PS Vita TV US Release Coming Soon? Sony Trying to Market to Western Audiences
The PS Vita TV has been out in Japan for a few weeks now, and despite the slow sales numbers, Sony still has interest in sending it west.
"The positioning of Vita TV may be different between Japan and some of the other markets," Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House told Eurogamer. "We think there's a great opportunity to broaden the market, because you essentially remove the need to make the console purchase in order to have access to that experience. It may sound counter-intuitive, because, aren't you replacing a business that is your bread and butter? But part of being an innovative company is being a pioneer in new forms of distribution of content, and we would like to be there first and take a leadership role."
PS Vita sold over 42,000 units during its launch week of Nov. 14. The tiny console retails for $99 and plays PSOne, PSP, and PS Vita games on HDTV's using a PS3 controller as well as acts like a streaming service.
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"We wanted to launch in Japan first because I feel there really hasn't been a critical driver or device that's driven the adoption of streaming content overall," House said. "We felt there was therefore an opportunity to leverage the strengths of PlayStation Vita, which as you know is quite strong in Japan in terms of game line-up, but combine that with the features of a media streaming box, and offer something packaged newly for the Japanese consumer and possibly be at the forefront of creating a new market via that device."
He feels because of the Western world's penchant for streaming services like Netflix, the PS Vita TV will have to be marketed differently.
"So we see strong market potential elsewhere in the world, but it will be a different road to market for the US and Europe than has been the case in Japan," House said to Eurogamer.
