Speaking with Famitsu (and translated by Gematsu), Sony Interactive Entertainment senior vice president Hiroyuki Oda has confirmed that PlayStation Vita production will end in Japan in 2019, essentially declaring the death of the criminally under-rated handheld system.
He also asserted there were no plans for a follow-up. “Currently, we do not have any plans regarding a new handheld device,” said Oda. “In Japan, we will manufacture PlayStation Vita until 2019. From there, shipping will end.”
The Vita, unfortunately, never really took off. Expensive proprietary memory, a string of disappointing releases, game cancellations and otherwise underwhelming support from PlayStation very much worked against the Vita but remained popular amongst the few that had bought it. In Japan, it performed slightly better but never came close to the popularity of the PSP before it.
With the popularity of the Switch, which has very much improved upon everything the Vita promised to do, there has been much speculation as to whether or not PlayStation would continue to compete in the handheld space. We could be holding out hope for a while.
