PSP users won’t be able to access the Playstation Store anymore

According to Sony, starting September 15, PSP users will not be able to access the Playstation Store anymore. This applies to customers from Europe, Asia and Africa, so North Americans will still be able to use this application after that date.

Users in these regions, however, will still be able to purchase games for their Playstation Portable console through the Sony Entertainment Network Online Store. Additionally, you will be able to use the download list on your handheld to re-download previous purchases. Currently, Sony is still performing market analysis in order to figure out the best way to proceed in the other regions.

Apparently, this move is just one of the many ways Sony tries to get their customers to switch to the PS Vita. The company’s plans are to focus on one single handheld console and the choice is obvious. In fact, Sony already announced that they won’t sell any more PSP’s worldwide. Released in December 2004 in Japan and March 2005 in North America, the Playstation Portable was Sony’s second handheld console, after the PocketStation. Among its features, the PSP had Remote Play, through which players could access their Playstation 3 from a remote location. While you could access most of the console’s features through Remote Play, the majority of PS3 games were not compatible. The Playstation Portable was discontinued in 2014: in January in North America, in June in Japan and, later this year, it will also be discontinued in Europe. The only model that’s still in production is the PSP-E1000, which was released in October 2011. As I previously stated in this article, Sony aims to discontinue the handheld completely in order to make place for the Playstation Vita. The new handheld was released in December 2011 in Japan and February 2012 in North America.