Sony throw in the towel, PS3 production halted

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 01 April 2010 08:39

Your IT - Entertainment

Just as the company was regaining momentum in the video game market, Sony has admitted defeat, halting production and sale of the PlayStation 3 console and moving video game development studios to new projects.

With the PS3 Slim hitting the market with a reduced price and new exclusive games such as Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves, God of War III and Heavy Rain all garnering praise and high sales volumes, you would think things are starting to pick-up for the long-time video game console manufacturer.

Blu-Ray has won the high-definition disc format war, and Sony has just revealed its plans for entering the motion controller space with the PlayStation Move controller.

But it seems under unrelenting pressure from rivals Nintendo and Microsoft, Sony has decided to cut its losses and halt production of the PlayStation 3 console.

Sony spokesperson Garath Norbert told a press conference in Sydney today:  'After much consideration, Sony Corporation has decided to immediately cease production, distribution and sale of the PS3 console.  Sony Corp has made the decision to shift focus game development, both hardware and software into what will be the future of interactive entertainment'

'From today, ' Norbert continued 'Sony development houses Santa Monica [God of War series]and Naughty Dog [Uncharted] will shift resources into developing new and exciting IP for the PlayStation Home environment'

'Which leads me into the exciting announcement that PlayStation Home, formally only accessible through the PlayStation Network, will now be fully integrated with other social media platforms such as Facebook and MySpace.  This will mean a whole new audience exposed to the joys and experiences found in the online world of PlayStation Home, til now only available to PS3 owners, from today, the first of April.'

Sony also announced the PlayStation Pad - On PAGE 2