Sony has officially ended support of the PlayStation 3 in Japan after nearly 16 years of service. Sony Japan announced on Twitter that it would be unable to provide after-sales support for PS3 consoles after April 2022. This is due to the company running out of replacement console parts. Check out the translated statement from PlayStation Japan below.
Notice of Termination of After-Sales Service
Due to the depletion of parts inventory, after-sales service for the PlayStation®3 CECH-4300 series main unit and all PlayStation®3 peripherals will be discontinued on April 30, 2022 (Saturday). If you are considering to apply for this service, please make your request as soon as possible.
Sony Japan, translated via DeepL Translator
The PS3 was released in 2006 in Japan. The country was the first to receive the console and the last to stop selling it. The PS3 was only discontinued in Japan in 2017. The console was discontinued earlier in other territories with Europe and North America no longer receiving new units as of 2016.
Sony’s end of service support for the PlayStation 3 marks the end of an era for the console that introduced HD gaming to PlayStation players. The PS3 era marked a number of firsts. It was the first console to launch with HDMI output, the first to have a Blu-Ray drive, and the first to have a built-in hard drive. Although these innovations led to an incredibly high launch price. The $600 launch price is equivalent to $836 today, almost double the cost of a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. The high price crippled the console in the beginning. It took a couple of years and a redesign, that brought the price down, to gain significant success.
In the end, the botched launch cost the console, the PlayStation 3 sold around 87 million units, the lowest of any PlayStation home console thus far. Regardless, it’s the end of an era for the PlayStation 3.
