While the PS Vita has long gone the way of the dodo in the west, it continued soldiering on atop the Japanese shelves until now. Yet, this will change soon.
Sony Interactive Entertainment’s own Japanese website now mentions that deliveries to retailers are scheduled to end soon for both the black and blue models, which were the only ones left in the lineup (as spotted by local blog 速報＠保管庫).
This doesn’t mean that the console will disappear completely from the Japanese shelves any time soon, as it’ll probably take a while for stock to fully run out.
The PS Vita launched in Japan on December 17, 2011, following by a worldwide release in 2012. While the initial prospects for the console appeared pretty positive, the gradual dwindling of first-party support soon made it clear that it wouldn’t be as successful as its competitor, Nintendo’s 3DS.
In 2013, the launch of a slightly lighter and slimmer revised model temporarily improved the Vita’s popularity in Japan, where third-party support still lives as of now. This includes relatively high-profile games like the recent Catherine: Full Body.
Media Create’s estimates PS Vita sales in Japan at 5,977,901 units as of last week. It’s likely that it’ll manage to pass six million units before the shipped stock finally evaporates, but that’s not exactly a flattering number compared against the 19 million units sold by its predecessor, the PlayStation Portable.
Yet, it remains home to great memories for many, and awesome games like Persona 4: Golden, the Muv-Luv series, and Freedom Wars.
Source: 速報＠保管庫(Alt)
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