in the sky. I want to do the series in order, supposedly the payoff is better that way.