Sony Japan has just welcomed a new member of the PlayStation product family and no, it’s not the PS4. PS Vita TV has been launched in the company’s country of origin only and offers a new platform to play some of the portable PS Vita’s growing catalogue of games as well as some vintage titles from original PlayStation and PSP.
PS Vita TV was announced back in September and the micro console was billed for a release in the Far East with no mention of an immediate Western launch for regions such as the UK, Europe or USA.
Alas, it has now seen the light of day in the Land of the Rising Sun earlier than expected and via HDMI cable users can hook up the PS Vita TV to their home TV, pop in the power lead and a game card for instant large screen play. The PS Vita TV itself is minimalist in design and features no screen or controls on the device but a Value Pack does come supplied with a PS3 DualShock 3 controller which syncs to the device and allows for PlayStation-like gameplay.
Other connection ports on the gaming gadget include USB and Ethernet as well as a memory card slot to complement 1GB of internal storage. The PS Vita TV Value Pack also comes bundled with an 8GB PS Vita memory card. Aside from gameplay of PS Vita, PS One and PSP titles, Wi-Fi compatibility also allows a range of video services including Hulu to be streamed on a big screen through the tiny device.
PS Vita TV costs just over £60 solo and £88 in the Value Pack when price converted and is a nice little concept and one the Japanese market will get to enjoy exclusively until further notice, but does it make up for Sony’s bizarre decision not to release the next gen PS4 in the country until February 2014 while the rest of the world lines up for theirs over the coming fortnight? No, not quite.