The official PlayStation community forums will cease to exist on February 27th, announced via brief message from community manager Groovy_Matthew. The forums are a resource for PlayStation users to discuss Sony topics and offer troubleshooting help to each other regarding their PlayStation products. The announcement encouraged users to seek help from the PlayStation social media accounts and support site.
Forum members responded to the news in the announcement thread, reminiscing and expressing their sadness to see it go. Some users remarked their membership in the forum dates back as far as 2003, and shared memories and stories from throughout the years. One user, Oran_Gina, said the were “gutted” by the news and went on to say, “We’ve seen ups and downs, seen some very odd stuff, some classic rages, people have come and people have gone. We’ve had amazing conversations, competitions, game nights, friendships forming and a heck of a time. I guess all things run their course…” Many users plan to keep in touch with each other and continue the community they’ve built. Unfortunately, the won’t be the only ones to see their forum shut down.
This follows the announced closure to the Xperia support forum, as Sony appears to be funneling everything to the Sony domain. Forums in general are becoming less popular, and with the rise of social media, many companies are opting to just do away with them. BioWare closed their forums in 2016, and none of the users were surprised at the decision. Niche forums just aren’t really essential anymore, especially when big forums like Reddit feature a sub forum for every topic, including one for PlayStation. More forum closures are sure to come as time goes on.
With the upcoming release of the PlayStation 5, players will have a lot of questions and inquiries about PlayStation products. You can still find help from the PlayStation support site as noted above, and find different unofficial forums around the internet. Check back for more Sony news.