PlayStation 3 Production Is About To End

A notice on the official Japanese PlayStation website states that production of PlayStation 3 will be ending soon, probably around the end of of March.

Following the wildly successful PlayStation 2 the third console had a rocky start with developers struggling with new custom architecture, and consumers were left baffled by a series of adverts featuring clowns and ballerinas rather than showing off the powerful console. The Xbox 360 raced in terms of sales and Sony faced a long struggle to catch up.

PlayStation 3 was the first console I bought “day one” and, as I was feeling a bit flash at the time, I forked out for a 52″ HD TV to go with it which cost £2,300 at the time. You’ll be surprised to hear both my 60gb, backwards compatible launch PS3 and the TV are still going strong, the PS3 has had a couple of blu-ray drives but the TV is faultless, not a single dead pixel.

PlayStation 3 was also the reason why I searched the internet to find a good website to keep me updated with news, reviews and features, so I also have PS3 to thank for bringing me to TSA and making lots of new friends.

Cheers PlayStation 3, enjoy your retirement.

Source: Gematsu

Written by
News Editor, very inappropriate, probs fancies your dad.

31 Comments

  1. The fact that your 60GB is still going is awesome!

    Also, a genuinely good console with some wonderful games. The PS4, I feel, is a better console (ignoring the obvious generational evolution) with even better games (and better games to come).

    Still, fond memories. :-)

  2. End of an era…. time flew by fast! I still have the Phat PS3 and the Slim (can’t really remember when that came out =/ ) And I remember buying my first 42″ TV for £1000 and is still there and still connected to the Phat PS3 in the living room as a blu ray and retro (digital) gaming only. The PS3 Slim is hooked to the 3D TV that I got a sweet deal 3/4 years ago.

  3. I had a 60gb ps3 but unfortunately it suffered Ylod, two heatgun treatments later and it was still working but I got rid of it for a slim, it was only a matter of time until it went again.

    Backwards compatibility was great for the 3 times That I used it, then I realised how little I actually cared about it. There’s still a ps2 slim in my parents loft if I ever need to scratch that itch. BC is even less relevant today with most games being multiplatform and available on pc.

  4. Thank you for the memories, the games and streaming. Thanks for all the joy they’re bringing. Who can live without it? I ask in all honesty. What would life be? Without a Vita or Playstation 3. So I thank Sony for the gaming. For giving it to me.

  5. The PS3 was a great machine, I sold my Phat 60GB when it started making jet engine noises and the Slim I got instead is still going strong. It still gets regular use in my bedroom and it’s always been hooked up to a tiny and elderly Sony 22″, it’s so tiny I have to sit on the end of the bed to play games! I think I discovered TSA looking for a trophy list for Warhawk, back when trophies were new and exciting and I didn’t have the irrational compulsion to always get more than 50% completion.

    • Nothing irrational about that! You need to either get 50% or the Platinum. Depending on how much swearing will be involved in the Platinum.

      Anything less than 50% seems like you’ve not got your money’s worth.

      • Yes that’s exactly it!! Im glad I’m not the only trophy weirdo around here haha

      • *pops out of nowhere…..* (>_>)

        (<_<)

  6. The first console I bought for myself. Absolutely blew my mind when I played wipeout and killzone 2 on it when I first got it. Great games, well laid out menu and awesome media capabilities. RIP PS3.

  7. Does this mean Ps5 is only round the corner? As usually Sony only stop production of the generation before to start the production of the next generation. I doubt it very much.

    Ps3 really got me deeply into gaming. Even when I couldn’t afford to feed myself at the really poor times of my life I still kept hold of mine as really loved it.

  8. Brilliant console, sorry to hear it’s going out of production soon as this means I’d better hurry-up and play the pile of games under my bed before my ps3 caputs!

  9. Oh no..! Maybe I should buy another one, to make sure I can still play through my backlog, when my current PS3 dies..? ;o)

    Got my first PS3 early in 2017, together with a beamer, as my flat back then had a wonderful wall for it. Started off with TES Oblivion, and Resistance FOM, which was the very first online gaming I experienced. Killzone 2, Burnout Paradise City, Demon’s Souls, 3 Uncharteds, Mass Effect, and so many more standout gaming experiences.

