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Sony Is Officially Discontinuing The PlayStation Vita

Source: PSM3 Magazine / Getty

It’s official, Sony has pulled the plug on the PlayStation Vita bowing out of the handheld gaming market for now.

In a move the frankly everyone saw coming, the tech giant has discontinued its remaining two PS Vita models. This move is the final step in a long gradual phase-out of the handheld console that began with the discontinuation of physical games, no more first-party titles in 2015 and the stoppage of free PS Plus titles.

Despite its demise, the PS Vita first launched back in 2011 in Japan at the height of the mobile phone and tablet gaming boom. The follow-up to the successful PSP (PlayStation Portable) failed to compete with the likes of those devices and Nintendo who pretty much owns the portable gaming world thanks to the Gameboy. Design complaints like its reliance on expensive memory cards also doomed the mini-powerful console.

Sony doesn’t look like its any rush to drop another handheld console either, and you could chop that up to ridiculous success of the Nintendo Switch and the fact PlayStation 4 is still performing well so the company could rely on those sales. With cloud-based gaming slowly becoming the wave, Sony could be looking to put all of its focus into PlayStation Now and other services that don’t have to be confined primarily to one single device.

We will have to wait and see when Sony decides to do when the company shows us its hand later this year.

Photo: PSM3 Magazine / Getty