Analysis: 2,000 digital-only games will disappear when PlayStation closes its stores.
Many titles will be lost for good and others will become Xbox exclusives, VGC analysis shows.
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Many titles will be lost for good and others will become Xbox exclusives, VGC analysis shows.
Although users will still be able to redownload their previous purchases for the foreseeable future, from July 2 it will no longer be possible to buy games on the PS3 or PSP online marketplaces, and come August 27 the same will apply to the Vita too.
Of the games set to disappear from the formats, the vast majority are available on other platforms such as older PlayStation consoles or PC. However, around 120 games will essentially become lost forever once the stores close, our analysis suggests.
Some titles will essentially become Xbox console exclusives, such as Beyond Good & Evil HD, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and both Bionic Commando games.
In total, around 2,200 digital-only games will disappear after the stores close, including:
- Around 630 digital-only Vita games
- Around 730 digital-only PS3 (PSN) games
- A small number of digital-only PSP games
- 293 PlayStation Minis
- 336 PS2 Classics
- Around 260 PS1 Classics (particularly on PSP and Vita)
In terms of general preservation, the vast majority of the digital-only PlayStation games were also released on other systems – many were released on Xbox 360 or PC and others were re-released on PS4, while some of the handheld titles were also released on mobile.
Obviously, the physical disc versions of the PS2 Classics can also still be played on PS2 consoles. As such, while these games will disappear from PSP, Vita and PS3, they can't truly be considered 'lost' because they'll still be available in some form (albeit no longer on every format).
There are, however, around 120 games that were exclusive to the PS3, Vita and/or PSP that will essentially become lost forever once the stores close. These include the likes of Infamous: Festival of Blood, Echochrome II, Lumines Supernova, The Last Guy, Rain, Trash Panic, Pain, PixelJunk Racers, Tokyo Jungle, TxK and MotorStorm RC.
The Xbox brand has been extolling the virtues of backwards compatibility for some time now, and the upcoming store closures will also have something of a positive impact on how the Xbox library is perceived. As soon as the store closes, a number of games that were previously multi-format will automatically become Xbox console exclusives.
The likes of Beyond Good & Evil HD, Rayman 3 HD, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD, SoulCalibur II HD Online, Resident Evil Code: Veronica X, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and both Bionic Commando games will soon only be available to purchase on Microsoft's consoles.
The biggest third-party company affected by this by far will be Sega, who went through a spell releasing HD versions of a number of its past games on both Xbox Live Arcade and PSN. Almost all of these will become Xbox exclusives overnight.
HD versions of Sega titles like Daytona USA, Fighting Vipers, Jet Set Radio, NiGHTS Into Dreams, both Sonic Adventure games, Sonic the Fighters, Sonic CD, Virtua Fighter 2, Sonic CD and Space Channel 5 Part 2 will all soon only be available to buy on Xbox consoles (and PC).
It isn't just Xbox owners who will have something new to boast about: lightgun games Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronices will go back to being Wii exclusives too, since both were only released digitally on PS3.
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