When the PlayStation TV was announced, this author was on holiday. It was poor editorial director Damien McFerran that was left to man the fort during an explosive Tokyo Game Show press conference, which also played host to the reveal of the PlayStation Vita Slim. It was big, big news at the time, with the microconsole in particular drawing plenty of plaudits.
In fact, so popular did the diminutive device prove that gaffer Andrew House was badgered about it in practically every interview afterwards. However, even at the time, the suit seemed to doubt whether the appliance could truly appeal to the worldwide market. "It will be a different road to market for the US and Europe than has been the case in Japan," he said in an interview with Eurogamer.net.
As it turns out, the road to market in Western territories amounted to dumping it on store shelves with very little fanfare. With key functionality absent – such as Netflix – and lackadaisical software support, it was damned to a future in bargain bins. But now that the platform holder's announced that it's ceasing to ship the unit in Japan, how did the minuscule machine go from hero to zero?
Games
Much of the pre-release enthusiasm for the PlayStation TV centred on its ability to play Vita games on the big screen. Accessories like the Super Game Boy found an audience in years gone by because not everyone enjoys playing games on a handheld system, but with titles like Persona 4 Golden and Tearaway in its catalogue, the Vita has always had games that people want to play.
The idea of playing these on a HD television always seemed appealing, then, but few considered the practicalities of how this would work. The Vita is a format flush with touch interfaces and motion sensors; the majority of games designed for it were never going to work. And even when a game should have been compatible, the platform holder rarely bothered to whitelist it for use.
Apps
It's right there in the name: TV. But the PlayStation TV was a shoddy media device. The micro-console launched without Netflix, which comes pre-installed on most toasters these days. And without the most popular catch-up service on the web, there was no hope that the likes of BBC iPlayer, HBO Go, and Amazon Video would follow. No hope, no hope at all.
Narrow Appeal
So, if the PlayStation TV couldn't play most Vita games and didn't have Netflix, then what actually could it do? Perhaps the biggest failing of the format was that it was everything and nothing at the same time. It could stream PS4 games via Remote Play, but it wasn't compatible with some PSone Classics. It had a web browser for YouTube, but it didn't have Netflix. It could play Killzone: Mercenary, but not Uncharted: Golden Abyss.
The crazy thing is that there are people out there who still use the PlayStation TV regularly because it fulfils their needs, but its use cases are so specific that those folk are few and far between. If the PS4 is a mass-market device designed for all ages and tastes, then the PlayStation TV appeals to such a teensy sub-set of the market that it may as well not exist.
At the end of the day, we doubt that Sony will be losing too much sleep over the PlayStation TV: it was an experiment designed mainly for Japan that briefly caught worldwide attention but failed to really sell. But what do you think went wrong with the device? Are you mourning its death? Change the channel in the comments section below.
Did you buy a PlayStation TV? (98 votes)
- Yes, and I still use it regularly
- I did, but I never use it anymore
- No, but I was interested in it
- Nope, it never appealed to me
Please login to vote in this poll.
Comments 43
I have a Sony Bravia TV that does all of that better except for vita games BUT it does have a playstation now app and i can configure a PS4 controller to work with the TV.
still don't see why Sony didn't just release a cable we could plug in the Vita so we could play our games on the TV you know like they did with the PSP
no problem about controls and compatibility then because we would be using the Vita as the controller and as an added plus remote play would have still worked
@FullbringIchigo Apparently the original prototype Vita had TV Out.
@get2sammyb that would have been great
plus the Vita has a connection on the top that as far as i'm aware isn't used for ANYTHING, that would have been the perfect place for a Vita/TV connection
I bought one not long ago because it was $20. I always wanted one but never broke down and got one. I like being able to play vita games on a tv. But the game I played on it (Legend of Heroes:Trails of Cold Steel) did not look good on a tv. Colors were washed out really bad. I want to see how Persona 4 Golden looks on it, but I don't see myself using it much in the future
@Swiket if you want to play Persona 4 Golden then that would be a much cheaper way to do it. And you should definitely play it. My favorite game of all time
I know I am the minority but I have a PSTV and I do enjoy it. I am not a huge handheld player, but there were a few games that I wanted to play like Freedom Wars, and a few others plus the ability to remote play my PS4 have save this household from a few fights lol.
