Sony is pulling the plug on its handheld PlayStation Portable video games machine after 10 years.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company has been pushing the successor console, PlayStation Vita.

Tokyo-based Sony said PSP shipments ended in North America in January, will end in Japan this month and later this year in Europe.

Discounts on Vita and downloads are offered to Japanese PSP owners, but are still undecided for those overseas.

More than 76 million PSP machines were sold, as of two years ago, the last time a tally was taken. The PSP went on sale in December 2004.

Machines devoted to games are struggling against the popularity of smartphones and other devices. Sony reported a loss of $1.3 billion for the last fiscal year and is expecting to stay in the red this year.

Some analysts say the Vita has not sold in significant numbers. Sony does not release the cumulative global unit sales of the Vita and combines it with PSP tallies.

Sony’s handheld games machine also faced stiff competition from Japanese rival Nintendo’s 3DS. But Nintendo has also struggled to keep momentum going for its consoles.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.