Sony launched the PlayStation 3 in 2006 as the successor to the already successful PlayStation 2 that was launched in 2000. The PlayStation 3 was one of the most iconic and best selling gaming consoles in history as it sold about 87.4 million units in 2017.
The Sony PlayStation 3 was officially discontinued in 2015, 2016, and 2017 across different regions and countries after 10+ years of it being sold.
Sony has announced that it will be ending after-sales support for the PlayStation 3 in Japan. This means users will no longer be able to get official parts and accessories if their console gets faulty. This is not coming off as unfair as the PlayStation 3 was first released over 15 years ago.
To confirm this, PlayStation Japan posted a tweet which when translated from Japanese says:
“[Notice of end of after-sales service] After-sales service will be discontinued on Saturday, April 30, 2022, due to the exhaustion of parts inventory for the PlayStation CECH-4300 series and all PlayStation 3 peripherals. If you are considering applying, please request as soon as possible.”
Reading this tweet, we can deduce that the reason for ending after-sales support is that Sony is running out of spare parts to fix their 16-year old console. Also, it lets you know that if you’re based in Japan, you have time until the 30th of April to get your PlayStation 3 fixed using the official parts and accessories.
This is truly the end of an era as the PlayStation 3 is one of the most popular gaming consoles across the last two decades.
Sony rumored to make more PS4s
In other news, the recently launched PlayStation 5 is still not available everywhere due to the global chip shortage that has been affecting the tech industry. Also, there are rumors that Sony is thinking of making more PlayStation 4 to make up for the lack of their newest console on the market.
