Yesterday’s rumors were true: Sony has confirmed to a Japanese gaming site that the PSP Go, the smaller, pricier cousin to the PSP handheld console, has been discontinued.
Update: Sony has said that it is discontinuing the PSP Go in Japan and Europe, but continuing to make and distribute it for North America.
Launched in 2009, the PSP Go was roundly criticized for its cost: It came at a launch price of $250 with no hardware upgrade versus the original PSP, although Sony later dropped the PSP Go’s price to $200, and more recently briefly dropped its price to $150, only to vex gamers by immediately raising it again.
The PSP Go suffered from disappointing sales during its lifetime, which Sony blamed on the market for it being “not as big as the traditional PSP-3000 market.” Sony has reaffirmed its commitment to support the PSP-3000, and says that it is axing the PSP Go so it can better focus on its next-gen NGP handheld, which may or may not be released at the end of 2011.
