Viewing Company : Sony

Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment) is a multinational developer and publisher of software and video games founded in 1993 to launch the original PlayStation. SIE has headed research and development, hardware and software publishing for all PlayStation platforms since. Today they are best known for flagship franchises including Uncharted, Gran Turismo, God of War, LittleBigPlanet, Hot Shots Golf and exclusives like The Last Guardian, Horizon: Zero Dawn and Until Dawn.


The Tomorrow Children shuts down on November 1st, 2017

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Q-Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment announced in a bi-lingual post on the game’s Japanese site that online service for The Tomorrow Children will end November 1st, 2017. As the game requires these online services to function The Tomorrow Children will be unplayable and Extinct after this date. The statement is sincere, if a bit boilerplate and vague:

“We would like to thank you all for playing The Tomorrow Children up until now. The Tomorrow Children development and operations team would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for taking part and enjoying our title since the service began in September 2016. We want to apologise to all of our users who still continue to enjoy this title and ask for your understanding with the decision to end the service.

There is only a short amount of time remaining, however The Tomorrow Children development and operations team hope that you can all continue to enjoy our title until the end of service. And we would like to extend our thanks and best wishes to you all who continue to enjoy and play our game.”

No further explanation has been given but due to the game’s free-to-play nature and grueling design choices, the decision was most likely made due to low retention of active players. The post also contains a timeline of important dates leading to the end of service starting with the July 6th announcement:

    • July 6th, 2017 (Thu) – Service End Announcement (This Announcement)
    • July 6th, 2017 (Thu) – “Thank You Sale”, discounted prices on DLC and Freeman Dollars through September 28th.
    • September 28th, 2017 (Thu) – Removal of the Founders Pack, and Freeman Dollars from the PlayStation®Store, as well as end of new downloads for the title and special items. Share Play will not be able to play after this date.
    • November 1st, 2017 (Wed) 17pm (Japan Team) – End of Service

There’s a good chunk of time left before the game shuts down so if you were ever interested, give it a go. It’s quite a punishing grind to get started (as it should be, given the subject matter) but there really isn’t anything quite like it. If nothing else it’s got a visual style that should be seen first-hand before it’s gone.

The game page is up and relevant dates have been added to the calendar. At least one hands-on video will follow before the game is gone.

Raiden III*
_blankboxDigital Release:Original digital release date
Delisting:Exact or Approximate date of delisting
Developer:Developer
Publisher:Publisher
Available On:Anywhere it may still be available, online or at retail
Links:Any relevant links not referenced below. Live or archived links.
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Tumble on PlayStation 3 Delisted as Tumble VR Releases

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There are probably few people who are still interested in PlayStation Move games in 2016 which may be the reason that Tumble on PlayStation 3 has been delisted. It was one of the first titles shown for the PlayStation 3’s motion control peripheral back in 2010 and one that I was always waiting to go on sale. It’s a block-stacking puzzle game that received middling reviews but it always looked interesting to me.

I had checked in with the game’s PlayStation Store page earlier this year but as of October 11th it’s no longer available in the english territories. Hong Kong PSN still has it for sale as does GameStop.com where I may soon finally buy the $10 download code.

So, why would Sony delist one of their own original titles? I’m pinning it on product confusion as Tumble VR has just been released for the virtual reality headset. I don’t know if the content is similar but having two products with the same name that share some of  the same peripherals was apparently too much for Sony to bother handling. Fortunately, no other first-party PSVR titles share a name with older products and I haven’t seen any other delistings come from the lineup.