The PlayStation Vita isn’t actually dead after all. Well, in Japan at least. Though the production of Sony’s latest (and perhaps final) portable console will be ending pretty soon in the West, fans can rest assured that it is certainly alive and well in its home country. This news comes shortly after the reveal that the Vita would be seeing the end of its life in the very near future.
The news of the PlayStation Vita’s end first broke after several developers reached out to Kotaku stating that they had been told by Sony to submit all final code requests for the Vita by June 28, 2018, and that the production of physical cartridges and most likely hardware would be completely ended by March 31st, 2019. This sent the vocal community that loves Sony’s portable console into a frenzy as the reports confirmed what many suspected to already be the case for some time.
However, the PlayStation Vita will continue to live on, even if it’s only partially. Japanese gaming site, GameSpark, recently reached out to Sony with a few questions of its own regarding this fiasco. When inquired about clarification, the Sony spokesperson revealed that production will indeed end by March 2019 “in the Americas and European regions,” but digital distribution will still continue.
That’s great news, as it means that digital games can still be released for the foreseeable future here. In addition, Japan will continue to see more hardware and software produced for the time being. If you don’t mind playing a game in a different language, this is great news as the import scene is really strong.
Considering the fact that the PlayStation Vita is region free, it is possible to import new games directly from Japan even once physical production has ended here. As of right now, we are happy to report that the Vita community can continue to live on in some form.