After 10 years in the Japanese market, Sony announced that it is no longer going to be selling the once-popular PlayStation Portable video game device.
That decision comes amidst massive losses by the company again this fiscal year and with the company looking to push forward with the PlayStation 4 across the planet, Sony said it was the right time to make the move.
Sony also hopes that by ending the PSP's run, it will allow its successor the PlayStation Vita to gain steam on the market and help to boost sales and popularity. Already, Sony had stopped shipments of the portable gaming device across North America at the beginning of the year.
European sales will end later this year, while in Japan, this will be the final month for customers to purchase the PSP. The company will also give discounts to existing PSP users who want to move on with the Vita.
According to the company's statistics as of 2012, over 76 million PSP's were sold since the device went on stands in December 2004.
With Sony reporting expected losses of around $1.3 billion this fiscal year, the company is in desperate need to cut losses, and the PSP is seen as a way to do so, as smaller handheld gaming only platforms have largely been losing for years against the rise of smartphones, which allow for gaming features.
According to the company's Japanese press release announcing the end of the PSP, it also attempted to highlight the growth and expected continued growth of the Vita, which has been slow to pick up across the country and the globe.
"PS Vita is the third year since its release [and] the lineup of software titles has been more and more substantial," Sony says.
That could be the company's way of attempting to earn media points and mentions of the Vita, which Sony hopes will see a move toward positive sales. Although Sony does not release cumulative data on sales of the Vita since its launch three years ago, most experts have pointed to sales well below projections, leaving the company in the red on what they had hoped would be a popular device to replace the PSP.
Instead, the opposite has occurred and Sony is now seeking to rectify this by ending the PSP altogether, in the hopes it will give the Vita a fighting chance in the ever-changing gaming world.
