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PSP stops shipping in Japan ten years after going on sale

PSP stops shipping in Japan ten years after going on sale

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The biggest threat to Nintendo's handheld dominance bows out

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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 to The Verge that it will stop shipping units to Japanese retailers this month, noting that it made the same move in North and Latin America this January. While shipping will also end in Europe at an unspecified date, the portable console is expected to be available in other Asian countries for a while longer; Sony isn't stopping production.

Sony has sold over 80 million PSP consoles worldwide

The PSP was the first portable console to pose a serious threat to Nintendo's domination of the handheld market. The Game Boy line saw off competitors like the Sega Game Gear and the Neo Geo Pocket, but Sony managed to sell over 80 million PSP units worldwide. Although the PSP's sales dropped off in the West several years ago, the huge popularity of Capcom's Monster Hunter Portable games extended the handheld's Japanese lifespan.

Sony is running a promotion in Japan where customers can trade in their PSPs and get up to ¥3,000 ($29) — or ¥4,000 ($39) for students — off the cost of the console's successor, the PS Vita. The Vita has struggled to match the PSP's sales success, but a flood of indie games and some useful PS4 cross-compatibility has made owning the system a more attractive proposition.

Correction: Sony initially said that PSP shipments would continue in Latin America, but has since clarified that shipments ended in the region in January. This story has been updated to reflect the new information.