Sony Japan confirms PS4 Pro and ‘all but one’ PS4 model have been discontinued

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 publication GameWatch, the only last-gen console Sony will continue to sell in Japan is the standard Jet Black 500GB PlayStation 4 “slim” model.

All other PS4 consoles will disappear once current stock is sold, the publication reports, and SIE will divert production to PS5.

There’s currently no confirmation on whether PS4 Pro will be discontinued in Western markets. However, last month the official PlayStation US store briefly stated that it would no 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’s stated ambition to 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 to support 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 would no 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 suggested PS5 had enjoyed the biggest console launch in history after beating PS4’s record.

Microsoft discontinued its most powerful last-gen console, Xbox One X, this summer in the run-up to November’s Xbox Series X/S launches.

Further reading

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It was recently revealed that Sony is planning to “build on the successful launch” of PlayStation Direct in the US by launching the online store in Europe.

As revealed via a job listing, Sony is recruiting for 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 of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s overall revenues as well as approximately 15% of Sony’s revenues,” reads an overview of the role.