PlayStation TV was a baffling idea and I deeply love mine
The early 2010s were a weird time for Sony. As the PS3 started gaining some real traction and the PS4 was around the corner, the PlayStation Vita launched. This little handheld that couldn’t served as Sony’s last major handheld before the company shifted all its focus onto console games.
It’s a sad story of a console with unfulfilled potential because I think it’s one of the best handhelds ever. It’s also one with a creator who had no idea what to do with it.
When the Vita was alive but floundering, Sony had the baffling idea to launch a micro-console using Vita hardware. Mircoconsoles were a phenomenon that only sparked the interest of various companies as the public did not care. While Nvidia’s Shield still exists, the Ouya became famous for failing, and Sony’s machine was forgotten. Unfortunately, this was the case because the PlayStation TV deserves remembrance.
The PlayStation TV is a little goblin of a console that is a Vita’s guts in a tabletop form. This thing came out in Japan on November 15, 2013, and exactly a year later everywhere else. By the time the international release came, the Vita was on life support, and the Ouya had long become a laughing stock. Booting it up felt like venturing through the husk of a building abandoned early in construction.
To get one thing out of the way, I took pictures on my phone because my screenshots wouldn’t transfer, and taking pictures of curved monitors is wonky. After trying to work with the PlayStation TV on this, it didn’t want to work with me. 2023 just doesn’t suit the PS TV.
It’s also clear the PS TV lacked support. The Vita’s last release was in 2021, and the newest release on the PS TV is from 2017. It’s not like the store is chock full of all releases from before
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