Sony is switching off the PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita. Here in Australia the shutters come down in July 2027, and once they do, no new purchases on either console.
Sony announced the closure on the PlayStation.Blog this week. It's rolling out in stages: Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua lose the PS3 store first, starting August 2026, more Latin American and Middle Eastern countries follow in late 2026, and every other country, Australia included, loses the store on both PS3 and PS Vita in July 2027.
Once the store closes in your region, you can't buy anything new on those consoles. The one bit of good news: Sony says you'll still be able to re-download content you already own after the closing date, in their words "for the foreseeable future". The reason given is that the store is moving to modern commerce and payment systems the old hardware can't keep up with.
It's the second big digital-direction call from Sony in the same week, landing the same day as the news that disc production ends for new PlayStation games from January 2028. Put the two together and the direction is unmistakable.
For anyone my age, the PS3 era is proper nostalgia territory, and plenty of us still have one plugged in under a TV somewhere. If that's you, the practical takeaway is simple: you've got until July 2027 to grab anything digital you've been meaning to pick up. And "the foreseeable future" is doing a lot of work in that re-download promise. It's not the same word as "forever", so back up what you care about while everything still works.