Goodbye Playstation Mobile
Do you know Playstation Mobile? No? I think so.
Playstation Mobile is a service started in 2012 which mainly aimed to attract indie game developers to publish their games on Vita and some other verified smartphones. It was a good way to create simple games/applications and didn’t need huge devkits to develop. In theory, it sounds great to have quick smartphone games on your Vita. In practice, it never took off. The service was heavily criticized for not being advertised enough and having some major drawbacks for devs. Even though the fees were low enough (it was even free to create developer account at some point), it didn’t get enough attention neither from indie devs nor from Sony. It is possible that you never even visited the category in PSN Store as it is not exactly in a place that gets attention.
As expected, Sony decided to shut down the service. Shutdown will take place in two steps. You won’t be able to buy new games/applications after July 15. You will still be able to re-download your stuff till September 10. After this date, you won’t even be able to redownload your bought content. It is recommended to backup your content before the service shutdown happens. So far it is only valid for Japanese PSN, but other regions will more than probably follow.
After the recent Youtube/Google Maps service shutdown, it is another bad sign for Vita. I have a bad feeling that more will follow, hope i am wrong.
Source: Siliconera, Official Statement
first
2nd!
How many services are Sony dropping? By years end they’ll have nothing left!
Darn, I bought cytus lambda off of PS mobile. I have it on my phone too, but it doesn’t click when you tap the notes like it does on the vita. Supposedly it’s because Android has audio latency, at least that’s what I read somewhere.
I visited the playstation mobile category in the US psn the other day. Looking through everything took less than 10 mins(that is just sad). I really hope the vita doesn’t lose more features.
Hand full of jems anyways plus no exploit was ever discovered ….toodles PS Mobile….
With the rate the Vita is failing, I hope that we’ll be able to see some Vita titles come to the PS4. That way, the franchises that started on Vita(Gravity Rush for example) won’t be lost, and will have new life on PS4. Of course, it would preferable if the Vita has a comeback, but that seems highly doubtful considering Sony is giving up on it.
Google use rapid updates to ensure only they can control android platform,anyone else will have to spend a lot of effort at every android update. So PSM have been a mistake from the beginning. Although I like the idea of PS Vita/Android cross-platform development…
Lol I just posted this at wololo blog
The Vita is dead.
Not really. Loads of new games coming out every month over here in Japan.
Problem with the Vita in the first place was that it tried to be too much for too many people. Sony got caught up in “teh intagrayshun is kign!” hype and thought it would be right to release a game oriented smartphone type device…
When all they had to do was release a decent handheld with similar UI features.
All they’re doing now is trimming off superfluous excess.
Never did care too much about PS Mobile. Nothing good on it at all. Here’s hoping the Vita doesn’t get neglected beyond this point though.
since the servers will eventually be shut down and uses wont be able to redownload (meaning they have to back up their games) what happens to the “runtime package” required to run the games.. will this be disappearing as well? can the runtime package be backed up? if not, and a user deletes it they would effectively be sc*** over, no?
shudders at the thought of the inevitability of when this eventually happens to the actual playstation store.. smh.. this is why i was always skeptical of the “digital purchase age” its an illusion
not even playstation support could help me… this is only continuing to shake my faith in sony. dark times are ahead.
what worse can happend to vita ?
relax guys i thing vita found his coustomers and its will earn mony and its will suport
My ps store on my via is completely different…. I couldn’t even get to this category… Why is that???
Because it is not available in every region. I think it is only for US region.
I really wanna know what happens to my 5 bought PSM Games !?
Hi!
I go to https://psm.playstation.net/static/general/all/en/psm_sdk.html and still I can download the SDK. but if you open the “sdk 1.21.02” tab you will se a message about dates about deprecated SDK 1.21.02, and the use of SDK 2.00.00.
I’ts a error, or a try to make PSM SDK more visible in a viral or something way?
aw i was waiting for chaos ring 3 to have subs
At this point, there is no reason to buy a Sony system, well the portable once at least.. Vita dropping YouTube support, now PS mobile, 1gen Vita not using its accessory port, whats next ? Trophies ? PSN ?
Thank god I decided to skip this generation of handheld consoles 😀
i guess my love for this console was misplaced… I had high hopes. my only assumption is that they are backing out of any future portable consoles and sticking to box/vcr looking consoles now.. seems like after the psp they didnt want to do it anymore.
I just bought the Vita Borderlands 2 bundle. Finally obtained a new position which afforded me some disposable income to invest in a system. I don’t care for big consoles all that much. PSP is still my all-time favorite (as with many of you). I just hoped the PSV train would be around a bit longer.
I may return it for one of the other PSV at the store so I won’t be at FW 3.36. The model I purchased was at 3.18
bumers i jus got my laptop and was ready to start developing video games.
wait i don’t get it, the thing that’s closing is teplaystation mobile page and not the whole store service right?
just the ps mobile service
the worst games of psn there are in playstation mobile mobile. All in 2d
D: I was developing a game for Playstation Mobile. Oh well….
*** if its one thing I liked about the jp psn store was the fact that it had a decent mobile library
First otherOS, then Digital Comics, then the PSP PS Store, then YouTube & Maps, then PSM, plus the ones I forgot.. Dahell Sony
While I no longer have a Vita (gave it to my mom), I’ll be keeping an eye on this sounds interesting.