Well, you can stick a fork in the Playstation TV... it's done. The misfit game system (not really a full-fledged console, not really a set top box, not fully compatible with the Vita, not heavy enough to be an effective paperweight) has officially been retired just two years after its American debut. You may recall that I originally went to bat for the PSTV in a cautiously optimistic review, but my opinion of the system soured after Sony eroded its software library with firmware updates. No, you didn't really need to play Sega Genesis Collection or Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles on a television set. And forget about Street Fighter X Tekken even though its Vita-exclusive features were tacked on and hardly necessary... you've got the Playstation 3 for that!
Reports suggest that the Playstation TV only sold 200,000 units in its native Japan. That's an astonishingly low number, but considering all the (mostly artificial) limitations set on the system, is that really a surprise? So it's with a large helping of indifference and a pinch of schadenfreude that I say goodbye to the Playstation TV. Make friends with the Atari Jaguar... you'll be occupying the same dusty corner of gaming history.
Random observations on the classic gaming scene, courtesy of the former editor of The Gameroom Blitz.
I think the biggest problem with the PlayStation TV was that Sony never really explained all too well just how it works. It's just a li'l $50 box with an AC adapter and HDMI cable, with no hint that you would need anything else for it in the stores.
ReplyDeleteUnless you can look directly at the box (unlikely at your Walmarts and Targets) or already read up on the device online, you wouldn't know that a PS3 or PS4 controller (sold separately) is required, or that the default digital storage is garbage and the only way to expand it is via buying expensive Vita memory cards (also sold separately) 'cuz Sony has such a hard-on for selling its own hella pricey SD card knockoff format and don't want it to become a pirate's haven like the PSP.
Seriously, would it have KILLED them to include 16GB of built-in storage (ala PSP Go) and a cheapo li'l controller that has all the basic buttons with the package? A sticker on the front of box advertising PSN cards wouldn't have hurt, either.