Bad news, PS4 players. Sony has reportedly discontinued the production phase for several PS4 Pro models in its home country, Japan. As initially reported by GameWatch, Sony has stopped all models of PS4, including the Pro (CUH-7000), but one model of PS4 Slim (CUH-2000), which is the 500 GB Jet Black PS4' Slim.'
It is far from surprising, as the world is hyped for Sony's next-gen console, PS5, which saw the market last November. The cheapest price tag for PS5 starts from $400 for its "Digital-Only" version.
Once all models of the discontinued PS4s are sold out, they will be no longer produced or available on trusted online retailers. It's unclear whether Sony headquarters in the West will follow the move announced only in Japan. Sony is yet to make an official statement regarding the decision.
Not Doing So Good
Unfortunately, PS5 sales numbers are not doing so well in its native country.
Ace Economic Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda cited Famitsu sales data that PS5 only sold 240,000 units in Japan upon the first six weeks of availability. It is the lowest number for a PlayStation console that the country has ever seen, even worse than the lackluster PS3.
As Video Games Chronicles reported, many factors have contributed to it, and the lack of market interest is not one of them. Fans and analysts in Japan accuse Sony of not prioritizing them in the market despite being the native home of the brand.
"I'd also observe that we're making a statement by launching in Japan day and date with the US, and that is not what we did with PS4. So I read that stuff. A lot of that commentary is inaccurate, and Japan - as our second largest market and as Sony's heartland - continues to be really important to us," Jim Ryan, the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, told Edge Magazine.
How Many Years Left Does My PS4 Have?
Speaking of PS4, fans should not be worried about its longevity as the current-gen console still has a little of two or three years left before Sony decides to discontinue its support.
PS4 was released in 2014, while PS3 was still pretty much around to put things into perspective. Sony discontinued its support for PS3 in 2016, three years after the PS4 release. PS3 was released in 2006 during the golden era of PS2, and Sony still released an abundance of updates to support the latter console until 2013.
Each console still had at least two or three years left after releasing a newer console to wait for players and developers to switch to the next-gen console. That said, if things go as expected, Sony will keep supporting PS4 until 2022 or 2023 at least.
