News that the PlayStation Store was going offline for the PS3, PSP, and PlayStation Vita caught us by surprise, but a game developer that had been planning on releasing a Vita game found itself in a trickier situation. Now, the game is canceled, and the developer said it was not told in advance about the closure.
Speaking to IGN, Lillymo Games founder Barry Johnson said it didn’t receive any notice from Sony about the Vita store’s planned closure prior to the public news. Because of this, its next, unannounced game will have its Vita version canceled, and the studio’s requests for information from Sony were met with silence.
Others, like Miguel Sternberg at Spooky Squid games, are still rushing to get their games out prior to game submissions being closed. Lightwood Games developer Katherine Gordon even offered her studio’s assistance in order to bug-test the game so it can release before the deadline.
Russian Subway Dogs on PS Vita update now that we have more info.
It looks like there is still a small window to submit games for the platform so I’m going to hustle and try my best to hit it!#VitaIsland #PSVita https://t.co/6QHxLInaoW— Miguel 🦑 Sternberg (@spookysquid) March 30, 2021
Hi Miguel, if we can help in any way let us know. We’ve got a Vita test kit so if nothing else we can provide an extra set of eyes to check over your build before you submit – try to catch any obvious bugs to help keep you within the deadline :o)
— Katherine (@lightwoodgames) March 30, 2021
The Vita is a somewhat unique case in that Sony stopped supporting it with its own games relatively quickly, but it has remained an indie gaming favorite–and to a degree, this even continued after the Switch release and offered a similar handheld experience. The Vita got briefly marketed as a companion device of sorts for the PS4, but the system itself has already been out of production for more than two years.
You’ll still be able to buy games on PlayStation Vita until August 27. The PS3 and PSP stores, meanwhile, are closing on July 2, so make any purchases you want before that date. You will still be able to download them later.