I think most people were expecting more and we're expecting something with TV apps due to the name. Maybe if they named it the Vita Home or something else other then TV it might not have confused people. Oh well at least it wasn't called the Playstation U .
My biggest problem like most Vita users was the price of the memory cards.
They should've used SD cards. Been saying it since day one.
@Link41x I think they were spooked by PSP piracy, but I agree.
@Tasuki I think for remote play alone it is worth it. Though I am going off of the price CEX are selling it for. £35.
I think it was only ever a knee-jerk reaction to micro-consoles picking up popularity in Japan. When that didn't take, they repurposed the excess stock to PS4 users in the west and marketed it as a way to use remote play and slightly bolster their range of games. Unsurprisingly this also didn't take as it's an incredibly niche market and most in that target market don't want to play sub native laggy versions of games, especially on something less versatile than a Chromecast.
It didn't have proper support because Sony's heart was never in it. Still, if one turns up at a local CEX for a tenner I might pick one up for posterity, if nothing else.
No Netflix meant no sale for me.
I've had PS TV supporters point out that I could use another device for that--this device was made largely so that people can play PSP/Vita games on their TV. I'd argue that no, it's called Playstation TV not the Vita Console.
@Link41x Yeah. Or just affordable proprietary cards...
I've used mine a lot since purchase purely remote play in the home and when travelling. It works better than the vita for this since you don't need to worry about the controller mapping. That said I have never played a game natively on the device since I would prefer to play on vita for vita games, which I guess is a bit damning if this was supposed to be the main selling point. On top of this the games that I might have played (eg MGS HD collection) are not compatible. I picked it up so cheap though I feel like I have got enough with just remote play.
@glassmusic. Exactly which is why I think it did so bad. You put TV in the name and people assume it's a streaming device like a Roku or Chromecast etc. TV just doesn't mean the television itself this day and age. Like I said they should have named it Vita Home or PS Mini Vita or something like that. I know they were thinking Vita TV because it's a Vita you plug into a TV.
PSTV suffered from PS Vita's lack of games and poor design choices. PS Vita just doesn't have enough games worthy of mention, and the handheld was always ill-conceived. Why fumble around with the PSTV when you can turn on an actual home console?
I'm still tempted to pick up a PSTV at some point, love the idea of playing Persona 4 on my TV for a start, loads of other games I'm sure would be great as well.
Fingers crossed I get one of these collectors items for Easter
@themcnoisy The actual hardware that holds the PlayStation TV is really cool, I reckon. It's tiny.
I own one, still use mine to play my PS4 and Freedom Wars in the bedroom. I like a lot of things about it but I can see why it was destined to fail. It inherited the memory card prices from the vita but not Netflix connectivity. Only a select few vita titles actually work on it. Good remote play quality is hard to achieve if you don't know how to configure your router. The cards were stacked against it from the start.
@get2sammyb I'm a bit concerned by what psone games it supports. But as long as Ridge Racer 4 and FF8 are playable Im in. Is there a list anywhere?
@themcnoisy Just Google PSTV compatible games and you should get a list.
@themcnoisy If you live in Europe there is an official list
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2014/09/22/playstation-tv-release-date-price-full-list-compatible-games-2/
These are the launch games. Many were supported later or are supported even though they are listed as unsupported.
I wanted a PS TV but not for 70 euros that cost here. Maybe at 50?
@Tasuki I'm buying it.
