Sony Interactive Entertainment has officially discontinued the PS4 Pro and all but one model of the original PlayStation 4 in Japan.
As reported by Japanese publicationGameWatch, the only last-gen console Sony will continue to sell in Japan is the standard Jet Black 500GBPlayStation 4“slim” model.
All other PS4 consoles will disappear once current stock is sold, the publication reports, and SIE will divert production toPS5.
There’s currently no confirmation on whetherPS4 Prowill be discontinued in Western markets. However, last month the officialPlayStationUS store briefly stated that it wouldno longer offer PlayStation 4 Pro consoles for sale, suggesting that the premium last-gen console could be discontinued.
Shortly after press coverage highlighted the statement, PlayStation Direct removed the message stating that it no longer planned to stock PS4 Pro in the future, although the console remains unavailable.
VGC has contacted PlayStation for comment and will update this article when we receive a response.
Considering the strong early demand for PS5 and the company’sstated ambitionto transition players to the next-gen console “at a scale and pace that we’ve never delivered on before”, it would be unsurprising if it were to begin phasing out the older system in other territories, even if it plans tosupport it with software for several more years.
At $400, PS4 Pro is the same price as the entry-level PS5 Digital Edition, which is $100 cheaper than the disc-based PS5.
Tuesday’s news follows reports of a Japanese retailer notifying customers that it wouldno longer be receiving stock of five PlayStation 4 models“due to the manufacturer ending production”.
The models in question were PS4 500GB Glacier White, PS4 1TB Jet Black, PS4 1TB Glacier White, PS4 2TB Jet Black and PS4 Pro 1TB Glacier White.
In a statement published last month, Sony suggestedPS5 had enjoyed the biggest console launch in historyafter beating PS4’s record.
Microsoftdiscontinued its most powerful last-gen console,Xbox One X, this summer in the run-up to November’sXbox Series X/Slaunches.
Further reading
It was recently revealed that Sony is planning to “build on the successful launch” of PlayStation Direct in the USby launching the online store in Europe.
As revealed via a job listing, Sony isrecruitingfor a director of the PlayStation Direct Europe business, a position which will be based at the company’s London office.
“The PlayStation Store & Services (PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Now,..) businesses have continued to deliver substantial growth and represents a significant proportion ofSony Interactive Entertainment’s overall revenues as well as approximately 15% of Sony’s revenues,” reads an overview of the role.
