PS Vita TV

[VegaLA]

This came out of nowhere. Looks like Sony are jumping into the quick fix gaming trend in order to compete with the Ouya and suchlike.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/09/ps-vita-tv-launch-date/

[Consignia]

I think it's Sony trying to leverage their Vita library to keep interest in it, and not let their huge amount of development that they spent on it go to waste. The multi-functionality as a media receiver is just there to sweeten the deal.

I hope it encourages Vita development, as I love the device and anything that elongates it's support I welcome. I can't see it doing that well, but for the price I don't think Sony have much to lose here.

[syntaxerror]

As ever, its all about content. This has the potential to be a tidy little unit, but the pricing strategy of the games could make or break this.

[Consignia]

This has the potential to be a tidy little unit, but the pricing strategy of the games could make or break this.

PSN Plus takes care of this, I feel. There's a steady flow of indie games for the Vita hitting it, albeit ones that have proven their popularity on the PC.

[Ignatius_S]

This came out of nowhere. Looks like Sony are jumping into the quick fix gaming trend in order to compete with the Ouya and suchlike...

There has been a trend and growing interest towards low-power, low-cost media devices, as you say and although in some ways, the sudden announcement was a surprise, I don't think it was totally out of the blue.

Personally, I agree with the commentators who have said this is pitched largely against Apple, which was my first thought. iOS 7 will have support for third-party controllers and there have been a good deal of expectation that Apple will be pushing more game through Apple TV – as things stand though, playing via AirPlay when using iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches works well. Although it was more a comment in passing, at talk Gabe Newell gave, he mentioned that he thought Apple was best placed to dominate the living room (not that it would necessarily do it well) and I don't think he's alone in seeing Apple as a possible major threat in this area.

As well as the games, the Vita TV offers other entertainment uses – Hulu has been confirmed in the States and at least three Japanese streaming services; you'll be able to attach an external drive; and I've read (but need to confirm this) that you'll be able to stream media to it via a computer.

Something like the Ouya is a lot more niche – at the moment, and to be honest, I don't expect this to change that much, the target audience (excluding the usual early adopters) are people who like tinkering with hardware. Currently, the Store is a mess and from what I've heard (but happy to be contradicted if this isn't the case) it's a nifty emulator but this is hardly what the average punter will be looking for in a games console – and if that's what people are getting it for, it's unlikely that they'll be spending too much on games...  Ouya has announced the Free the Games Fund to try and boost game development, by getting users to back games on Kickstarter, but at the moment, there's a lot of suspicious glances thrown at these (to put it mildly).

Google is rumoured to launch an low-cost console, which would surely harm the Ouya and it could be that Sony are trying to pre-empt Google, but I think at this moment of time, it's eying Apple.

Only a small point, but I don't think 'quick-fix' is the best way of describing gaming on these type of platforms as I think there's rather more than just casual gaming!

I think it's Sony trying to leverage their Vita library to keep interest in it, and not let their huge amount of development that they spent on it go to waste. The multi-functionality as a media receiver is just there to sweeten the deal.

I hope it encourages Vita development, as I love the device and anything that elongates it's support I welcome. I can't see it doing that well, but for the price I don't think Sony have much to lose here.

You might be spot on about that – at the very least, I think there's an element of that and it automatically gives some advantage (i.e. content straight away) when trying to enter that market.

There's been a fair bit of positive buzz (well, on gaming forums anyway) about the new Vita models, price cuts, indie titles etc and with the kind of integration that's being discussed (and which I hope to see) with the PS4, think the future could hold some exiting stuff!

Also, I think the point you've made about the price is a good one – it's not going to be expensive to make or to have developed.

However, I think Sony will have a job is marketing it to a wider audience that the core gaming one – with the latter, I can see quite a few taking a punt.