Sony’s legacy systems, the PS3 and PS Vita, are throwing a wobbly it seems. There are widespread reports, right around the globe, of purchased games not downloading properly from the PS Store. It’s unclear what the exact cause is: PS3 received a firmware update recently, which could potentially be related – but that wouldn’t explain the problems with its handheld counterpart.
The error messages, which explain either “an error occurred during the install operation” or just “an error occurred”, can purportedly be overcome if you have the patience to try triggering the downloads enough times – but obviously this isn’t ideal. It should be noted that while the Japanese giant has promised to keep the PS3 and PS Vita’s digital stores online, they’re held together with Sellotape these days.
These may just be the trials and tribulations that come with trying to use hardware over a decade old, then. We’d like to hope Sony will issue some fixes and tack things together as best as it possibly can, but clearly it’s never going to be at the top of its priority list. Are you having issues downloading software to your PS3 or PS Vita? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source reddit.com]
Comments 41
I noticed this last night while redownloading something to my Vita, it took like 5 tries to trigger the download.
@HeeHo Did you get it to download eventually, though?
Here’s an idea, make the store available on the ps5!
I experienced this recently too when I was redownloading some PS1 titles to my PS3! It seemed to happen more consistently when I had 3+ games downloading at once in the background, so if I waited for one to finish downloading, that also helped get past this. Otherwise just try again and again.
@RatmCky Well... That won't work, because PS5 can't play PS3 or PS Vita games.
I think this is it, we’re very near to the definitive end for PS3 and Vita, if this isn’t resolved I’m just gonna soft-mod both my consoles as there’s way too many games stuck on those platforms, specially PS3.
@RatmCky uh you know ps3 games aren't playable on the ps5 , so what would be the point of that?
Maybe the servers are overloaded. There is the combination of the whole 360 marketplace situation (delisting a bunch of games in February and trying to shut the whole thing down in May) and the upcoming shutdown of 3DS/Wii U eshops later this month. So PS3/Vita owners may want to focus in on making sure they have everything they want from the PS3/Vita stores in case Sony decides to shut the stores down later this year.
This is the start of seeing the real benefits of having stuck with a physical game collection.
@twitchtvpat I think the implication is pretty obvious, to get it to work…
I knew that 300+ physical collection would be useful one day.
@get2sammyb thanks….didn’t know that….
It’s because I bought Persona 3 and 4 on PS4. They know I don’t need the Vita anymore. Sorry everybody.
@RatmCky in a perfect world sure , but we all know thats never going to happen. people realized this years ago.
@twitchtvpat 🤦🏾♂️
Before they decided to reverse course on shutting down the store I went on a shopping spree and made sure to grab whatever I really wanted before that time came thankfully. Still hopefully they fix the issue for folks. It's not a good look.
I haven’t tried, but have pretty much everything I still have left to do installed, so not too concerned.
This 'limited time' thing is a major flaw for digital gaming, it's going to have to figure out how to solve it if it really wants to remove physical altogether.
Sure there's a lot of live for the moment gamers who don't care, but there's just as many who want to buy things that they feel like they own I think.
@Grumblevolcano the may shutdown is fake. That said Microsoft have delisted yet more dlc this month this time no warning. Nfs hot pursuit content was removed over the weekend.
This issue started right after the so called 'security update' dropped, no doubt this is yet another deliberate move from Sony to attempt to shut down the older ps store without actually announcing theyve done so. This issue goes more wide spread though, it isnt just affecting new purchases, players aren't able to download games or dlc they already bought either. Which is concerning because it means if the store does shut down, all this so called legacy content will be inaccessible with it. Despite the promise of 'once you purchase even if delisted you can access your content'
@Bricktop33
I'm on the fence. We have several DLC's and games getting delisted on rival platforms. This isn't the first time Sony has had a problem like this-- 2020, 2021 had similar issues. I expect a fix, but we'll see.
All I know, Sony will lose a lot of money if they're choose to kill off the PS3 store in its current state. Not only with refunds, but the last minute surge buys they could get if they gave an actual notice of shutdown.
I'm trying to stay optimistic.
@Korgon
That was my plan this month. We all see how that's going.
@Grumblevolcano
This x1000
We all know what really happened. MS put a bug in the system like Sony said they would do to COD.
I thought it had something to do with the servers with PSP and PS1 games, because I could not download either of those to the PSP or PS3 for the past two days. The PSP will download videos and updates to games already downloaded, and the PS3 will download PS3 games.
