Sony PlayStation 3 Ends Production In Japan After A Decade Of Service
It seems as though console makers are coming out with new and updated systems at a somewhat furious pace these days—Sony recently released its PlayStation 4 Pro, Microsoft added an Xbox One S to its lineup and is readying Project Scorpio, and Nintendo has put the Wii U in the rear view mirror with its hybrid Switch system. As all of this is taking place, Sony has decided to officially end production of its PlayStation 3 system.
The PS3 had one heck of a good run up to this point. It launched more than a decade ago in November 2006, though if you head over to the official PlayStation website, you'll see that Sony has marked the latest PS3 model (CECH-4300) as "shipment complete," which means that it has stopped producing the console and will not be shipping any additional units to retailers.
Shipment figures are a bit hard to come by, though as of March 2016, the figure that was thrown around was 83.8 million units sold. That makes it the fifth best selling game console of all time, behind the Xbox 360 at 84 million units sold (No. 4), Wii at 101.63 million (No. 3), PlayStation at 102.49 million (No. 2), and PlayStation 2 at more than 155 million (No. 1). That is good company to be in.
The PS3 started off slow, in part because gamers viewed the cost of entry as being a bit steep. It launched to retail at $499 for a model with a 20GB hard drive, and $599 for a version with 60GB of storage. As time went on, Sony would release additional models with more storage, as well as two slimmed down versions of the PS3.
This moment was always inevitable, we just did not know exactly when Sony would cease production of its PS3. Looking ahead, the company is completely focused on its PS4 and 4K gameplay. As of the end of April of this year, Sony said it had shipped close to 78 million PS4 consoles, which means it could overtake the PS3 in sales by the end of the year or not long after.
The PS3 had one heck of a good run up to this point. It launched more than a decade ago in November 2006, though if you head over to the official PlayStation website, you'll see that Sony has marked the latest PS3 model (CECH-4300) as "shipment complete," which means that it has stopped producing the console and will not be shipping any additional units to retailers.
Shipment figures are a bit hard to come by, though as of March 2016, the figure that was thrown around was 83.8 million units sold. That makes it the fifth best selling game console of all time, behind the Xbox 360 at 84 million units sold (No. 4), Wii at 101.63 million (No. 3), PlayStation at 102.49 million (No. 2), and PlayStation 2 at more than 155 million (No. 1). That is good company to be in.
The PS3 started off slow, in part because gamers viewed the cost of entry as being a bit steep. It launched to retail at $499 for a model with a 20GB hard drive, and $599 for a version with 60GB of storage. As time went on, Sony would release additional models with more storage, as well as two slimmed down versions of the PS3.
This moment was always inevitable, we just did not know exactly when Sony would cease production of its PS3. Looking ahead, the company is completely focused on its PS4 and 4K gameplay. As of the end of April of this year, Sony said it had shipped close to 78 million PS4 consoles, which means it could overtake the PS3 in sales by the end of the year or not long after.
