The End Is Near For PS4 Communities

Now that the PlayStation 5 is out, most of us expect Sony to gradually move its focus away from the PlayStation 4. Sony has already done a few things to that effect, and now it has announced that it will soon be sunsetting the PlayStation 4's Communities feature. Those who are avid Communities users might want to savor the time they have left, because Sony has confirmed that it will be shutting the feature down next month.

Sony hasn't given us a specific date for this shutdown yet, saying only that it will begin in April 2021. This shutdown was announced over on a page dedicated to discontinued PlayStation apps, features, and services on the PlayStation support site.

"Thank you for using the PS Communities feature on your PS4 console," Sony wrote. "Beginning in April 2021, this feature will no longer be supported or available on your PS4 console. However, you'll still be able to stay connected and enjoy messaging features and more on your PS4 and the PlayStation App."

So, while Communities might be going to away, you'll still at least be able to keep in touch with any folks you met in those Communities by messaging them directly on your console or through the PlayStation app. Communities, as the name suggests, were groups dedicated to a single topic – usually individual games – that essentially served as message boards for those topics. Players could share media in Communities, but they were perhaps most useful for finding folks to play games with.

There's no telling if Sony is planning to bring Communities over to PlayStation 5, but for the moment, no such feature exists on the platform. We'll let you know if PlayStation 5 gets a Communities feature of its own in the future, but for now, expect PS4 Communities to go dark sometime next month.