Today Sony announced that the Facebook app is being taken out of the store for the PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation 3.
If you already have the app, know the support for it will end in January 2016, though Sony said that may be subject to change depending on their circumstances.
With this change, any Facebook functionality with other applications on these consoles will end—PlayStation TV included. The PlayStation 4 will be unaffected by the change, and you will still be able to share footage from your console to Facebook.
The app was taken out of the store today, in preparation for that move. This isn’t the first time an app has been discontinued for the long-suffering PlayStation Vita.
Back in January, support for the YouTube app was pulled from the handheld console. Again, this meant that anyone who had the app could still use it, but Sony has since stopped issuing updates for the Vita YouTube app, and it was pulled from the store.
At the same time, Sony also stopped supporting the Maps app. I’m not sure how many people were using their PlayStation Vita as a GPS, so that might not have caused such a splash. The social networking app Near was also part of the cuts. Near was an app that let users see what others in their area were playing. Like the PlayStation Vita itself, it never gained wide-scale success.
In March, Sony cut support for PlayStation Mobile on the PS Vita. This was an app that let indie developers get their games onto the console, which meant that if users could no longer re-download games purchased through the app.
Well, let’s all light a candle for Facebook on last-gen consoles and wonder who, if anyone, is truly affected by the loss of a social networking app on a gaming console.
RIP.
