It started out with a bevy of big indie names like FuturLab, Laughing Jackal, and Vlambeer behind it, but PlayStation Mobile has run out of credit. Sony announced overnight that it won't be publishing any more content following 15th July, and from 10th September, you won't even be able to re-download any of the titles that you bought. Welcome to the digital future.
If you want to preserve your purchases, you'll need to download them to your desired device and authenticate them by following the steps through here. You'll then be able to play the content in perpetuity – well, as long as your memory card remains intact. Developers will be unable to access the PSM DevPortal – a community for creators – from 30th November.
With titles like Surge and Tokyo Jungle Mobile under its belt, there's no doubt that PlayStation Mobile started out with a bang. However, despite beginning life as a means to bridge the gap between mobile and handheld development, the manufacturer killed off Android support last year. As such, it's no real surprise to see the entire initiative collapse.
The problem is that Sony, again, didn't properly support the programme. It was a good idea: a curated storefront full of great mobile games that could be played on PlayStation-Certified smartphones and tablets, as well as the Vita. But with no native Trophy or PlayStation Network support, it felt undercooked, and most indie studios moved on after an initial batch of releases.
Will you be sad to see PlayStation Mobile go, or did you give up paying attention to this a long time ago? Put us on blast in the comments section below.
[source en-support.psm.playstation.net, via community.us.playstation.com, neogaf.com]
Comments 16
I dread the day this will happen to PS3/Vita/whatever PSN.
One day we won't be able to download the stuff we bought...
With it being locked to Sony only mobile phones it was always doomed.
This was a thing?
As great as PS4 may be selling, the list of Sony half baked plans left to die on the vine continues to grow:
PSPgo
24" 3D display
Vita
PS TV
Move
Wonderbook
I wouldn't bet on Morpheous making it big.
Sony sure loves abandoning things on handhelds. Pretty much should've never rolled out PSMobile if you were going to pull Android support......but hey, closing another division couldnt hurt. Even if it is slightly on our dime.
@rjejr
So right. I could already see Morpheus losing support and Sony once again leaving their customers with a worthless dongle that can't do much, if anything. Lets not even bring up the prototype games that just look like re-purposed mobile games.
@rjejr Sadly, it's true. The thing is, the ideas in themselves aren't bad, they just have no conviction to follow these projects through.
This kind of stuff is what killed Sega. Sony needs to stop this before this kind of thing happens. The PlaystationTV system is probably the next thing that they'll kill, as it doesn't seem to be moving off of store shelves, and just like what rjejr stated, they gave up on Move and Wonderbook too quickly. Nintendo does this sort of thing too (Zapper Guns, Virtual Boy, Microphones), but sony is spending a large amount of money for this stuff, and I don't want to see them become like Sega later on. Come on Sony, Morpheous looks really good, so please don't have people buy it and then drop it in less than a year.
@get2sammyb - True, that would be the - "left to die on the vine" - part.
Oh, and thanks for not going off on me for being negative again, saw your name in my inbox and thought "damn, I'm in trouble again". 5 years and counting w/o being whacked by the ban hammer
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Yup, exactly like PS NOW.
Yea I had no clue this even existed. Considering I've always been a Sony fan, that's pretty sad. Come on Sony. Put your mouth where your money is! Let people know!
You'll then be able to play the content in perpetuity – well, as long as your memory card remains intact.
I know that memory card will not work forever especially with constantly deleting and removing apps for PS+ updates and sales.
Can we back up the mobile games from the Vita to the PC using the Content Manager Assistant and then after September 10, 2015 transfer them back and will they still be authenticated?
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/psvita/cm/app_pc.html
Also looking at these activation instructions for be able to play the content in perpetuity it looks like if your Vita dies after September 10th 2015 you will loose this content as you can't activate a device after that date.
I don't know if these Games work on a Vita TV but same thing applies.
The Content Manager Assistant will only work then for your originally activated devices unless there is some way support can manually activate a replacement device.
I hope they have something better for the PS4 & PS3 if Sony ever decides to close the PSN (After all we can't just back up our hard drive can we?)
@AyeHaley I can't wait for that day. I want to see all of these "digital downloads are the future" people looking at their paperweights while those of us that bought physical goods, can still play them for decades to come. Not that I want those people to suffer, but they decry physical goods and clamor for the digital, trying to push the market in that direction, ruining it for everyone. If it takes losing their massive, expensive, library for them to see the light, and for us to stop this absurd push to the digital, I can't wait for the day it happens.
To the topic at hand, the lack of trophy support is the reason that I never took Playstation Mobile seriously.
I think it was never even available in my country.
You gotta know when to hold'em, know when to fold them, know when to walk away and know when to run.
PS Mobile always felt like an afterthought to me. An attempt by Sony to replicate the minor success of the Xbox Live Indies service on the 360, only with very little in the way of promotion or support for either the service or the games on it. The lack of trophies and the limited use of the PS Vita (you could not, for example, use the rear touch panel or cameras with the PSM SDK, though that may no longer be the case) clearly helped things along, too.
I'm sad, however, that certain games (Tokyo Jungle Mobile, for example) will be lost to the ages as a result of the closure of PSM, but it's hardly a shock - the real shock, really, is that it took Sony this long to axe it.
There was a ton of crap on PS Mobile, but there were a few gems as well. Hopefully I really will be able to preserve all my purchases, so I'll be enjoy the few good and fun games on my Xperia Play for years to come.
EDIT: Does anyone know how to back up PS Mobile games from an Android device to PC? I want to change my ROM and kernel later, but don't want to lose my games forever.
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