First released for the Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita consoles back in 2012, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale was a first-party fighting game that attempted to capture the lightning-in-the-bottle, insane success of its Nintendo counterpart, Super Smash Bros. Six years later, after a myriad of cancelled bonus content, a slowly declining player base, and little support from the developers, Sony has decided to pull the plug on its online servers, effectively putting the title to sleep for good.
The idea for the series undoubtedly came from the years of success enjoyed by Nintendo blockbuster Super Smash Bros., as Sony finally realized that it too has amassed a collection of first-party IPs that are both beloved and iconic enough to attract a sizeable audience. Putting them into a fighting game thus seemed like a no-brainer back then. The game went through some developmental delays before finally hitting the shelves November of 2012. Playstation All-Stars released to generally positive reviews, and eventually went on to sell a million copies.
Despite the relative success of the title and the release of a couple DLC characters the following February, Sony announced at E3 2013 that all future DLCs and possibilities of a sequel are effectively canceled due to lackluster sales. The game was then relegated to a state of limbo for years, languishing in development hell while desperately supporting its already miniscule player base.
With the recently announced production cessation of the Playstation Vita, it seems appropriate that Sony is also trimming the fat in the software department. Ironically, Playstation All-Stars was one of the first titles to support Sony’s Cross-Play program where buying a PS3 copy also netted players the portable copy of the same game.
Playstation All-Stars will officially go offline on October 25, 2018. For those that want to pick it up again for the sake of nostalgia, Sony has graciously allowed a couple weeks to do so. Once the deadline hits, the game will only support offline campaign and local multiplayer.