Sony Interactive Entertainment is following through on its earlier plans to end production of the PlayStation Vita, at least in Japan.
As spotted by Gematsu, the Japanese website listings for the two remaining models of the handheld system now come with the warning that “shipments are scheduled to end soon.” The Vita itself first launched in Japan in December 2011 and came to North America and Europe just a few months later in February.
It’s not a sudden production halt by any means; Sony has slowly been winding down its support for the Vita for years at this point, both through things like recent PlayStation Plus changes and various production changes like today’s news.
No specific end date is mentioned on either listing, but Sony had already said that production will fully cease in Japan during 2019 so it’s safe to say the system doesn’t have long. And, as Gematsu points out, a similar notice appeared on the listing for the PlayStation 3 when that system was discontinued back in 2017 and production ended roughly 2 months later.
Back when the discontinuation was first mentioned late last year, Sony Interactive Entertainment senior vice president Hiroyuki Oda noted as well that the company had no announcements planned for a successor to the handheld system.