The Last Store Front Stands Alone
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With the closure of the Xbox 360 Digital Store this week, July 29th 2024, the most successful Xbox console of all time. We are left with One Store still standing. The unlikely hero of the 7th Generation of consoles, Sony’s PlayStation 3, remains the last digital store front in existence. With Microsoft being one of the pioneers in getting a fully fledged, digital store and online gaming service up and running in the console space, it is ironic that the late to the part PS3 still stands.
One of the main reasons the store still remains is down to the success of the PlayStation 3 following a slow start to the generation. Having to play catch-up the Xbox 360’s early lead and developer friendly hardware put Sony on the back foot, which forced them to create some of the most beloved and still running sagas. From the likes of Infamous, Resistance: Fall of Man, MotorStorm, Uncharted and of course The Last of Us, to name but a mere few. Since then the console grew into a 1st and 3rd party monster with one of the widest and most diverse catalogues across any gene. The other, arguably biggest, is the vocal outcry when Sony changed the plan to close the PS3 and PSvita stores in 2021. After the online unquiet from this decision, the store has remained opened, with the PSP falling by the wayside with a much smaller murmur.
Although it remains the last bastion of that transformation generation now the the Xbox 360 joins Nintendo’s Wii U as a figment of our memories, lost in time like all our purchases, like tears in the digital rain. Only time now stands between this last store to fall into the digital graveyard in the not too distant future, but for now you can still fire up your PlayStation 3 and enjoy some of those classics that are still locked to the platform with no meaningful or successful console emulation or ports to save them. Time to fire up another run of Metal Gear Solid IV, here sure is keeping us waiting.