There are still some major concerns around the Vita that have largely gone unanswered since Sony delayed the closure of the PlayStation Store in April. Despite Vita dev kits reportedly being sold as recently as February, developers were not made aware of plans to shut down the PlayStation Store and only later updated on the short deadlines to release new titles. Indie publisher, Sometimes You, tweeted last week reconfirming the deadlines that Sony laid out in late April as reported by IGN:
The final date to submit games to the PS Vita store is on July 12, and the final day to release content on the PS Vita is on July 20. The final date to submit a game to Sony’s global quality assurance is July 6, though Sony says it can’t guarantee slots for review
Email provided to developers, via IGN
Another troubling aspect of this news is that patches allegedly have the same deadline. Game-breaking bugs or Trophy glitches will be locked in place and un-fixable after the end of July.
Although previously reported on their Important Notice support page, there is concern around the end of the Vita Messaging service on June 28th. Sony only states that you’ll no longer be able to send messages on the Vita but PSNProfiles users pointed out that some games supported multiplayer via game invite messages. Some titles, like Wake-up Club, even incorporated the feature into their Trophies. This could mean that as early June 29th multiplayer features and Trophies in some games will become unavailable. The PSNProfiles thread has a growing list of at-risk titles.
So the store closure itself may be postponed for the “foreseeable future”, but it’s anything but stable on the legacy PlayStation Stores. Thanks to @pasta_wheat and David Many for both pointing out these developments.