This is according to a report from Gematsu who noticed that the production had ended via Sony’s Japanese PlayStation website. The website is for the 500GB standard model, although they do note that this is the only model that was left in production in Japan prior to today’s announcement.
The PS3 was first announced back in November of 2006 and represented a huge step up in terms of power compared to the PS2, prompting competitors to follow suit with powerful consoles of their own. Sony had previously promised to support the console for at least 10 years and given that we’re already in 2017, it’s safe to say that they’ve kept their promise.
Sony has managed to sell over 80 million units of the PS3 to date. Based on the current sales figures of the PS4 which was last reported to be at 60 million, there is a good chance the PS4 could eventually catch up and overtake the PS3 before its time is up. That being said, while the PS3 is no longer in production, gamers can still play on it as we’re sure that many have built up pretty vast libraries of PS3 games.