Sony reveals that the company has no current plans of developing a successor for the PlayStation Vita, which is Sony’s hand-held gaming console. The news was confirmed by the senior vice president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Hiroyuki Oda, to Famitsu (via Gematsu).
“Currently, we do not have plans regarding a new handheld device,” Oda revealed. “In Japan, we will manufacture PlayStation Vita until 2019. From there, shipping will end.”
Of course, it is sad to know that the Vita will cease production next year. However, this predicament is inevitable given the low performance of the console during the past few years. The shift of most game developers to the Nintendo Switch, also made the Vita invisible in the gaming market as it became a niche console to Japanese RPG games such as the Persona franchise.
In its initial launch, the PS Vita was marketed as a hand-held device that would deliver console-quality games, which is seen in games such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss. However, the Vita failed to live up to expectations and quickly lost the market share to Nintendo’s 3DS and Switch.
In other news, Sony revealed the PlayStation Classic, which is a mini-version of the original PlayStation and will come with 20 pre-loaded classic games. The PlayStation Classic launches on December 3 and is priced at $100.
