PlayStation TV

Lore & Background

The PlayStation TV was released in Japan on November 14, 2013, with a standalone price of 9,954 yen and a bundle with an 8 GB memory card and DualShock 3 controller for 14,994 yen. Sony CEO Andrew House stated that the company hoped to use the device to penetrate the Chinese gaming market, where video game consoles had previously been prohibited. The system launched in five other Southeast Asian countries and Hong Kong on January 16, 2014, and was announced for North America and Europe at E3 2014 under the name PlayStation TV, with final release dates confirmed at Gamescom 2014. The western release occurred in Europe and Australia on November 14, 2014.

The device connects to a television via HDMI and is controlled with a Sixaxis, DualShock 3, or DualShock 4 controller. It can play many PlayStation Vita games and applications through physical cartridges or downloads from the PlayStation Store, but not all content is compatible because features such as the gyroscope and microphone are absent. The PS TV can emulate touch input for the Vita's front and rear touchpads using the PS3 and PS4 controller. System software update 3.15, released on April 30, 2014, enabled PS4 Remote Play functionality, and firmware version 3.30 in October 2014 allowed use with PlayStation Network accounts from outside the original launch territories and renamed the system to PS TV within the menus. Open beta trials for PlayStation Now began on October 14, 2014, in North America, the same day the PS TV was released there.

By the end of March in Europe, Sony dropped the price of the PlayStation TV by 40% to €59.99, leading to a 1272% increase in sales that week. On February 28, 2016, Engadget reported that Sony had stopped shipping the PlayStation TV in Japan; Sony confirmed shipments were discontinued in the Americas and Europe at the end of 2015, but would continue in Asia. The device won the 2014 Good Design Award from the Japan Institute of Design Promotion alongside the PlayStation 4. It sold 42,172 units during its debut week in Japan, where it was heavily marketed alongside God Eater 2.

Reader's Guide

The PlayStation TV's significance lies in its attempt to bridge handheld and home console gaming by bringing the PlayStation Vita library to the television. However, its legacy is marked by severe compatibility limitations. Journalists criticized the platform for failing to support a large portion of the Vita's software library, with many games reliant on features like the rear touchpad, microphone, or gyroscope being incompatible. Even some games that should have worked were blocked by Sony's whitelist of approved titles, leading to frustration among owners. Notable omissions included major Vita titles such as Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, and Gravity Rush. The device was compared to set-top boxes like Apple TV and Chromecast and other microconsoles such as the Ouya, with Time suggesting it could compete well against such competitors with a quality game library. In 2015 and 2016, hackers developed a whitelist hack that allowed any Vita game to load on the PS TV, though compatibility issues persisted for games dependent on touch and motion controls. The hack was generally well received, as many additional games became playable from start to finish. Despite its shortcomings, the PS TV represented an innovative concept that ultimately failed to achieve broad support, and its discontinuation in most regions by the end of 2015 marked the end of Sony's experiment with a Vita-based microconsole.

Did You Know?

• The PlayStation TV measures 6.5 cm by 10.5 cm, about the size of a pack of playing cards.
• In Japan, the name 'PlayStation TV' was previously used for PlayStation 3 retail kiosks from 2006 to 2014.
• A price drop to €59.99 in Europe led to a 1272% increase in sales that week.