Sony announced Tuesday that it will stop selling Betamax format video cassettes in March 2016.
"This will make the final shipment of all our memory media for Betamax," Sony said in a statement, according to CNN.
The company revealed on its website that it would also stop shipping the Micro MV cassette, which they have stopped producing compatible cameras for since 2005.
Betamax was cutting edge in 1975, and is best known for its role in a format war between JVC and Sony, reported The Guardian. The war began when Sony offered a license to use Betamax (which had come first) to rival JVC, who instead opted to develop its own format, VHS, to avoid Sony's domination of the market.
The Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry decided in 1974 that for the sake of consumers it would force the Japanese electronics manufacturers to standardise on one format. This plan was scrapped however, when JVC convinced Matsushita, Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Sharp to back VHS, eventually leading to the creation of the VHS player in 1976.
Though many users considered Betamax to be the superior format, most cite the longer recording length of VHS tapes - three hours versus one - and cheaper manufacturing costs for VHS players as the primary factors as to why VHS won out in the end, according to the BBC.
Despite its decline and now slated death, Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai only had nice things to say about the format. Speaking at a 2014 technology conference, he said the features and expectations it established in 1975 still exist today: "Watch whatever, whenever. This idea still resonates and defines everything people desire and expect even today."
