![Vita TV]()
When Sony announced the PlayStation TV for the North-American and European markets at E3 this week, something was noticeably missing. This is the same console Sony
announced at TGS in 2013, but without the “Vita” in the title. This caused quite a stir on the internet, with speculation that Sony might officially kill off the Vita-brand.
SCEE President Jim Ryan spoke to
CVG to clarify their reasons for renaming the Vita TV to PlayStation TV. They believe that the new name reflects better on how the console will be used in North-America and Europe, especially now that PS4 remote play will be advertised as the biggest feature of the device:
You’re right, the Vita name has been dropped for North America and Europe. That reflects the way that we anticipate the device will be used. We feel that the name PlayStation TV best encapsulates that it will provide a number of PlayStation-type benefits that will be enjoyable on a TV.
In Japan, where the handheld formats are very strong and vibrant, it was positioned initially as an alternative form of gaming console for Vita content. In Europe, at least initially, the principal position will be to use PlayStation TV as a form of remote play for PS4. The user case is you’re playing PS4 in the living room, someone else wants to use the TV, and you can go into your bedroom where your PS TV is, and resume playing.
We feel for the price, to have that PS4 gaming experience on another television is going to be of considerable interest to many gamers. Down the road, when PlayStation Now comes to Europe – and it is a when, not an if – PS TV will function as a client device for the service. So you’ll be able to stream content into that little box and then away you go.
Then, as a micro-console, you can enjoy PS Vita games, PSOne games and PSP games on it. As a standalone console proposition, it functions perfectly well there. You can see the Vita gaming bit is a subset is one of three positionings, so the name change makes it more coherent.
The new name might cause some confusion, considering that Sony actually has a
PlayStation branded display. Nonetheless, we are properly excited by the potential of PlayStation TV and can’t wait for release information to become available. In the meantime, here is the PlayStation TV announcement video from E3:
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