PS3 users soon won’t be able to message PS4 and Vita users
Will also lose access to PS Messages app
Once summer kicks in, PS3 users are going to get more secluded from the PlayStation ecosystem. Announced on the Japanese PlayStation website, starting on June 30th, PS3 users will no longer be able to send messages to PS4, and PS Vita users as well as send and receive messages using the PS Messages app on iOS and Android. However, that doesn’t mean messaging capabilities are being stripped from the console, as you’ll still be able to send messages from one PS3 to another PS3.
With PlayStation 3 now in its 14th year on the market and having been officially discontinued in 2017, I don’t find all this too surprisingly mainly because the system architecture on that console is so different compared to PS4 and soon PS5. At some point, backwards compatibility either becomes an impossibility or to maintain connectivity, sacrifices need to be made to newer devices to appease users still holding onto the older hardware.
Worth pointing out that the percentage of PS3 users who are messaging PS4 users is likely incredibly small, seeing how the two platforms don’t allow for gaming together anyways. While a great feature to have, PS Messages is hardly elegant or robust for messaging when compared to dedicated solutions like iMessage, WeChat, and so on. Equally small is the number of people on PS3, so for the most part, I doubt this shift will affect all that many people.
Let me know if you know people who still game on PS3.
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