Since it first launched in November 2013, Sony’s PlayStation TV has always been a puzzling device. It was meant to allow users to play PlayStation Vita games on a TV, but compatibility issues and missing features kept it from being a hit with gamers.
Now it seems that Sony is giving up on the console, at least in Japan. A poster on the gaming forum NeoGAF first spotted the PlayStation TV’s listing on Sony’s Japanese website, where a message now roughly translates to “shipping has concluded.”
There has been no official word from Sony so far confirming or denying that the console has ceased production, but bundles that include the PlayStation TV have also been updated with the same message. The console can still be found in some stores in Japan, but this likely won’t be the case for much longer.
From the very start, the PlayStation TV suffered from a lack of compatibility with both Vita game and apps. Users who were looking to use the console for video streaming quickly found that Netflix and many other apps simply didn’t work. This, combined with a dwindling software library, meant that the PlayStation TV was tough to recommend.
Following the Japanese launch, the PlayStation Vita launched in North America in 2014. The unit sold poorly, and often saw price drops even within a few months after release. Last month the price dropped at a number of retailers, including related bundle pricing, but Sony said this was retailer specific, and not an official price drop.
For the time being, the PlayStation TV appears to still be in production in the U.S., though the price remains substantially discounted at a number of retailers. Amazon, for example, currently has the PlayStation TV on sale for $45.
If you’ve been waiting to pick up a PlayStation TV — maybe to stream PS4 games to another TV — you might not want to wait much longer, just in case.
