The PlayStation Vita is finally a competitive console at $200. But if that’s not cheap enough for you, or you want to stream PS4 games to another TV, here’s the PlayStation Vita TV. Oh, and it costs $100.
Yes, it plays Vita games, which you upload on a memory card. Rather cleverly, it plays them through a DualShock, which you can get as a $150 bundle. And it has all the video streaming capabilities of the Vita as well.
Normally, it makes sense to be down on microconsoles, but Sony seems to have figured out how to sell one, by making it a real console. First of all, every gamer with more than one TV or a significant other will probably wind up buying this thing because, hell, it does everything else and if you own a PS4, it’s like having a second PS4 without shelling out $400. And once the PS4’s game streaming capabilities kick in, it’ll be like owning a PS3 as well. If you own a Vita, for a hundred bucks you can play your Vita games on the big screen when you feel like it. And it’ll sell to the casual gamer as well, because, hell, the thing costs $100 and has far more advanced gaming capabilities, plus all the video stream capabilities, of your standard streaming box.
Plus, the thing is tiny; seriously, it’s the size of a smartphone. Tiny and cheap is a pretty big selling point. I don’t even want a Vita and I’m probably going to wind up buying this and some Vita games just because, well, why the hell not?
Of course, you can’t, yet. Technically Sony has only announced this for Japan, but the English video, video streaming services from other countries, and multicultural models are a pretty big clue that Sony isn’t keeping this in Japan. We’ll likely see it in early 2014. Either that or Sony can just stop screwing around and include it as a pack-in.