Gutted wipeout 2048 doesn't work though, the vita is to compact to enjoy a game of that. Ps vita tv would of been perfect
@belmont great stuff. Hopefully Im bought one for Easter. Gob smacked wipeout is off the list.
It's going to become a memorabilia. I say buy it now, resell in 10 years.
No Netflix, no buy for me. Even at $20.
it also had the same problem as the regular Vita: Hyperexpensive propietary memory cards
@themcnoisy Best list of Playstation TV Games
http://www.reviews2go.com/playstation-tv-compatible-games-north-america/
The problem was the memory cards were too cheap you see people saw that an 32GB card was only $80 and thought "Memory that cheap is probably unreliable". If only they had the business sense to charge more for the memory cards.
I got mine for my birthday and I quite enjoy it! However, I really only pull it out rarely because i got a ps4 just months later. Still, when my couisn is over I play towerfall with him on it, and I used PS now alot on it too.
@ztpayne7 So youre telling me that you don't have any other device to use Netflix on a tv? If having Netflix on a PSTV is the main reason you would buy it, then why not just buy a Roku?
@Tasuki I do have Netflix on three devices. But they are all hooked up to the same tv. The point of ps tv is to stream the stuff to another tv. Why not buy a roku? I could, but I would rather support the ps brand with a sale. It just seems like a missed opportunity.
@ztpayne7 I honestly thought the point of a PSTV was to play Vita games on a TV rather then a handheld. What it sounds like your asking for is a Roku device made by Sony. And I am being honest here so I apologize if I am sounding rude to you I am not trying to.
memory cards, most games I want don't work on it, its hard to find.
@ztpayne7 @Tasuki I spent a lot of time looking into PSTV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast and even Ouya after buying a new TV for my bedroom. After weighing everything I wanted to do and the prices, I bought another PS3. The PS3 was $170, and that included Disney Infinity 2.0 which I was planning on buying for my kid for $70 anyway, so it was like spending $100 on the PS3 and controller. So I still can't play any Vita games, but for about $100 the PS3 was the best overall device on the market - games, streaming almost everything, blu rray and DVD. When you compare the $130 PSTV bundle to a PS3 - even at $170 - it's hard to imagine what Sony was thinking.
Anybody looking for a streaming device today, 12GB PS3 is still a great device if you can find one cheap.
I got one last year when it went half price to €49.99 here. Plugged it in, updated it, played a few games on it, realised it was complete rubbish. Boxed it up, put away in a press.
Then read up online at the time, (as I was about to sell it) that people were working on hacking it and not to update it anymore for now. So I am holding onto it for the next few years in the hope that someone will hack it and get original ps2 games running on it from them overpriced memory cards or from a USB hdd or thumb stick on the future, which will happen at some point in the future I'm sure.
So I'm happy with my purchase
@Tasuki I remember way back when it was announced for Japan only and then again when they announced it for the west - and I don't feel like this was the way it was supposed to be. It was billed as the roku, vita, and remote play device all in one, and that was something I could get behind, especially for the size. I believe the way you described it is more the way it turned out, rather than how it was intended to be. No offense taken! I didn't think you were being rude.
@rjejr I do already have a PS3, so I could just use that or the wii u.
@get2sammyb Loving the Transformers reference!
@Damo As Kylie and Jason once sang: I did it especially for you.
I bought one last summer on sale for $30. I already had a vita and a ton of digital games. The PS TV lives in my sons room, kind of a starter console for him. loaded it up with the games i own that are appropriate for him, and he can use it to stream PS4 games. Its been basically a Minecraft / NHL 16 machine, but for the price its been well worth it for him. He loves it.
I got one but I hardly ever use it
Total con, it's bad enough that Sony lied and actually said it played most Vita games, but it's pretty much useless if you're not connected to the internet and they never made that clear at any point. Then they dropped the price just to clear the last of the stock. Sony knew what they were doing and they just wanted a quick influx of cash and had no intentions of supporting it.
Tap here to load 43 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...