Sony announced quite a few things at the Tokyo Game Show, including a revamped PS Vita, the PS4 release date for Japan and a few new games.
But one of the biggest surprises was the PS Vita TV. This set top box attempts to combine the best of everything, positioning itself as a mini games console and online media streamer in one.
The PS Vita TV takes on the AppleTV, Sky’s Now TV, and Google Chromecast, and by adding games into the mix too, puts itself into the ring with the Ouya and Gamestick. It certainly seems a brave move to challenge the big boys, but as the saying goes, good things can often come in small packages.
So is the PS Vita TV something to get excited about or just another box to stick under the TV and forget? Geek Squad finds out more.
Hardware
First off, It looks slick: a nice shiny white box about the size of a pack of cards. It features a USB port, a memory card slot and an HDMI port. It’s impressively small and looks like it will pack a lot of power. It has an Arm A9 Cortex A9 Processor with 1 GB of internal storage. You can use a Dual Shock 3 controller to play the games, and as they’re already designed for the controller, this is a ready-made console with one hell of a library.
Games/Apps
If you own a PS Vita like me, then chances are you’ll be reading this like a giddy school boy. All Vita games will run on this - PS one, Mini, etc., - with a catalogue of over 150 games already available; making this a console that’s ready to go from the off. With Sony’s emphasis on indie development, and the support of 1st and 3rd party publishers, this list could really explode. Sony promise more apps, but with Facebook and Twitter onboard , the Vita provides pretty much what most people would want from a smart box and more besides.
Particularly exciting is the fact that if I want to play on my big screen TV at home, I can just remove my memory card from my Vita, place it the PS Vita TV and away I go from where I left off.
What else can the Vita TV do?
One of the big selling points for me has to be the upcoming remote play. We have had glimpses of this with PS Vita and the PS3, with games like ICO and God of War; you could play these games on your Vita streaming from your PS3.
Sony promises nearly all PS4 games can be played by the PS Vita in the same way and this will ring true of the PS Vita TV. Imagine the scenario: you want to play your PS4 on the TV and your beloved wants to watch Coronation Street. Usually, you would have to move everything to the upstairs TV, but with the PS Vita TV it can be set up in advance, so you can just go and play upstairs.
This will also give you the ability to take a small box round to your friends’ place and play with your PS4, without having to carry around a heavy console with you.
Overall
I’m sure that by now you’ve got the picture: I’m really excited by the news of the Vita TV – and no doubt many other avid gamers will be too. Personally speaking, it will allow me to provide a seamless connection between my two TVs, my PS4 and my PS Vita, which will make a huge difference in terms of ease and convenience. It was a huge surprise and has now probably caught Google and Apple off guard, as they were both rumoured to be developing games consoles. The bad news is that it has only been announced so far for Japan for release on November 14th, retailing at around 9,480 Yen .
The other thing to take into account is that Sony use their propriety SD cards, which aren’t cheap: 32 GB will currently set you back at around £50 - £70. This means that the whole console is likely to set you back by around £200, which could put the Vita TV out of many people’s budgets. But I for one don’t think the Vita TV can arrive quickly enough. So until the announcement for the UK release, I will sit here patiently, waiting for what for me will be one of the best surprises of the year in gaming tech. Bravo Sony!