From login issues to slow downloads to missing buttons, locating your PSP, Vita, and PS3 libraries can be a hassle.
After hearing the news about the PSP, Vita and PS3 store shutdown last week, I was disappointed, but I wasn’t as on fire as some. Rather like everything tired and annoying. Are we really doing that, Sony? Welp, okay.
With the recent clarification that we will still be able to download our purchases after the store closes (for now, anyway), I planned to postpone the commissioning of my libraries. July 2, the closing date of the PS3 and PSP store, seemed far enough away for me not to have to start acting.
With that “I’ll get to it later” mentality, on Friday I started looking at various forums and communities to freshen up on digital-only games and cheap shopping that are worth examining before it’s too late. Tomb costs how much on disk currently? Okay, sure, another PS1 classic for the list. The next thing I knew was that I was in the research area and couldn’t help myself. I went a little crazy.
On the front of PSP and Vita, I have a PlayStation Portable, but it no longer has a functional battery (the bulge got me). And, although I never had a PlayStation Vita proper, I picked up a PlayStation TV when they were very cheap; i never bothered to do much with the little box after a shallow look.
My PS3 is of the variety that is not played on PS2 discs and I got it at the end of the cycle, so I never ended up getting a lot of titles. Interestingly, most of my PS3 games are fun and quirky Indians from PlayStation Network – the exact kind of stuff people are now in a hurry to capture before closing stores in 2021.
Of course, I don’t need to know my entire personal PlayStation history, but I’ll mention it briefly just as a starting point. After reconfiguring my systems, I found some games I didn’t expect, when the hell I bought them Red Ring? – and I also realized that I didn’t have everything I thought I would do.
Whether you’ve sworn to Sony or are still open to the idea of buying digital copies of old PlayStation games while you’re allowed to, anyway, I ask you to make a decision sooner rather than later. With the inability to check your “legacy” console libraries in a web browser, the accounting process is a huge pain. I say this as someone who, again, doesn’t even own so many digital things.
My first call was when I tried to log on to these systems. I first started with PlayStation TV and while my account information was still there, the password gave me an error. Turns out I had to authenticate my PS TV and PS3 login using a semi-dark Sony page to generate a password.
(If you have two steps and have issues like me: Go to PlayStation Store, click the avatar at the top, then Account Settings, then Security, and finally your device configuration password. will help you sign in.)
Once I logged in, I took stock of my PSP, Vita, and PS3 games and made a cross-reference with this very useful collection of game recommendation lists in ResetEra. Another good thing: this list of games you can play on your Vita, but only if you buy them on a PS3 and then transfer them.
If there’s one topic in this article, it’s that everything related to preparing for the PlayStation store shutdown consumes more time and is demanding than you need, in order of magnitude.
For example, the “Add to Cart” button (and, consequently, pricing information) is invisible to me in the PS3 store.
I had recently heard complaints about this, but I saw it for myself wild. As an alternative to the missing button, every time I got to a game I wanted to buy (a process in itself), I had to go down and highlight the “Overview” button and then press once and press X to confirm. I’ve also read about purchases that haven’t been able to happen, but I haven’t found any of these errors. Fingers crossed.
If you’re like me, you’ll want to fill in the gaps in your PS1 and PS2 Classics collections on PS3 and Vita. It’s less than ideal, but in many cases, it’s better to search for games manually than to rely on incomplete PlayStation Store lists. For the former, look for “PSOne”; for the latter, “PS2”. This should show you an alphabetical list of classics for you to read. I would also take notes if needed to find out which of your games are already installed; the download list is not useful. It is still a clunker in 2021.
At the risk of digressing more than I need to, there’s also the issue of browsing PlayStation Store and downloading, installing, and correcting games in general on these platforms. That’s all a lot slower than I remember and at first I had no special memories. Enter this process in the hope of taking care of everything, even in the best of circumstances, it will feel like a project.
I ended up with a dozen more PS1 classics included Mega Man Legends, Suikoden, i The legend of the dragon, as well as the Resident Evils (I’ll laugh if Capcom makes modern ports later this year for the series ’25th anniversary) and titles like Tactical Ogre: Let’s get together. When will I get to touch any of this? This is a topic for another day, but I will try, honestly!
I only did the bare minimum, i.e. I got the games I wanted (and some probably didn’t need them), but I didn’t make any backups or spend any extra time testing my digital purchases. However, these conversations are happening online. If you’re investing in your digital library for PSP, Vita, and PS3, I wouldn’t necessarily encourage you to start buying a lot of old games you may or may not need before Sony plugs in new purchases, but do start figuring out a plan.
To anyone who walks away from the PlayStation ecosystem in light of these shutdowns, or at least reconsiders their stance on Sony’s digital shopping, I’m sorry. The brand was a great success.
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