Today, Sony Interactive Entertainment has finally ceased the manufacturing and production of the PS3 console in Japan, which officially marks the end of the system's lifespan in the nation. The news comes just a couple of short months after the company announced end of the system's production in Japan, by stopping shipments of the remaining models in the Eastern country.

The revelation comes by way of the official Japanese PlayStation site, as the page for the 500 gigabyte standard model–that is, the only remaining PS3 model in production in Japan–lists shipments as “ended.” Bearing this in mind, it almost certainly means that the West will be soon to follow in Japan's footsteps.

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For those unaware, the PS3 was released in North America and Japan way back in November 2006, prior to launching in March 2007 for the rest of the world. Sony always maintained that it would provide support for the console for ten years, and bearing in mind the time span, it certainly looks like the Japanese tech giant has kept its promise.

Throughout the years of its manufacturing, there were two different versions of the console that released after the rather hefty launch iteration. Sony followed up the initial model of the system with the Slim and Super Slim styles that came out with increased hard drive space that also took up much less room. As it stands, there have been over 80 million units of the PS3 sold worldwide to date.

The end of the PS3's lifespan in Japan comes a little ways after Microsoft decided to stop manufacturing its last generation console, as Xbox 360 production stopped about a year ago. Taking all of this into account, with the PS3's production surely set to end around the globe soon, it definitely makes sense for Sony to do so, as the company has a slew of current-gen systems on the market with the standard PS4, the PS4 Slim, and of course, the PS4 Pro. Considering the massive popularity of the company's current crop of consoles, it's quite possible that accumulated sales of the systems could go on to eclipse those of the PS3's in the next year or so.

The PS3's production has officially ceased in Japan.

Source: PlayStation Japan (via Gematsu)