After 11 years in production and sale, Sony is terminating production of PlayStation 3 units in Japan soon.
The only remaining PlayStation 3 model in production in Japan, stated, "Shipments are scheduled to end soon," according to Gematsu. Although there was no mention of a specific date when production will end, there are indications that it will end this March, as suggested by a tweet from a gaming shop in Japan.
Sony for its part, have always maintained that it works on a ten-year cycle for all of its consoles. The PlayStation 3 is actually in its extended life. The console was first released in November 2006 and followed by the PlayStation 4 when it was introduced in 2014.
However, this does not mean that worldwide production will cease as well. While it is typical that Japanese and western markets adapt to new technology quickly, other regions and territories are not. To cite an example, The PlayStation 3 did not launch in Brazil until 2010, therefore it is expected that production there could be expected to extend for some time.
According to Gamespot, the PlayStation 3 had a high retail price. It is also known for being a difficult hardware to develop software for. However, it bounced back after getting exclusive content. As such, it got several iterations. The PlayStation 3 Slim was launched in 2009, followed by the PlayStation Super Slim in 2012.
It is estimated that Sony shipped about 84 million units of the PlayStation 3, making it almost at par in sales with the Xbox 360. Exact numbers can be hard to determine after both Sony and Microsoft have stopped revealing sales figures for their legacy consoles.
So far, the most successful of consoles is the PlayStation 2, after ending production in 2013 and being on the market for 12 years. It is the most successful console ever sold, estimated to have sold 150 million units worldwide.
