PS Vita TV 2

The recently announced PS Vita TV may be a bit of an unusual gizmo, but it’s quickly becoming a desirable product for PlayStation fans. The miniscule machine includes the full PlayStation Vita operating system, but outputs to a television, allowing you to watch movies, enjoy select portable games on your plasma screen, and stream PlayStation 4 titles to another room. Despite all of this, the platform holder has been taken by surprise by the West’s response to the device.

Earlier in the week, Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida told impatient consumers to “stay tuned” for release details overseas, and that’s something that SCEJ executive Masayasu Ito reiterated in a roundtable interview with Eurogamer.net earlier today. “Of course we’re thinking of launching it in North America and Europe,” he clarified. “But when it comes to the timing, we'll have to watch the environment and identify what other services are available.” Ito’s presumably referring to specific services for each region, such as the BBC iPlayer in the UK.

Jumping into the conversation, group gaffer Andrew House admitted that the company’s been very encouraged by the response to PS Vita TV overseas, but explained that it’s launching in Japan first because it feels that there’s a gap in the market. “There isn't really a competitor here that's staked out a claim,” he explained. “And frankly, in my own view, Japan is a little behind the adoption curve in video streaming services.”

That could be about to change, though, as the device has supposedly already sold out in Japan. As for Europe and North America, House agreed that there’s potential – but that the firm needs to carry out more research first. “The landscape is different elsewhere,” he said. “We need to look at each of those markets and how we approach them." In other words: cross every single appendage that you've got.

[source eurogamer.net]