We already knew that the PS Vita was due to be discontinued this year, even in Japan, which is the last territory where it is still supported as an active system. Now, Sony has made it official. According to the official Japanese PlayStation website, shipments for the only two models still in production (the black and blue Vita 2000 models) are due to come to an end soon.
No end date is actually specified, but Gematsu, who got tipped off about the impending end of production, note that for PS3, the gap between a similar notice being posted and production ending was two months, which means we may expect something similar for the PS Vita as well.
The PS Vita had a hard life. It was entirely unable to compete in the handheld market against Nintendo’s 3DS, unable to hold its own in a post-smartphones world, saw most support bleed over to the 3DS or to smartphones, and what little niche it had managed to carve for itself got taken over by Nintendo’s Switch when it launched in 2017.
While the Vita suffered indignity upon indignity by the hands of Sony, it was in the end a system far ahead of its time, and hopefully history will be kinder to it. For now, we know that production on its game cards has ended, as has PS Plus support for the handheld.