PS3 Officially Ceases Production in Japan

[Parker]

It is the end of an era, the PlayStation 3 had an almost 11 year run and while it had a slow start (I bought my 60gb PS3 on launch day) it picked up steam and quickly became, in my opinion, the best choice for a gaming system in the last generation. 

 

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Production of the PlayStation 3 has seemingly ended in Japan.

Gematsu reports the official PlayStation website page for the 500GB version, the only model currently that was in production in Japan, lists shipments now as “Ended.” We have contacted Sony for official comment.

 

 

Uncharted 3 Updated Impressions

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The PlayStation 3 originally released in Japan on November 11, 2006, and in North America on November 17 (PAL territories saw the system launch on March 23, 2007). The launch also saw Sony playing catch up to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which released a year prior on November 22, 2005.

Despite releasing later than anticipated, the PlayStation 3 went on to sell through some 80 million units worldwide as of 2013. Comparatively, as of April 2017 the PlayStation 4 has sold in excess of 60 million units.

Launch titles included: Call of Duty 3, Genji: Days of the Blade (I require healing), Madden NFL 07, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire, Need for Speed: Carbon, NBA 07, NBA 2K7, NHL 2K7, Resistance: Fall of Man, Ridge Racer 7, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, Tony Hawk's Project 8, and Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom.

The system also gave birth to a wealth of what would become beloved new IP, including the likes of Uncharted, The Last of Us, Demon’s Souls, and LittleBigPlanet, as well as platform exclusive sequels in Metal Gear Solid 4 and God of War: Ascension.

 

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Source: IGN

 

Even though it looks like the PS3 will be Sony's worst selling home console (over 80 million units is still far from a failure) there is no denying that it was a great system and it has a ton of classic games. 

 

 

Parker

Edited May 30, 2017 by Parker

[Undead Wolf]

My favourite library of any console to date. So many great games that I'm sure I'll be playing for years to come yet. Even though production has officially ceased, its legacy will not be forgotten.

[Matrim_Drasgen]

Hmm. I assumed this happened a long time ago, not right away when the superiors PS4 came out but at least within 1-2 years.

Edited May 30, 2017 by Matrim_Drasgen

[chellesan]

i will miss the ps3, hopefully mine will never die because i still have many games to play on it

[Matrim_Drasgen]

2 minutes ago, chellesan said:

i will miss the ps3, hopefully mine will never die because i still have many games to play on it

Agree on that. Need to pull mine out and finish off a bunch of games.

[diskdocx]

Honestly, I'm a bit surprised that production has stopped. There are still some new PS3 games coming out, and lots of games around. I would have thought that sales would still warrant production.

 

I may have to pick up a new PS3 to have around as a backup.

[daftprophet]

Sad to hear but it has so many games that I look forward to playing in the future. Great console.

[Terra]

An almost 11 year run is still excellent for the PS3. It's become one of my favourite consoles of all time for the seven years I've owned it. Sure I started four years late but it really brought back my love of my gaming that I had with my PlayStation 2 and GameCube. I can consider the Ps3 to be one of the biggest turn-around success stories for consoles seeing how it started so poorly.

[Icebrand1270]

And so the day has finally come. Crazy as it sounds, I am sad. The end of an era, to be sure.

[Condemned09]

The Ps3 will never be forgotten and it will always be one of the greatest system ever. 

[Azaan60]

Your title is very misleading Parker.

 

Production has only ended in Japan. Europe and North America are still producing and distributing PS3's.

 

 

The PS3 isn't dead yet

[ab4h4r4k1]

You will not be forgotten.

[Hogie838]

You will still be able to buy PS3 games on the store for awhile or do I need to buy in bulk now? ?

[ExHaseo]

Luckily, this is only in Japan. And while the consoles aren't being made, there's still support for the system. At least for now. I'm sure the rest of the world will follow suit soon, so now may be a good time to get back to those PS3 games with online trophies. Who knows how much longer the servers will be up for them.

[Abysm_Nucleus]

Server closures are incoming for last-gen.

[Bullstomp]

43 minutes ago, Azaan60 said:

Your title is very misleading Parker.

 

Production has only ended in Japan. Europe and North America are still producing and distributing PS3's.

 

 

The PS3 isn't dead yet

While this is true, it will only be a matter of time since Japan is a huge chunk of worldwide video game consumption.

 

Thank you for the good times and fond memories PS3, you will always have a place in my home and in my heart /muah!

[marvelboy10]

The PS3 was a great, nay, fantastic console. I got my PS3 precisely 7 years ago and I've played with my PS3 more than I did my PS2 and PS1 combined. And it's the same PS3 too  Although it is great that production hasn't halted in North America and Europe, but like Bullstomp said it's only a matter of time before they stop production over there as well. Let's hope that's it's a lot longer then we hope. Long live the PS3. 

[Sigma999]

PS3 will keep living strong to me , this new gen hasn't made me jump into it yet like it did between ps1 to ps2 and ps2 to ps3 . Still pretty satisfied with my PS3 Aand still kicking ass with loads of tons of games still to play on my backlog . 

