We’ve known for some time that the PlayStation Vita’s days were numbered, but we didn’t quite know when Sony would finally be calling it a day. It looks like that time has now come, with Sony deciding that the time has come to end production for their portable handheld console.
Last month it was reported that production of the PlayStation Vita was coming to an end after Sony marked both of their models that were in production at the time as “Ending Soon”. It wasn’t clear just how much longer production would continue for before it ended, but as it turned out, it wasn’t very long.
Now, as reported by Gematsu, Sony has updated their website listings for the remaining two PS Vita models and marked them as “Shipments Ended”. That means that production of the consoles has now finished, with the last batch already being shipped to retailers.
The PS Vita first released in Japan in 2011 before being launched elsewhere around the world a few months later. While it was definitely an upgrade to the PSP, the Vita never really lived up to expectations and sold poorly compared to its predecessor. As of 2014, 80 million PSP consoles had been sold, with current PS Vita sales estimated to be around 16 million.
At present, there are no known plans from Sony to head back into the handheld gaming market.
