PlayStation is shutting down the servers of one of its popular PS4 exclusives this September. Last console generation, many of the best games were PS4 exclusives or PS4 console exclusives. Between the likes of Bloodborne, God of War, The Last of Us Part II, Uncharted 4, Persona 5, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Ghost of Tsushima, and Final Fantasy VII Remake, PlayStation was firing on all cylinders. Most of these compelling PS4 exclusives were narrative-driven, single-player games, but it did dabble in multiplayer here and there. One example of the latter, which also happens to be one of the most prominent examples, is Everybody’s Golf, which wasn’t a mega success but it certainly had and has its fans. Unfortunately, its servers are shutting down.
Very quietly, and using the Japanese branch of PlayStation, Sony has announced that on September 30, 2022 the servers of Everybody’s Golf will cease to exist, leaving owners of the game with no other option but to enjoy the game offline, which is an option, but it’s not the allure for many.
“Thank you for your continued enjoyment of the PlayStation4 software Everybody’s Golf,” reads a brief statement that accompanies the news. “As of September 30, 2022, we have decided to terminate the online service of Everybody’s Golf. We would like to thank all the management teams for enjoying the online play of this game for a long time since the service started on August 31, 2017. You can continue to enjoy offline gameplay even after the online service ends.”
Now, this translation comes through Google Translate, so it’s unclear how accurate it is, but the dates are accurate. That said, in addition to the blurb above, Sony also provides the following list of features that will no longer be available after this date.
- “Open course” selection
- Participation in “national competition”
- Play of “Hall Battle”
- Use of “competition room”
- Browse the latest “Daily Ranking”
- Browse the latest “copy ranking”
- Partial browsing of “Notice BOX”
- Browse some of “Items of the Month”
- Browse some of “Last month’s items”
- Purchase and use of “Warp Medal”
- Acquisition of some items related to “fishing”
- “Report” to the player
- View the latest “profile card” and the latest “number of copies”
- Browse a part of “Library”
- Acquiring the Platinum Trophy “The Master of All”
- Acquisition of Gold Trophy “Fish Picture Book Collector”
- Acquired the bronze trophy “Online Debut ?”
As you can see, the servers shutting down will make the Platinum Trophy impossible to obtain, so if you’re interested in obtaining this achievement, get on it.
At the moment of publishing, PlayStation hasn’t offered any insight into why it’s shutting down the servers of the PS4 game, but it’s presumably because the costs of maintaining them now outweigh the benefits.