The Playstation Vita’s production will officially end in 2019.
During the Tokyo Game Show (TGS), Famitsu spoke with Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Vice President, Hiroyuki Oda, who mentioned that the Playstation Vita’s production would “continue until 2019 in Japan“, marking the end of an era for Sony. This is after Sony announced that they would no longer produce physical games for the system, making the Playstation Vita’s titles exclusively available through the Playstation Store.
This is likely due to the recent success of the Nintendo Switch, with the platform dominating handheld markets already. Not only that, but the Nintendo has moved record numbers of hardware units, even outselling the Xbox One and Playstation 4 in recent months.
The Playstation Vita was released in 2011, months after the release of Nintendo’s 3DS. Although the system had decent first-party titles such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, ModNation Racers: Road Trip, and Everybody’s Golf 6, the system sold poorly in North America. Not long after it’s launch, Sony pulled all first-party support from the Playstation Vita to focus on Playstation 4 development. The handheld is likely still alive due to it’s loyal Japanese market, with games still in development for 2018 and 2019.
The Playstation Vita is available worldwide.
Source: Famitsu
