Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi/Tokyo: After discontinuing the Play Station Portable video game device from North America in the beginning of this year, Sony has now taken the decision to stop shipments of the portable video game device in Japan as well.
European sales will end later this year, while in Japan, this will be the final month for customers to purchase the PSP.
The gaming unit of Sony Corp took the decision after the company again made huge losses this fiscal year in the Japanese market. The company will now shift its focus on marketing PSP's successor- Play Station Vita which it launched in Japan in December 2011, to help boost its sale and popularity.
PSP was the most iconic handheld gaming device. Sony shipped over 76 million units of PSP in over 10 years of its existence but the market of PSP started to shrink with the rise of smartphones which come with gaming features. PSP has been challenged in Japan by Nintendo’s 3DS and with the entry of the smartphones in the handheld gaming market.
The Tokyo based company is putting in all the efforts to cut down its losses, and is hoping that Vita will help them cope up with the market competition.
One doubts if Vita will be able to survive in the smartphone dominated market but the company is framing many strategies to bring back the classic PSP gaming era. It is also planning to give discounts to existing PSP users who want to move on to the Vita in Japan though it is yet not clear if the company will offer the same discounts in the other markets as well.
