We're often told that digital is the future of gaming. Countless games have been splurged onto digital storefronts without ever being sold in physical form. This shift to digital should make it easier for companies to keep selling products for longer, free of the need for factories, warehouses, and stores, but the threat of no longer being able to buy PS3, PSP, or PS Vita games digitally gave many players and collectors pause for thought.
"We have two conflicting opinions when it comes to the digital market," says Jay Sherman, co-director of Super Retro Bros, a retro gaming shop in Nottingham. "There's many great games available exclusively on the PS network that will soon disappear that haven't had physical releases, like Bomberman Ultra and Spelunker HD, and as gamers and collectors this is a hard pill to swallow."
This feature first appeared in PLAY #1, back when PlayStation last announced shuttering the PS3 and PS Vita digital stores before they backtracked.
Sherman's already noticed that PS3, PSP, and PS Vita games have become more collectable in recent years, as their nostalgia value has increased. "We've definitely seen an upward trend in the retro market for PS3 desirability, and price increases because of this," he says. It won't be the case for all games, but rare titles will continue to climb in value. With the PS Store nearly closing this could definitely have an impact on the physical market.
"DuckTales Remastered, for example, is a cracking game that costs around £15 on the PS3 Store but you'd be hard-pressed to find a physical PAL copy for less than £50," he tells us, adding that if there were no other alternative but the physical option, "games like this will in time increase, and it wouldn't be surprising if this particular game started to trend close to the £100 mark. This then leads to the question: how much would your desire to play a game cost you?"
Buy now, or pay later
For Josh Fairhurst, co-founder of Limited Run Games, digital store closures are unavoidable and will happen eventually.
"At some point, every digital storefront will end up in a position where it just isn't worth the owner maintaining it," he says. Which then leads to people wanting to make sure they have what they want locked down. "I definitely feel like people are going to start scooping up whatever games they can. Vita already had a very hardcore collecting audience and many games were scarce before this news – I can only imagine the prices for physical Vita games going up from here," says Fairhurst. "Persona 4 Golden, one of the best-selling and most widely distributed games on the platform, is already fetching some pretty absurd prices."
For collectors, Limited Run Games makes physical printings of games that otherwise wouldn't see the light of day beyond digital storefronts. "Physical media ensures that players can always access the games they've purchased," says Fairhurst. "I think it is important for players to actually own their games, because they may find themselves 20 or 30 years down the road wanting to share games with their kids or grandkids."
But why do so many of us even want a library of physical games, which all take up space? "Gamers who grew up with retro games will always gravitate towards physical media, I think," says Fairhurst. Limited Run Games puts a lot of time into its releases to ensure they feel like complete boxed products.
"There's just something very visceral and satisfying about something tangible like a physical game. [...]. I'm not sure that many gamers who grew up in the digital age fully appreciate the fact that they may one day not be able to access or play the games they grew up with."
"If this catches on, which I believe it will, the industry will completely remove any sense of ownership."
Fairhurst predicts that both Sony and Microsoft will move towards digital-only consoles in the next generation, as far off as it is, but it's the rise of streaming that concerns him most. "If this catches on, which I believe it will, the industry will completely remove any sense of ownership, and preservation may become very difficult if games only ever actually exist on servers that no-one can back up."
Region free, die hard
One recent positive that we now take for granted is region-free gaming. After all, LRG is a US-based company, but its games will work on any console. Region-free games have been great for collectors worldwide. "It has given players a wealth of options in the physical space, says Fairhurst. "If a game doesn't have a physical release in one region, there's a good chance it could have one in another! It's definitely helped us foster a community of international customers."
What can we do from here? Limited Run Games recently came up with an interesting solution for Nintendo's Game Boy: reprinting old games on carts that run in the original console. "I think we are going to see more and more gaming companies allowing publishers like us to bring back their older games in their original formats," says Fairhurst.
"With how insane prices are getting in the retro market and new gamers constantly entering the game-collecting hobby, the prices will continue to rise unless these games can get back into circulation."
Imagine that – being able to buy a brand-new reprint of Mega Man Legends or Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night for PS1 for £25. Maybe that's the future. Even though Sony stepped back from closing these stores in 2021, the threat has taken hold, and we're already seeing price hikes.
End of an era
Who would have thought a major Resident Evil release would become impossible to buy on PlayStation? That's what will happen with the closure of the PS3, PSP, and PS Vita Stores. While you might have predicted PS Minis would no longer be available had this happened, even the likes of Resident Evil Chronicles HD Collection will be affected. Far from an obscure, unimportant game, it brought both The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles to PlayStation for the first time. Supporting PS Move and DualShock, it enabled you to blast your way through the early Resi story.
Works by the shuttered Sony Japan Studio would be disproportionately affected by any future store closures. It's not just a bevy of obscure PS1 games that'll be difficult to get your hands on as the PS5/PS4 selection of classics struggles to match those on PS3. Even PS3 games like Tokyo Jungle, and Vita sleeper hits like Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines and Soul Sacrifice Delta will be impossible to buy. A couple are available to stream on PS Now, but it's an imperfect solution.
Many more niche titles had digital-only releases, and it'll be sad to see them go if and when the stores finally close their online doors. There's TxK, for example, a spiritual successor to Tempest that gave us some of the best arcade action on Vita, the flashy lights and pulse-pounding soundtrack carrying us through many exciting, turbulent overnight flights. And Sweet Fuse: At Your Side, a digital-only PSP game that pre-empted the successes of Danganronpa and Code Realize.
Even smaller projects playing off big franchise success, like MotorStorm RC (a delightfully bitesize take on the solid racer that threw back to a legacy of games like RC Pro-Am ), will fall by the wayside if and when the digital storefronts close. In total, something like 2,000 digital games will be gone for good when Sony closes the PS3, PSP, and PS Vita stores. With the likes of Astro Bot celebrating PlayStation's history, will there be a way for players to enjoy that rich back catalogue for themselves when Sony finally closes its old online stores?
Unsure what to snag for these older systems? Check out our best PS3 games, best PSP games, and best PS Vita games lists for the top tier selection of each catalog.
