Sony Is Shutting Down Its 'SingStar' Karaoke Game Servers In January 2020

Sony has made the decision to pull the plug on its "SingStar" karaoke title by early 2020.

Sony took to its official "Decommissioned servers" section on the PlayStation help page to make the announcement. As of Jan. 31, 2020, the "SingStar" servers, including network features, digital music downloads, and other online functionality will be disabled. While this won't affect offline play, it will still affect fans of the long-running karaoke gaming platform.

Players who still wish to enjoy the game will still be able to play songs on physical copies of the game's various entries, play digital songs they previously purchased and downloaded, play party mode, track offline scores, store videos and snapshots locally, and create song playlists.

Additionally, players will no longer be able to unlock the trophies "SingStar," "Stars in my eyes," "Concert debut," or "Channel surfer." Additionally, PlayStation 4 users will be the only owners who can re-download previously downloaded and deleted songs once the servers go offline. This will not be an option for PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 2 owners.

"After 15 incredible years, we have made the difficult decision to shut down the SingStore servers on Jan. 31, 2020," the team wrote on the official game page. "After that date, you will still be able to enjoy your downloaded songs, but all online functionality and network features will no longer be available, and you will not be able to purchase any new songs from the SingStore."

"We’ve loved watching the community grow, and have lots of fond memories from working on 'SingStar.' Your support over the years has meant the world," the message concluded.

The game series offered a fun and engaging way for players to sing their own renditions of popular songs over the years. In addition to the songs offered on a physical disc, there were additional songs available to purchase online. "SingStar" players also got their own microphones with each version of the game in both red and blue, which would aid everyone who wanted to participate getting a chance to step into the limelight.

There aren't very many karaoke-centric games left on the market unfortunately, save for titles like "Rock Band," and updates for that game are slow-going. Hopefully, this doesn't spell the death knell for music games as we know it. There's still very much an eager audience out in the gaming world who loves to get up in front of others and belt out their favorite tracks, even if they aren't the best singers.