I don’t know about you, but I felt a little sad hearing that the PlayStation 3 console has ceased production in Japan since yesterday. The Official Japanese Playstation website shows that the only PS3 console that they were still making, which was the standard 500 GB model, has ended.

The console first launched in November of 2006 and was one of the first consoles that I ever bought with my own saved money as a kid. Back then, it felt like a completely new world of games on a completely different level of quality than my PS2. My mind was blown and paved the path to the kind of games I play now. I remember the first game I ever bought for it was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and pretty much played that for months.

After that, I remember many nights staying up late for sessions of Fallout 3, Skyrim, Persona 3 FES and even smaller downloadable games like Echochrome and Noby Noby Boy. The PS3 was certainly a great place for a vast variety of games, which also includes the Japanese store and what they had to offer, thanks to it being a region free console. The fact that I could also play PS1 and PS2 games on it introduced me to a lot of the older games that I missed during my childhood. Whenever I don’t play games on it, it has served as a great Crunchyroll machine for me, and a fantastic Netflix machine for my parents. This console has stuck with me for a massive part of my life, almost like a family member, so I can’t help at feel a little emotional to see that era go.

During the entire time I’ve had a PS3, I think I’ve gone through 2 console that have broken on me, with the third Slim model being the one that I still have today. Even now, after an almost 11 year run, there is an enormous amount of games that I wish to still play on it, and many others that I still go back to. Despite the popularity of the PS4 and its technological advancements, there were still incredible games coming out for it recently, such as Blazblue: Central Fiction, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, and of course, Persona 5. The end of the console’s life was very similar to how Persona 4 released close to the end of the PS2’s relevance as well.

Simply from the massive library, it is easily one of my most favorite consoles made so far and still don’t think to ever part with it anytime soon. Goodbye PlayStation 3. You will be missed.

Source: PlayStation (Japan)