In an announcement that has shocked the developer community, the Japanese division of Sony – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc – has announced that they are shutting down PlayStation Mobile this year. Gamers are being advised to ensure that they run all of their existing downloads from 10th April this year on every compatible device that they own to ensure that the licenses are verified so the games will continue to run after the service is shut down although the games will still be available to re-download should they need to be.
The service itself is scheduled to close on 10th September after which point no further titles will be released and verification will not be available meaning that existing games that have not been verified will not longer run. In addition, no further purchases will be possible from the store. No announcements have been made yet on the European or American PlayStation blogs confirming whether this is a global roll-out or just affecting the Japanese market although we assume that this will be taking place worldwide.
Understandably, developers are frustrated and disappointed at the news with many of them spending a considerable amount of time releasing numerous titles for the format with several having new titles scheduled for release. Not only does this decision mean that work on future titles will see limited sales potential but their previous work will no longer see further sales that they deserve. With the release of the PlayStation TV – which supports the platform – we feel that this is a serious error of judgement from Sony not only depriving gamers of well in excess of 100 additional titles for the console but depriving developers of valuable income.
Developers were not given any advance warning of this move, and have not been given any indication of whether their titles are to made available as regular PS Vita releases through the PSN Store, especially those developed using Unity. As we have mentioned before, the lack of marketing or store promotion of PSM titles has hurt sales prospects for games and integration of these titles into the store and re-releasing them as “regular” PS Vita titles would be a logical decision but no word has been given yet as to whether or not this would be the case. Regardless, one PS Vita developer has already come forward and offered support to PSM developers to adapt their games for regular PS Vita release.
We have asked the official PlayStation Mobile Developer Support Team for further clarification on what is happening and we will post further updates as we get them.
Oh I do hope they have the sense to be replacing PSM with Vita Minis or some such rebrand and putting them in the main section of the store…
I always wondered why this site showed so much for PlayStation Mobile, when its closure has always been inevitable… Sony themselves have indirectly hinted at such a move, by completely ignoring the platform to the point that it might as well not even exist in the eyes of Sony Computer Entertainment.
It was always great to see that this site showed a passion for PlayStation Mobile titles that is unrivaled, but if I was developer, I would have walked away long ago because of this very move… Native titles are where it’s at, and where Sony placed their enthusiasm long ago.
There should be a place for smaller titles though – hopefully as a sub-brand of the Native titles – just as we has PS Minis on the PSP.
As gamers several of us started off in the 8-bit era where bedroom coders dominated the industry for a long time. Major publishers started that way (Codemasters, for example) and we’ve even had a history of releasing software ourselves back on the Amiga so supporting the “smaller guys” is something that’s close to our hearts.
My all-time favourite game was developed by a team of three people and one of my favourite Vita titles was written by just two. This is an incredibly short-sighted move because the PSM developer of today could potentially be the AAA developer of tomorrow.
This Is a complete disaster. I only recently got to grips with Unity properly, but the fact I could deploy on Vita meant a LOT to me. I’ve got the Initial prototype of my game working great and was really excited at the thought of releasing It for free, just to so I could know there’s someone out there playing a little game I made. And In hopes that It could help kickstart something a little more substantial.
I really dont get It, PS Mobile might not have been big, but It was an incredible opportunity for a small developer.
It appears to be worldwide: https://en-support.psm.playstation.net/app/answers/detail/a_id/343