Sony has finally pulled the plug. The PlayStation Store will end on PS3 and Vita, launching in parts of Latin America and the Middle East in August 2026 and reaching the rest of the world in July 2027. The discs still work, and everything already in the library will be available for download in the near future, so even the big retail exclusives should be fine.
What's really gone is PSN's oddity: download-only content, i.e. no discs or ports and no survival anywhere else. Buy now and it will be locked to your account forever. Here are a few games worth playing before the count ends. The focus is on games where there are no houses left.
13
tokyo jungle
Sony's strangest survival game casts you as an animal who begins as a small dog in depopulated Tokyo and works his way up the food chain over several generations. It feels like a cross between a nature documentary and a roguelike, and there's nothing else like it. From Pomeranians to dinosaurs, it’s unconventional.
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The only disc version made exclusively for download was an expensive PlayStation Network compilation that is now hard to track down. You can stream it on PS Plus Premium, but that means you're renting rather than owning the hardware, which Sony is actively reducing, so buy downloads while you can. It will be completely yours.
12
inFamous: Festival of Blood
A standalone offshoot of inFamous 2, Festival of Blood transforms Cole MacGrath into a vampire for one standalone night at a New Orleans stand mid-carnival. No base game or save required. It's a super powered vampire hunt that runs on electricity for hours and we know exactly how stupid that is.
It was originally released as a download-only title, hidden as a bonus code inside the physical inFamous collection, but was never sold separately on disc. With the store gone, there is no other route for the standalone version. For the infamous antique that most people skip, it's a surprisingly stylish way to spend an evening.
11
rain
Rain is the finest detail from Japan Studio (Patapon, Gravity Rush, Tokyo Jungle ^). The nameless boy is invisible except when the rain outlines him, and he chases another invisible child through the city of night, having borrowed a lot of money from Paris. The entire game is built around the single idea of using rainwater and footprints to make the invisible briefly visible.
It may drift in a repetitive direction, but the mood carries it through. The physical version was secretly released in Hong Kong and Taiwan as Lost in the Rain, but it's rare enough to ignore and the PS Plus premium stream is rental only. Downloading is the only way to actually own this quiet, brooding oddity behind closed doors.
10
Supersonic aerobatic rocket-powered combat vehicle
Yes, that's the full name, and yes, this is the game that became Rocket League. Before Psyonix won faster titles and conquered the world, they created this unusual cult following in 2008. A rocket-powered car slams a giant ball into a goal post, and the controls are so off-kilter that they can weed out the casual crowd.
Online servers are long dead, so treat them as local and single-player curios rather than competitive servers. It currently only exists on the PS3 store, making it a very affordable history lesson. Even offline, it's a fascinating fossil. It's an awkward prototype for a multibillion-dollar phenomenon.
9
Eco Chrome
echochrome is a puzzle game about lying to yourself. By rotating the Escher-like structure so that impossible perspectives become real walkways, we march tiny mannequins along paths that exist only at right angles. Elegantly and delightfully brain-teasing, it's a fitting showcase for the intellectual side of puzzle games.
It also appeared on the PSP, but it's not really a lifeline as all the stores carrying it are closing down at once. If you still have a wand, the Move-based sequel is also worth purchasing. Pure, wordless puzzle designs like this are rarely made these days, so preserving a copy feels like a decent thing to do.
8
House of the Dead 4
Sega's arcade light gun flagship was released as a PS3 download in 2012, but was never released on disc. As stores close, original cabinets become increasingly older and rarer, making this one of the last, easiest ways to purchase them.
It's exactly what you want from a series. An on-rails shotgun of endless zombies, a difficulty curve designed to eat your coins, and in this case your dignity. Move assist gives you the closest you'll get to an arcade feel, with you shaking the controller across the screen like it's 2005. The series is still better than most when it comes to loud, goofy fun.
7
last man
One of the first PSN experiments, The Last Guy uses real satellite maps of the world's cities to show a top-down apocalypse. A mix of evacuation simulation and high-score chases, you'll lead a conga line of survivors through the streets to safety while monsters lurk in the crevices.
It's been download-only from the beginning and has never been ported, so the closing store is the end of the line. This is the kind of cheap, idea-driven game that was only made during the early days of the gold rush of downloadable titles. Now, no one approves of something this strange, and it's definitely worth a look.
6
Ratchet: Deadlock HD
The fourth Ratchet game on PS2 got a shiny HD makeover for the PS3 era, but that remaster was left out of the boxed Ratchet & Clank collection. always Sold as a download. While the rest of the HD trilogy is safely stored away on disc, a cleaned-up version of Deadlocked sits in stores. It's a shame, because it's a very good work, almost a spin-off from the main series.
The game itself is the most combat-centric and arena-heavy duel in the series, with Ratchet forced to take part in a deadly TV game show. Completionists seeking a full HD set will want this before it's released. As far as we know, no one is producing another physical version.
5
trash panic
Trash Panic is a re-imagining of Tetris by someone with strong feelings about recycling. Garbage falls into the bin and if you are not careful the fragile items will break and the fire will spread and you will have to smash and burn it into as small a space as possible.
This was one of the smaller download-only curios and has never moved to other platforms, so 2027 is the deadline. This game is more sinister and sinister than it first appears, a puzzle game with real physics and a stubborn personality. Dumpster management has never been this stressful. Strangely persuasive.
4
LocoLoco Cocorecho
It's hardly a game, but it's even more fascinating: Cocoreccho is a PS3 spin-off of the PSP platformer LocoRoco. In fact, it is an interactive screensaver. Tilt and nudge swarms of speckled yellow creatures around a single flowing screen, coaxing them into more of their kind, soundtracked to an unmistakably gibberish song.
There are no disks and no ports anywhere else. It's just this weird little download that Sony put out in 2007 and is mostly forgotten about. It's the definition of trivial, but it's also pure serotonin, and when the store goes dark, you can no longer purchase it.