All my digital games disappeared off my vita. My son turned it on yesterday afternoon and it said there was no memory card installed so I removed it and reinserted it and nearly all my digital games had been deleted. Tried downloading some games via the store and my download list but not many were working. I’ve been on ps plus nearly since the start so trying to scroll through the download list is a real pain
I've been getting this today with a PS4 game downloading to PS5, so possibly not PS3 and Vita specific.
@kin333 @Korgon When they announced it, I hit eBay and bought the physical discs and cartridges I wanted!
Much better than leaving it in New Sony's hands...
@RatmCky @get2sammyb Doesn't stop the tub o' lard being able to download the games and then either transfer them to Vita or show up in the Vita and PS3s download lists. If you buy a cross platform title on the PS4, the Vita version shows up in the handheld's download list - assuming Fony haven't broken that now?
@Bricktop33 It could've been just an error like Microsoft said or it could've been Microsoft backtracking after the gigantic backlash. Either way, the fact the May shutdown message appeared in the first place will have changed the approach some people take regarding those older stores.
I managed to download around 32gb worth of games at end of last year with little problem minus one title (for some reason I couldnt get crypt of the necrodancer to download)
Thats direct to the VITA.......then my Vita developed a problem with the screen flicking off.
I opened it then ended up busting it good lol
I think I had the issue the other week on vita with need for speed, I may just not have been paying attention but I'm sure it took a couple of goes
@get2sammyb Yeah eventually it did once I didn’t get the error message.
Thankfully it seems just to be a mild annoyance and not a complete shutout.
tried this morning on my Vita when I read the article, just got the error message. I tried one game (Chronovault) five times. Turned it off, ensured was on full power, made sure the power save wifi option was OFF, rebooted about five mins ago and nah, still not letting me download anything.
Not good! Haven't tried the PS3 yet, that'll be next.
UPDATE: Same situation with the PS3. Good job I bought a replacement HD (maximum capacity size the machine would take) when the original 'we're closing the store' announcement was made. If this doesn't get fixed, then I have a specific, unchangeable set of games available for both PS3 and Vita.
Dontcha just love the digital world, ey?
Do yourselves a favour and mod your consoles. It's the only fullproof way to maintain your digital purchases.
Sucks to see. Then again Sony has made it clear whether website or app or other consoles (surprised no one said to make games visible on PS5 the same as the app of not only trophies but software visibility not purchasing/installation because of course PS3 software won't that's why it's streamable and Sony ignores the Vita while the PSP gets support for PS+ so it's clear there) they won't make it easy to access, PS3 and Vita only and broken UI.
The third party plugin Valkyrie PS Store got taken down. I have it installed but it's completely useless and doesn't access anything and just a reminder it existed is why I keep it. They won't fix it or the store won't be fixed.
The store will go down eventually like 360/Wii U/3DS and we just have to deal with buggy storefronts. Security and lack of users is one thing but a broken UI and UI elements is a joke still.
I dread the 360 OG Xbox backwards compatibility as it's internet based, nothing has been said about it. Online for games have gone and some are on Xbox One like Halo and whatever each first/third party does with their servers but still once 360 OG Xbox BC goes we can't do that either.
Then again Project Gotham Racing 1&2 in 2020 worked well for a license heav (dead series) racing game and Forza rarely gets BC treatment for Xbox One/Series X so some odd examples of licenses of games are still playable for now others aren't.
Almost tempted to dig out my PS3 and see these errors for myself.
I had this issue when trying to download purchases directly after checkout while still in the store. If I went to my download list on PS3 via the transactions menu I had no issues at all.
I can't even get my PS3 to come on. I found the red light flashing one day and now if I try and turn it on it turns itself off and the flashing starts again.
Anyone any ideas?
@feral1975 A quick Google says the flashing red light has various potential issues.
1) Overheating - take it apart and clean the fan?
2) nec tokin capacitors failing(if your ps3 is fat or series 20xx slim) - possibly needing a thermal paste refresh?
3) HDD problems - check that it is connected properly being the first port of call?
Only experienced one type of light and that was the YLOD on my original PS2 compatible fatty. The 320Gb PS3 25xx Slim is still going very well (& quiet) despite being very old.
@sanderson72
Thanks for the help with that.
It's a fat 80 gig model, I stupidly allowed Sony to send me one to replace my original fully backwards compatible 60 gig one after it totally died a month after launch.
It might be too much for me to handle some of the more technical ones, but as I have a lot of recordings on there and playlists, I might see about getting a professional to look it over if there's a chance it can be saved.
This issue is now fixed (for now)
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