According to an Agence France-Presse report, the production of the PlayStation 2 (PS2) gaming console has been ceased by Sony Computer Entertainment of Japan.

As per the report, Sony Japan's recently-announced decision to discontinue the shipping of the PS2 - Sony's best-selling console of all time - in the country implies that the Japanese fans of the console will no longer be able to purchase it after the existing inventory in the channel gets exhausted.

Despite the fact that stopping the shipments of PS2 in Japan will mark the end of Sony's March 2000-launched gaming hardware in the country, Sony Japan has revealed that games for the console will continue to be developed. Among the forthcoming titles for the PS2 will be the latest addition to the Final Fantasy series, dubbed `Seekers of Adoulin,' which is scheduled to be launched in March 2013.

The PS2 is considered to be an extremely successful console, with more than 150 million units of the hardware - for which over 11,000 titles have been released thus far - having been sold all across the world in its 13 years of existence.

Meanwhile, the reports about Sony's decision to stop the PS2 production in Japan has triggered speculations about the company's rumored launch of its next-generation hardware - the `PlayStation 4' - even though Sony has made no official disclosure as yet about either the specifications of the new console or its expected launch date.