It may not seem like much of a surprise to many, but Sony Japan has now confirmed that they will cease production of the PSP Go, and that all future sales will be limited to current stock. The reason that this may not come as a surprise, is of course the current hype around the NGP (Next Generation Portable).
On their official website, Sony Japan stated that the
discontinued production of the PSP Go is so they can focus on the successor of
the PlayStation Portable, which is set to see a retail release in Japan later
this year.
However, with this said, a representative of Sony Computer Entertainment America has told Joystiq that the PSP Go will continue to be in production for North America. How long production is expected to last in the US remains to be seen.
The PSP Go is the fourth version of the PlayStation Portable, and the first to utilise an internal hard-drive for save data and digitally downloaded games, rather than “Universal Media Disks” that the other three versions used.
As far as sales are concerned, it seemed that consumers did not find the value in a high-priced, digital only handheld, as reviews and sales remained mediocre, whilst the PSP 3000, the last version to utilise UMD’s, continued selling at a healthy rate, to the point of reaching record sales in Japan.