PlayStation TV discontinued in Japan
The end may be nigh for the device Shuhei Yoshida believed, "didn't capture the consumers' imagination"
Sony has ceased shipments of the PlayStation TV in Japan, indicating the imminent end for a device that failed to find a substantial audience.
The announcement was made on the device's Japanese product page, which was translated by Game Informer.
The device launched in Japan in November 2013. It was called PlayStation Vita TV, and it was marketed as a micro-console for playing Vita and PSP games on a television. It launched as PlayStation TV in North America and Europe a year later. According to Dualshockers, Media Create put its lifetime sales in Japan below 200,000 units, despite never selling for more than $100 since its launch.
Nobody can call this an unexpected development. Last year, Sony's president of worldwide studios Shuhei Yoshida was frank in his appraisal of the PlayStation TV's performance. "It didn't capture the consumers' imagination," he said. "It's a hard concept to explain."
Update: Sony Computer Entertainment provided the following statement regarding shipments of PlayStation TV outside of Japan:
"Shipment has already terminated at the end of 2015 in SCEA and SCEE. Shipment is still continuing in SCEAsia (as of the end of February, 2016), and we have nothing to announce regarding the timing of termination."