    My first one died with YLOD, but my slim still works fine, and still is the better media player than the PS4.

    • You have done really well playing all those games in such a short time ;p

      • Oops. Did I say I love the auto-correct sometimes…?
        Of course it was early 2007. I’d catch up with my backlog in no time, would I play through games that quickly… ;o)

  10. A rocky start due to the unusual(console wise) structure and became nortious for being incredibly hard to develop for during the first few years(excluding Naughty Dog as they know how to use it). The Yellow Light of Death plagued the earlier versions and it seems that the removal of the BC chip along with whatever they did eliminated it. I still own and play my phat 80GB to this very day. Sure, it’s dusty and has a bit of wear and tear on it but it does the job and I am likely to get a 500GB slim later this year to let the ol’ girl rest. That and use it for my other account to access content.

    Should get a PS4 by the end of the year if I can afford to and that would mean the PS3 would become a less played thing but darn it, if it didn’t get me through a lot of stuff in my life.

    • The YLOD wasn’t really a huge problem though, was it? Any complicated piece of electronics is going to have a certain amount of problems, with some failures. The PS3 was at least as reliable as you’d expect.

      Of course, with the internet and even the BBC, it got blown up into some sort of real issue rather than just normal hardware failures.

      If you’ve got a PS3 that can last past the initial couple of years (as most will), it’ll probably keep going for a good few years yet. Quite possibly until such a time as TVs don’t come with HDMI sockets, having been replaced by something new years before.

      • Couldn’t disagree more. Had way too many friends have it happen for it to be anecdotal but it was well under the hilarious percentage of failure for RRoD.

        Also, YLoD was a vague term so it mean that they could lump a few different types of failures under one umbrella term which means they didn’t have to “recognise” the solder problem which was pretty much on them.

      • I don’t know anyone who had a problem with a PS3. Apart from me. But that was under warranty, didn’t feature a yellow light, and Sony sent The Man with the Plastic Crate, no problems.

        Of course, if it’s just a normal percentage of random failures, you’re going to get people who have it happen to all their friends. But the numbers seem to be what you’d expect. Not helped by the BBC and Watchdog. Which is a terrible programme where someone complains a bit too much before a PR person says something the BBC try and persuade you isn’t true. Most of the time. A friend was on it a while back with a legitimate complaint about a certain food delivery company and their complete lack of security. I’ll ask her next week why she waited until the BBC cameras were there before phoning the bank to cancel her card though ;)

        And as you rightly point out, it’s not as bad as the RRoD. That was definitely more than normal failure rates.

      • Agree with Mike. Everyone I know that had a ps3 had to repair or replace it, bar one who didn’t use it that much. Usually it was ylod or the bluray drive failing. My repaired 60gb phat still works but the fan goes into overdrive as soon as it starts up.

      • My PS3 inconveniently waited until a month after my 2 year warranty had expired. I think the fail rate was assessed at one point as being almost a tenth of PS3s and almost a quarter of 360s, so they both had their design/manufacturing issues.
        Kinda put’s the Switch hardware launch woes into perspective too though.

      • A failure rate of 10% in how long? Within the warranty period? That’s actually pretty good going and most companies would be happy with that. Anywhere around 15 to 25% failing within 2 or 3 years is fairly normal.

        If they’re all failing in the same way, that could point to a design or manufacturing problem. I’m fairly convinced that’s not the situation with the PS3, but there was definitely an issue with the 360. MS admitted as much and did the right thing with warranties and fixing the issue and getting it down to 15 or 16%. I think. Spread across all sorts of things that could go wrong.

      • I’m not sure what time frame the study covered but i agree that if they were out of warranty some were always bound to fail. I’m no expert on the hardware and design side of things but anytime i saw a how-to on fixing ylod it was inevitably instructions for reseating the gpu, so it seemed to me that was the most common cause of it.

Comments are now closed for this post.