There seems to be a problem with downloading games for those who are still enjoying their older generation Sony consoles. Sony has moved on a couple of generations from the PS3 and PS Vita, but it has kept the online services and storefronts alive for the many players who have held back on upgrading to newer iterations, or simply enjoy playing games on PS3 and PS Vita that are not available on the modern ones.
The PlayStation 3 launched in 2006, with the PS Vita handheld following in 2011. Sony had initially announced plans to shutter the online services for these consoles in 2021, but reconsidered this move after reflecting on the decision and instead decided to keep the PS Store and related online services available for the time being. Since then, Sony has not given any indications as to when it will shut down services for the consoles in question.
It seems that players all over the world who are trying to download their games to both PS3 and PS Vita consoles are getting some kind of error message that is preventing them from retrieving their games from the storefront. While the PS3 recently received the 4.90 firmware update, the Vita has not been updated since 2022. This precludes any issues with the firmware update causing the error, but as for the true reason for this problem - at this stage, it's anyone's guess.
While it is admirable that Sony has continued to support aging consoles, it is also understandable that it is primarily focused on generating revenue through the newer ones. Nevertheless, one can only hope that the Japanese tech giant will placate the masses who still get joy and use out of their legacy devices by fixing whatever it is that is causing the frustrating error. That said, Sony has other problems like the ongoing battle with Microsoft of the latter's ongoing attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard.
While the shutdown of services for PS3 and PS Vita are inevitable it is unlikely that Sony would do so unexpectedly, so players can at least fill up their consoles with their best-loved games before they become unavailable to them forever - that is, unless they resort to things like emulating PS3 games downloaded from dubious sources. It's possible that the error preventing game downloads is server-related, and one can only hope that Sony will resolve it or at least make some kind of announcement explaining the situation once it figures out what is causing it.
