For video game collectors and historians, it's a race to preserve as much of the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita's digital libraries as possible before Sony shuts them both down for good.

A rumor surfaced this week that Sony will be shutting down the online storefronts for three of its legacy consoles this summer: the PlayStation 3, Vita and PlayStation Portable. If that happens, owners will no longer be able to purchase content digitally for each system, potentially putting dozens of legacy video games out of circulation.

Sony has yet to officially comment on the matter, but it was inevitable. It’s impressive that Sony held out this long – the PSP has been discontinued for over seven years – before pulling the plug. But once they do shut everything down, whether it’s this summer or sometime thereafter, it will be the end of an era.

We’ve seen this scenario before when Nintendo shut down the Wii Shop channel in 2019, taking with it many digital exclusive Wiiware games. For lack of a better term, and until further notice, they’re “dead.”