After almost a decade, Sony will stop selling the PSP in Japan soon

Nearly ten years after first going on sale in Japan, the PlayStation Portable has reached the end of the line in its home market. Sony confirmed that it will stop shipping units to Japanese retailers this month, noting that it made the same move in North America this January. While shipping will also end in Europe at an unspecified date, the portable console is expected to be available in Latin America and other Asian countries for a while longer; Sony isn’t stopping production.

Sony Corp. is pulling the plug on its hand-held PlayStation Portable video game machine after 10 years. The Japanese electronics and entertainment company has been pushing the successor machine, PlayStation Vita. Tokyo-based Sony said Tuesday that PSP shipments ended in North America in January, will end in Japan this month and later this year in Europe. Discounts on Vita and downloads are offered to Japanese PSP owners, but are still undecided for those overseas. More than 76 million PSP machines were sold, as of two years ago, the last time a tally was taken. The PSP went on sale in December 2004. Machines devoted to games are struggling against the popularity of smartphones and other devices. Sony reported a $1.3 billion loss for last fiscal year and is expecting to stay in the red this year.