[TheSleepyBeauty]

We will always love you PS3. It's thanks to you I've became a trophy whore haha ?

[skinner49]

I haven't touched mine in a couple years, but still, I'm a little sad. It always is a little sad seeing the end of an era.

[AJ_Radio]

There are still people on these forums who haven't made the switch to the Playstation 4.

 

Personally I play from all three consoles, although in the past couple months I've been gravitating towards the PS4 because I think it has a better interface. 

 

From what I read, the Playstation 3 didn't do too well in it's early years (2006 - 2008) due to it's expensive cost and an overall lack of good games compared to the 360. The Xbox 360 came out with achievements and had better online gameplay. Xbox Live was a pretty big deal in the late 2000s especially when you had titles like Gears of War and Halo 3.

 

Today Microsoft is on the other side of the spectrum. It's Xbox Scorpio isn't doing too great because of a lack of good games and it's attempted focus on online fueled games, which Sony in my opinion is better at handling. The people in charge of the Microsoft consoles are dicks. Horizon Zero Dawn is proof single player driven games still attract the masses, and Battlefield 1 on the PS4 has a lot more players to do battle with. Microsoft has maybe a couple halfway decent exclusives, and the rest are games you can find better versions of on the Steam and Sony platforms.

 

The PS3 had a rocky start but in the end I think it turned out to be the better console. Given it's age it did very well. The 360 on the other hand is now at the point where nobody really cares anymore. The console seems to break more often than the PS3 due to it's fault design, and because it cannot accept blu-ray discs it has to rely on discs that are the same as DVDs. So you need more discs to run the same game compared to the one blu-ray disc for the PS3.

 

While the PS3 is at the beginning of it's end, the 360 is in a much worse state.

[DaivRules]

Things to consider:

Sony sold PS2 consoles for *years* after ceasing production. And sold new games for PS2 for years after that. 

While Japan is a stronghold for video gaming for Sony, this is still just a ceasing of production in one country.

Ceasing production of a concole means precisely nill for the sales of existing or new titles, especially in the age of digital distribution. 

 

Lastly, it's also just a matter of time before Sony ceases production on the PS4. This is a fact. 

[Stargazer2600]

1 hour ago, ExHaseo said:

Luckily, this is only in Japan. And while the consoles aren't being made, there's still support for the system. At least for now. I'm sure the rest of the world will follow suit soon, so now may be a good time to get back to those PS3 games with online trophies. Who knows how much longer the servers will be up for them.

I think the way PSN is built between PS3 and PS4, I dont think Sony will fully stop PS3 support. I mean look at it, your PSN acct is multi linked between PS3, PS4 and vita. So while game servers may close, and production may cease. I think 5 or 10 more years down the road, if you earn PS3 trophies, PSN will still be active on your PS3 so you can link it all together

[AJ_Radio]

5 minutes ago, Stargazer2600 said:

I think the way PSN is built between PS3 and PS4, I dont think Sony will fully stop PS3 support. I mean look at it, your PSN acct is multi linked between PS3, PS4 and vita. So while game servers may close, and production may cease. I think 5 or 10 more years down the road, if you earn PS3 trophies, PSN will still be active on your PS3 so you can link it all together

 

Sony will probably find a way to continue online support for PS3 games even when the Playstation 3 console is no longer being produced or sold.

 

The Vita on the other hand is a console I'm more concerned about since it seems Sony has almost entirely ignored it. I feel it's a decent handheld platform, but I don't know if Sony will work on a next gen handheld, or just hold off until they are more than satisfied with the PS4 Slim and Pro.

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy]

Interesting. 

 

PS1 stopped being made not too long before the PS3 started being made.

PS2 stopped being made months before the PS4 started being made.

PS3 stopped being made around the time there were a tonne of rumours about the PS5 being on the way.

 

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Had the last generation not gone on for a damn decade, I'd have kept the PS3 pumping out and market it as a budget entry and try to get people in as cheap as possible. That's how the PS2 was here. In 2008 or 9 or so, my cord on the slim PS2 died and it was 40 to get a new knock off one, or 70 to just buy a new PS2 in K-Mart on sale. That's another unit sold. I suppose everything's different now with phones and stuff, and people not necessarily needing a budget console to play games if their phone plays decent games, but like, I don't know. The PS3 was expensive shit, so it can only get so low before it's a loss, but it's been available here at a bunch of stores for a cool hundred for a while now here and there and that's pretty cool. The PS4 can be got for 300 odd, the Pro can be got for about 500, keeping the PS3 as a budget console with a huge ass library, if you still sold the thing for around 150 or so (or even lower if possible), maybe with a tiny little hard drive or something, could still yield a few sales, but as I said, this many years into the thing it's kind of a bit late. Had last gen ended around 2010 even, keeping the PS3 alive as the budget machine would have been a great idea. My two cents.