According to CNN, Sony made the announcement on Tuesday, saying the March Betamax batch will "make the final shipment of all our memory media for Betamax." The company was still producing Betamax video recorders as recently as 2002.
While Betamax was the first commercially viable recording media on the consumer scene in the mid-seventies, it was soon joined by VHS. The VHS format was cheaper and could hold more content. In fact, a Betamax tape was only capable of holding an hour's worth of programming, whereas the earliest VHS cassettes were capable of twice that amount. While purists were quick to point out the superior picture quality Betamax provided, no one really cared, because, come on, they only could record an hour.
Sony has a knack for wringing as much life as possible from its proprietary formats. The company announced it would no longer be making games for its handheld platform, but announced third-party games for the PS Vita will still be made going into the future. Seth Macy is IGN's weekend web producer and just wants to be your friend. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy or check out Seth Macy's Youtube.