Last week, the PlayStation community panicked a little when the PS Store on PS3 went offline for “maintenance” for a few days. While it’s not unusual for PS3 owners to be hit with maintenance messages when trying to access the dated PS Store, the length of the outage this time was certainly unusual. The PS3 store is back online and the panic is now over, but I think Sony’s preparing to take both the PS3 and Vita stores offline for good.

PS Store on PS3 unlikely go offline without notice, but Sony seems to be winding it down

I didn’t cover the “news” of PS3 store’s outage right away because I found it hard to believe that Sony would pull the plug without notice. We all remember what happened when the company did notify players of the store’s closure, only to end up backtracking. Imagine the backlash if it went permanently offline without notice…

But there are signs that Sony won’t be keeping the PS3 and Vita stores up for much longer. Back in June, we were the first website to report that the company quietly nuked players’ access to premium PS3 avatars from the PS5 and PS App. At the time, we thought it was a glitch because only a small number of players were affected and the avatars are still available on PS3, but the “problem” has since expanded to almost everyone.

Over on Reddit, I saw numerous threads from players in several countries who contacted Sony support to inquire about the sudden removal of purchased PS3 avatars, only to be told that they won’t be back on PS5 or PS App. One agent allegedly stated that Sony is preparing to close the PS3 and Vita stores.

Now, I don’t put much stock into information that comes from PS Support agents because they are notorious for sharing false information. But the fact that premium content — even if it’s just avatars — is being actively removed for everyone and has been for two months now suggests that Sony is up to something behind the scenes.

Add to this the fact that Sony is offering PS3 game streaming as a perk to PS Plus Premium users, that Sony is winding down support for PS4, that PS6 is only a few years away, and that rival Microsoft has already shut the Xbox 360 marketplace down, and you’ll likely arrive at the same conclusion as I am.

My not-so-educated guess is that 2026 will mark the end of PS Store on PS3 and Vita.

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