Sony to Close PlayStation Mobile in September

Just three short years after its launch, PlayStation Mobile will be shutting down and if you want to keep your purchases, you'd better download them quick.

For those who don't know, Sony's PlayStation Mobile service launched three years ago as a successor to its PlayStation Minis program. It was meant to offer small, App Store-like games (e.g. Lemmings) mainly for Android smartphones and the PS Vita. Sony is only giving you until Sept 10 to make sure that you don't lose all the PlayStation Mobile purchases you have made since 2012, when the service first opened. Eurogamer reports that the PlayStation Mobile store will be discontinuing its services on July 15 and it will officially close on Sept 10.  That gives fans four short months to make sure that all of their previously purchased content is securely backed up on the device that they want to play it on. If you fail to do so, you will lose your purchases forever as there will be no way, after this point, to re-download them (they're not major losses, we know). This means if you need to switch devices, you're basically screwed.

Sony has issued a word of warning to all its customers who have purchased games through PlayStation Mobile:

Ensure you have downloaded all of the games that you want to keep, because after 10th September 2015 you will not be able to re-download your purchased content.
Devices that are not authenticated prior to 10th September 2015 will be unable to access previously purchased PSM content after that date.

If you're on a PlayStation Vita, you can activate your Vita to download your PlayStation Mobile games before Sept 10 to continue playing your games after it closes. To do so, you can follow the steps below:

Go to [Settings]> [PSN]> [System Activation]> [PlayStation Mobile]> [Activate]

If you're using a PlayStation Certified device, such as Android smartphones, tablets and PlayStation Vita, you need to open up that PlayStation Mobile app and make sure that you launch any of the content that you previously bought in order to complete the authentication.

While you may miss some of the better known games of PlayStation Mobile such as Lemmings, Haunt the House, Surge, Super Crate Box and Alien Breed, it seems that it is in Sony's best interest to close down the service. If you lose them, it's really not that big of a loss — this is just another sign that Sony's smartphone division is closing up shop.