Production of the PSVita has now ended once and for all! – The PSP’s successor is now officially obsolete and not many people will miss it
Once upon a time, portable gaming consoles were all the rage and owning a PSP/DS was the norm. Moving forward a gaming generation, portable consoles didn’t remain as popular due to mobile gaming and the PSVita’s sales and game library were greatly hit by this. Now, the PSVita’s life has more or less come to an end as Sony has officially ended its production forever!
PlayStation Vita production has ended; what else will go down this year?
Earlier today (March 1), it was spotted by Gematsu that Sony updated the PS Vita product line-up page on their Japanese website to inform us that they fully discontinued the console. This update came in the form of a “Shipment Complete/Ended” notification on the remaining two PSVita console SKUs (Black and Aqua Blue PSVita Slim models) still in production up until today.
Thanks to its success in Japan, the PSVita kept on being produced for quite a while but now, that’s finally come to an end
As things stand, it’s unlikely that news will leave many people crying their eyes out but it’s still unfortunate to see a console that has so much potential, especially when hacked, joining the discounted console bunch.
Unfortunately, there’s more bad news when it comes to stuff for the PSVita being discontinued because this year will also see:
- Game cartridges will stop being produced on March 31 (which is a mere 30 days away)
- However, it seems that Sony might still continue to produce cartridges for the Japanese market after this date according to SlashGear.
- Starting from this month, the will be no more free PSVita games with a PlayStation Plus membership
How will this affect me? Will PSVita prices go up?
As the latest firmware is currently FW 3.70, that’s what the last PSVita models to ever be produced will ship with so they will be hackable within a few months!
If you currently own a working PSVita console, then this news will probably not affect you much but it might have some effects which include:
- In the foreseeable future, it might become difficult to buy a new in-box PSVita console as stores will obviously no longer be receiving any new stock.
- The prices for new PSVita consoles on online marketplaces like eBay might go up so if you’re in the market for a new PSVita, you should strongly consider getting one now
- Prices for used PSVita consoles may go up if it becomes hard to find one in stores
- On the bright side, the highest firmware that any brand-new in-box PSVita can come with is firmware 3.70 which TheFlow has promised to release a hack for later this year!
Conclusion
While it’s a bit sad to see Sony discounting PSVita production, it can be said that it was inevitable as the console is already over 7 years old and it never did too well in the first place. That being said, there’s still lots of fun to be had with a hacked PSVita and many will be pleased to know that TheFlow is currently working on a native resolution hack for the PSP’s Grand Theft Auto games on the Vita which will make them look much better!
But you know that Sony can release new software after few years like it did with the PSP.
same scenario happened with PS3 as well.
IIRC don’t the late PS3 updates have to do with the Blu-Ray licensing thingy getting renewed?
At first, but then there was exploit patching stuff.
Sure, but PSP games could be played on modern consoles like the Vita and PS3, no console today can play Vita games, so it’s probably not going to get new games.
You know it’s time to switch to the Switch
That makes me a saaaaaaaaad panda
ill miss the vita its a great handheld and imo better then the 3ds
Technically maybe, but the software (games) on the 3DS are vastly superior, and that’s what make a console a success. That lame brand owner spent most of its efforts into creating an “unhackable device” instead of creating an enjoyable one. We know now that nothing is unhackable. When game console producers spent most of the time thinking their brands can overcome time and new generations, they start creating pure junk devices (PSX-Classic).
The Vita is an awesome handheld console, and with the help of Indie devs it survived a bit more. I do like my Vitas, but only on their hacked state.
Good hardware for its time, plagued by storage media politics and lack of support by Sony. Will always have a special place in my heart.
First sentence, hit the nail on the head.
How does Sony fail so bad at mobile gaming? The only thing that saved the PSP from failure was being the best portable emulation station, but now that we have smartphones, which can easily have physical buttons in this day and age, I think Sony has long lost their chance of being a serious contender in the mobile gaming market.
The big three gaming manufacturers also better hope smartphones don’t eat away at console gaming market share as well.
Mobile gaming can never replace portable consoles, touchscreen controls are no match for buttons and sticks
I guess I’m one of the few then.
I won’t miss the Vita… as long as I own at least one.
Yep, the ps vita is dying here, but the Japanese market has a lot of games and stuff for it. I sar a YouTuber who got a trip to Japan and she was impressed with the fact that they have like, two or three hallways in a game store just for the Vita’s games. And in the US, it’s just a little row on somewhere hidden with no more than 30 games. xD
That’s still more than here in Europe, if you check out five or six electronics stores or stores somewhat gaming related and find one PSV game, that’s actually a lot.
I’m done with this site it’s getting so freaking wierd!
RIP
Am I the only one that LOVE my Vita and playing a tone of games like HD collections of ps2 etc etc? It’s amazing how sony killed a great piece of hardware!
A girl WHO HAS liked technology from Day One.
This has always irked me for some reason. WHO. Not THAT.
“that is” has always bothered me the most lol. It rolls off the tongue weird, and it’s filler that could be removed.
I’m a girl who has liked technology from day one. Mostly interested in the PSVita/PSP scene, but I always mod my stuff when possible. Contact me via DM @KawaiiAuroraA on Twitter if you have any questions/concerns about my articles.
Sad if You are Sad.
Wee Don’t Care.
So be Sad for Ever.
Like technology since day one, totally ridiculous statement. Why did this site the used to have some respect get so f u c k i n g. .. g a y
Love the Vita! Got it at launch. Still use it almost daily as well as my psp. Also have a gpd win 1 and 2, and a 3ds. I switch it up now and then. Not sure what people expected. It was released 7 years ago now. I’d say not too bad. Now with the hacks it makes it even more playable now, so it can be used years from now.
I don’t like the title of this article. I love the vita i have 8 of them and i will always love them. I will still buy more. $ONY did not know how to market this LEGENDARY system =P
Oh, the cancer has finally been cured.
Prepare for inflated Vita prices
“portable consoles didn’t remain as popular due to mobile gaming” this is exactly why it never made sense to me when people said Sony released this too early. They released it too late guys. Anyways f–k Sony for killing something that had great potential. Coulda made a killing if they didn’t just leave it to rot aside from updates to patch what makes it worth getting.
nope, it got killed by the high prices on the memory cards, games and accesories. that’s why they made the slim version with a lot of feature taken away just to get some actual profit since no one wanted to buy a 4gb card for $20 where you could only store one big game
I love my Vita though…
Mobile gaming has taken over portable gaming and it’s no surprise really. Smartphones are becoming powerful enough to rival handheld consoles and you don’t have to lug around an additional device solely for games. This with competition coming from the switch pretty much seals the deal. I mean lets be honest why buy a Vita when you can put that money towards a sweet high end or gaming smartphone which has the benefit of doing more than playing games and already has service/internet that you’re paying for anyway. The big name gaming companies are now finally releasing high profile games for mobile. Gone are the days of only playing games like candy crush on a phone. There are full featured MMORPGs now, league of legends clones and player unknown’s battlegrounds etc. It really is the future of mobile gaming.